Last chance to convert Amex points to Virgin Flying Club for 20% bonus

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Thursday of this week is your last chance to earn a 20% bonus on transfers of Membership Rewards points to Virgin Flying Club.

A lot of people, including myself, did not receive the original email back in February. However, the bonus is NOT targeted and is showing on the American Express Membership Rewards website.

Virgin Atlantic A330neo

The bonus only applies to the first transfer you make during the transfer period.

You must transfer your points to Virgin by 20th March. The bonus points will be added by 31st March.

If your American Express Membership Rewards account is already linked to your Virgin Flying Club account, the transfer from Amex to Virgin is instantaneous. The bonus may or may not go on at the same time though.

If your Virgin account is not already linked to your American Express account, you should ring Amex’s Membership Rewards team and try to get them linked whilst you wait. Sometimes it can be done instantly.

Here are the full rules from the email:

Virgin Atlantic: Minimum transfer of 1,000 Membership Rewards points (increments of 500) to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles. One Membership Rewards point is equal to one Virgin Atlantic Flying Club mile. A bonus of 20% more Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles will be applied to your first Membership Rewards points transfer made between 20 February and 20 March 2014. Bonus miles will be credited to your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account by 31 March 2014. Offer is subject to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Terms and Conditions.

You must be enrolled in the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club in the UK in order to be eligible for the offer. If you are not yet a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club member you can enrol here. This offer cannot be combined with any other offer. Flights are subject to availability. To be eligible to receive the bonus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles, the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account must be active and not in default at the time of the bonus fulfilment. Visit virginatlantic.com/flyingclub for full details. Reward flights are subject to the payment of passenger taxes, charges, fees and surcharges and are subject to change. Once you transfer your points, they cannot be transferred back to your Membership Rewards account.

Don’t forget that Tesco is also offering a 30% bonus on transfers to Virgin Flying Club until March 31st. If you click that link, you will also see my discussion on the pros and cons of collecting Flying Club miles.

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.)

Category

American Express Membership Rewards, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Etk says:

19 Mar19 March 06:48

Is there any limit on the number of transfers you can do in a year?
- Rob says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 08:12
  
  No
JB says:

19 Mar19 March 08:31

I appear to have 2 MR accounts- would this work for the first transfer from each online or do you think I should ring MR and get them merged and then transfer? Thanks for the heads up- I had forgotten about this and just had the platinum upgrade bonus post yesterday!
- Rob says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 09:07
  
  Good question. Gut feeling is that Virgin adds the bonus so it is once per Flying Club account but could go either way!
thomas says:

19 Mar19 March 09:42

2 things I noticed.
The bonus points are posted immediatley.
I did 2 transfers and BOTH times, I got the bonus, so it seems not to be limited to 1st time only.
- Rob says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 09:46
  
  Thanks Thomas. Good to know if anyone wants to squeeze an extra one in, although if it didn’t work 2nd time you would have no grounds to complain!
  - thomas says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 09:58
    
    To Virgin’s credit, points when transferred or earned always post very quickly and hassle free.
    Having recently booked Virgin Guest List for my parents, the 5000 bonus points were there right away.
Thunderbirds says:

19 Mar19 March 12:33

I recently had the opportunity to test AMEX transfers to Virgin, Virgin 20% bonus and Virgin purchases and all three turned up immediately (after a logout and login) allowing me to book 4 upper class tickets to Tokyo. The only question remaining is whether the Virgin experience is any better or worse than BA. If quality of service differs markedly then chasing bonus transfers shouldn’t drive choice of airline. I haven’t flow Virgin for 15 years so it will be interesting to see the difference.
- thomas says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 13:25
  
  The Upper cabin layout is slightly strange and can appear cramped, but the seats are comfortable.
  The food and the bar are good.
  I think it depends on what plane you will be on.
  Of course the Lounges are a great plus.
  Downside ? The ridiculous saftey video that they now play and Richard Branson appearing on screen before every selected film.
- Rob says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 16:20
  
  I haven’t flown Virgin in 15 years either! I do now have a stack of Flying Club miles, though, so will try to squeeze something in this year.
Cristian says:

19 Mar19 March 14:06

Maybe you can use this bonus to travel cheaply from now 2015, according to the news today:

From April 1 2015, all long-haul flights will be moved into band B, meaning customers travelling to the Caribbean will pay the same as if they were travelling to the US.

George Osborne said: “From next year, all long-haul flights will carry the same, lower, band B tax rate that you now pay to fly to the United States.”

The Budget document said: “To help British businesses strengthen links with high growth markets, and to go further to make the UK an attractive option for business visitors and tourists, Budget 2014 announces that the government will reform air passenger duty (APD) by abolishing bands C and D from 1 April 2015.

“This will eliminate the two highest rates of APD charged on flights to countries over 4,000 miles from Britain, cutting tax for millions of passengers travelling to China, India, Brazil and many other emerging markets.
- squills says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 19:21
  
  What’s the saving, typically, pls?
  - Alan says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 22:05
    
    In premium cabins it’d be £188 down to £134 as the max saving (£54) – see http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/apd.htm – they’re limiting costs to Band B. Wish it was sooner, I’d quite like some cash back on my SQ Suites redemption 😛
    - Chilibenny says:
      
      20 Mar20 March 16:16
      
      Yes but when you are thinking of the saving don’t forget there will be an RPI-inflation rise in the existing system from April 1 this year and another RPI-inflation rise on the new, two-band system from April 1 next year.
Maximus says:

20 Mar20 March 05:36

This week I transferred, for the first time, Amex MR points. I am saving for flights to Tokyo with Virgin Atlantic. To ensure I benefitted from the current 20% bonus I decided to call Amex Customer Services in person to carry out the transfer.

The customer service agent was very polite, very efficient and helpful. i guess that is what you get when paying £450 annaul fees for a Platinum card! Anyway, the transfer of points was instant, including the bonus. I saw the Virgin account change online whilst i was still on the telephone to her. You can’t get more instant than that!

I have only flown Virgin Atlantic once, earler this month on a last minute leisure trip to NYC in PE seats (which is fine for me to the US East Coast, I would never sleep). I did pay extra to use the Virgin Clubhouse, undoubtedly the best Business Lounge I have ever been in. The inflight service in PE was good, no complaints. I did find the crew more relaxed and friendly than most BA crews.

It will be interesting to compare UC with CW but like everything there will be pros and cons to both.