Virgin launches a new reward seat sale in Economy and Premium Economy

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For the second time this year, Virgin Atlantic has launched a seat sale for reward seats.

And this time Premium Economy is included as well.

Virgin taxes on economy redemptions are already lower (by roughly £100) than British Airways. Even without a promotion, the miles required are also lower than Avios for some destinations. A New York seat at normal prices will cost you just 35,000 miles return, compared to 40,000 Avios with BA. With the sale the difference is even more stark.

These are the Economy destinations available in the sale together with the taxes and surcharges required for a return flight:

New York – 28,000 miles + £241

Barbados (Heathrow or Manchester) – 36,000 miles + £239

Delhi – 34,000 miles + £301

Tokyo – 36,000 miles + £280

The Premium Economy destinations are:

New York – 44,000 miles + £303

Jamaica – 56,000 miles + £465

Mumbai – 56,000 miles + £459

Shanghai – 56,000 miles + £495

Dubai – 48,000 miles + £425

What is interesting about this sale is that you can book for any time in the next 11 months. There are no date restrictions as long as seats are available.

You must book before June 4th.

If you are short of miles, remember that Virgin miles transfer INSTANTLY from American Express Membership Rewards as long as your accounts are already linked. It will take a couple of days if you have not previously linked your accounts.

Transfers from Tesco Clubcard are also very fast, usually overnight – the ‘Clubcard to Virgin’ page is here.

You can combine these discounts with a CombiFare. CombiFare is explained in this post, but basically if you can only find a redemption in one direction Virgin will sell you a cash ticket for the other half at a discounted rate.

Virgin is also offering a 20% bonus on purchased miles and a 20% bonus on Miles Booster. I will look at this in more detail tomorrow.

Full details of the Reward Seat Sale can be found here.

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: