Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Bits: see the FA Cup with Emirates, 3000 miles for joining Virgin Flying Club

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News in brief:

See the FA Cup Third Round with Emirates Skywards miles

I have written before about using Emirates Skywards miles for Executive Box seats at Arsenal or the other football clubs around Europe sponsored by Emirates.

Emirates is now the lead sponsor of the FA Cup.  For the 2nd Round in December, they offered tickets for just 1 mile.

Now that the 3rd Round is here, they are not being that generous.  However, at just 4,000 Emirates miles for a ticket, you can’t complain.

As at 3pm yesterday the following games were available.  Remember that you can only book a maximum of two tickets per game per Emirates account.

  • Exeter City v Liverpool
  • Wycombe v Aston Villa
  • Eastleigh v Bolton
  • Doncaster v Stoke
  • Manchester Utd v Sheffield Utd
  • Chelsea v Scunthorpe or Leyton Orient
  • Tottenham v Leicester

These are for games in the second weekend of January.

Book via this page on the Emirates website (log-in required). 

Kudos (but no prize!) to the first person who knows who the person wearing the Doncaster Rovers shirt in the picture below is ….

Doncaster Rovers

3,000 free miles for joining Virgin Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic has brought back the special offer for joining Virgin Flying Club which first ran a couple of months ago.  Via the Virgin Red app which I discussed here, you will receive 3,000 miles for joining Flying Club.

If you have an Android phone, the good news is that Virgin Red has just launched on that platform too, as well as the original iOS version.

You don’t need to do anything.  The miles will be automatically dropped in your account within seven days.

3,000 miles won’t get you far.  However, once you have your account open, you are better placed to pick some miles via the generous credit card sign-up bonus, opening an ISA, buying wine, Heathrow Rewards, Tesco Clubcard conversions or American Express Membership Rewards.

The offer is only available to 2,000 people and it was down to 1,500 yesterday afternoon.


How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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 Rewards credit card

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review

Virgin Rewards Plus credit card

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:

Nectar American Express

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:

American Express Platinum card Amex

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.)

Comments (52)

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

  • TimS says:

    Yes it does work via the Android app signup.

  • TimS says:

    Are you sure about the referral miles Rob?

    As I read the Virgin T&Cs, the referrer gets 5,000 or 10,000 miles depending the refereee booking into PE or UC but the referee only gets 2,000 miles (PE) or 3,000 miles (UC) themselves:

    3.2.4 For every person you refer who joins Flying Club, you will earn Miles on the basis of the cabin in which they complete their first round trip with Virgin Atlantic: the following Miles will be awarded in qualifying classes: Economy 2,000 Miles, Premium Economy 5,000 Miles and Upper Class 10,000 Miles.

    3.2.6 For all persons referred who subsequently join Flying Club and travel, they will earn bonus Miles on the basis of the cabin in which they complete their first round trip with Virgin Atlantic: the following Miles will be awarded in qualifying classes: Economy, 1,000 Miles, Premium Economy 2,000 Miles and Upper Class 3,000 Miles.

    • Lambs says:

      Hi
      How do you redeem for football tickets?

      • TimS says:

        Via the link in the article above. You need to log in to your EK account before you can see the available tickets though.

    • Rob says:

      Hmmm. Has that changed? I am sure both got the same.

      Luckily no-one has asked me for a referral today!

      Article amended, thanks.

  • D says:

    How can they ensure people won’t sign up for different emails, get the miles, then transfer them into one account?

    Great promo though, thanks 🙂

  • AndyGWP says:

    Raffles – a friend (living near KUL), has 45k Amex MR, and around 6k Skywards miles.

    They were originally going to use the MR for Avios RFS redemptions, but no need now as they get ‘local'(?) flights for 10% of cost due to a deal their boss has done.

    They are thinking of visiting home (LHR) using their miles, but I can’t see any options (of value) unless I’m missing something. Am I right? (I’m great at figuring out going west, but my knowledge of carriers / points redemption opportunities going East is limited)

    Any advice or suggestions to explore would be appreciated 🙂

    • Rob says:

      As the points are in MR there is flexibility to use for hotel conversions etc so no major crisis.

      Is 45k enough for a one way in Avios on Malaysian to London? Wouldn’t be enough for 2.

    • Clive says:

      19500 each way BA off peak from most Asian cities. If they route HKG/AMS they can keep taxes to a real minimum.

    • AndyGWP says:

      Thanks both… Gives me something else to look at 🙂

  • Clive says:

    New IHG Accelerate offer is out for the new year.

    My Offers
    Points Value Offer Description Status
    5,000 January Bonus Offer
    Stay once in January and get 5,000 bonus points. Terms
    3,000 Stay Once Get 3,000
    Thank you for choosing IHG. We’d like to see you again soon. Stay once and earn 3,000 bonus points. Terms
    BOOK NOW
    7,500 Stay More, Earn More
    Get closer to the rewards you want when you stay 5 night(s) and earn 7,500 bonus points. Terms
    BOOK NOW
    2,600 Travel with the IHG® App
    Book 2 stay(s) with the IHG® App and earn 2,600 bonus points. Terms
    2,000 Earn More, Faster
    Earn 2,000 bonus points when you book 1 bonus points Package stay(s) and get to your next reward faster. Terms
    BOOK NOW
    34,900 Your Achievement Bonus
    Complete 3 of the 4 offers above and earn (an additional) 34,900 bonus points (excluding the January Bonus Offer). Terms

  • Tilly71 says:

    The virgin red app 3000 miles, how long does it normally take to hit accounts?

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