Virgin Atlantic status matching from BA Silver and BA Gold via Little Red
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Virgin Atlantic appears to have hit on a new trick to increase loads on its struggling Little Red UK domestic services – by offering to status match British Airways Executive Club customers to Virgin Flying Club!
I have heard from a couple of sources now that cabin crew on Little Red flights are coming around the cabin offering to status match British Airways Silver and British Airways Gold cardholders.
No other cards seem to be accepted, and it is not clear if you need to be carrying your BA card at the time.
Virgin Flying Club Silver status is not hugely valuable. Virgin Gold, however, lets you use the exceptional Clubhouse lounges in Heathrow and elsewhere, whatever your class of travel, when flying Virgin long haul.
More prosaicly, a Virgin Gold also gets lounge access at Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester when flying Little Red. At Manchester Terminal 3, you can use the attractive Escape lounge (below) that I visited last year.
I wouldn’t take a special flight to Manchester just to try to get a Virgin status match! However, if you need to fly a domestic to Manchester, Edinburgh or Aberdeen from Heathrow, this may be the carrot you need to give Little Red a try.
In other Little Red news ….
Virgin Gold customers no longer have lounge access in Heathrow Terminal 1. The deal Little Red had with Servisair to use their lounge has ended. However, as this lounge was a complete dump, there is no great loss.
Virgin Gold card holders can now collect a £10 Costa Coffee voucher from the Little Red help desk by Gate 8.
This is only a temporary situation until Little Red moves to the brand new Terminal 2, although that is not expected to happen until the end of 2014. Little Red is currently planned to be the last airline to move across.
How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 2021)
As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.
You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, one has a bonus of 15,000 points):
Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard
The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review
Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard
15,000 points bonus and the most generous non-Amex for day to day spending Read our full review
You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points:
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review
The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points:
The Platinum Card from American Express
30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review
Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points.
(Want to earn more Virgin Points? Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)
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