Bits: Virgin closes HK Clubhouse, 1500 Virgin miles with Worldhotels

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News in brief:

Virgin Atlantic closes Hong Kong Clubhouse

This news passed me by at the time, but Virgin Atlantic closed its Clubhouse lounge in Hong Kong on 5th February. Virgin customers flying from Hong Kong must now use the Plaza Premium lounge.

This is not a surprising move. Supporting a lounge for one flight a day isn’t easy and only works when you can persuade other airlines to pay you to let their customers use it too. With no shortage of excellent lounges in Hong Kong this obviously wasn’t a workable option.

Triple Flying Club miles Worldhotels

You may not have heard of Worldhotels, which is an independent marketing group for 500 upscale hotels, spread across 65 countries. These are hotels which do not want to formally join a branded chain but still want to be able to offer their guests loyalty benefits and to benefit from global marketing campaigns.

You can find our more about Worldhotels here.

It is currently offering a decent promotion with 1,500 Virgin Flying Club miles with any stay before the end of March. 250 of the 500 properties in the group are taking part.

Full details can be found here. You need to book a specific rate code which is inserted during the booking process, so make sure you compare the price with any other deals available. You will not also earn Peakpoints in the Worldhotels loyalty scheme – although the miles are probably better value.

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

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

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

RJJ says:

1 Mar1 March 11:00

OT Hilton Honors changes

Just checked my existing points reservations and Hilton seem to have added a cash portion to my stay. I’m hoping it’s just an IT glitch and will be resolved shortly but if not then I will have to cancel. My understanding of changes was that existing reservations would be honoured, changing the rate is surely breach of contract?

Booked a deluxe room at Hilton Bomonti (Istanbul) for 2 nights at 37,000 points, it’s now showing €96 + 37,000 points.

The strangest one is this – Booked a single night at WA Dubai Palm using my Barclays free night cert, rate is now showing as 240AED + 60,000 points.

In both cases cancelling and re-booking can be done with minor inconvenience but might be worth double checking your award stays.
- Jonny says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 11:19
  
  yeah I have that too – 10k points and a cheeky £13 on top for a night in Sheffield this weekend… wasn’t there whenI booked, hopefully will disappear soon…
  - RJJ says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 11:31
    
    Just spoke to Hilton and they confirmed it is a glitch and should be resolved shortly.
    
    Overall changes seem mix of positive/negative – points value seem to be pegged at around 0.4p for UK bookings. p+c rates are no longer worth it, premium room redemptions are through the roof but most standard room rates are now lower.
- xcalx says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 11:25
  
  Reservation for Hampton Ybor City now showing as 30K points plus $16.80 New booking 40K. With the BA cancellations I’m having one of them days.
  - xcalx says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 11:29
    
    Cash price $254 C@M @30K = + $56
- Alan says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 11:41
  
  It’ll just be a glitch, I wouldn’t worry.
- ankomonkey says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 12:01
  
  Premium Hilton redemptions (using just points) have shot through the roof.
  
  Last weekend I booked and stayed in a premium room redemption for 29k points. This was cheaper than the standard redemption at 40k. I booked the premium hoping to get upgraded (as Gold) to the next room level – executive with lounge access. I got the upgrade and had a great stay – and great value for the 29k points with free brekkie and lounge access.
  
  Same hotel this weekend (under new rates system) – standard redemption 21k (massively reduced from 40k), premium redemption 61k (more than double what I paid). The cash rates are nearly identical between what they were asking last weekend and what they’re asking this weekend for both the standard and premium rooms. Also, the cash difference between the standard room and the premium room is about 15Euro both weekends.
  
  So standard redemptions look good while pegged at grandfathered level maximums, but premium redemptions are now horrible value. Maybe this enhancement was to sell more cheap rooms to redeemers and stop them getting the massive extra value like I just managed.
  - RJJ says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 12:35
    
    I noticed this too.
    
    My stay at the Hilton Bomonti is for a premium room which I booked at 18k points (regular room was 40k) – now regular room is showing as 16k and the one I booked is 41k.
    - ankomonkey says:
      
      1 Mar1 March 14:44
      
      I often booked premium rewards as they were often less than the standard rewards and better rooms.
Wally1976 says:

1 Mar1 March 11:09

OT sorry – Virgin white credit cards – can someone confirm please that spending on the VISA card counts towards the ‘spend £1000 in first 90 days get 10,000 points’? Thanks. I know VISA spend doesn’t count towards the upgrade vouchers.
- Genghis says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 11:33
  
  Visa spend counts towards the Brucie
  - Wally1976 says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 12:41
    
    Great thanks Genghis, means I can use Curve card cash withdrawals to count towards it 🙂
Waribai says:

1 Mar1 March 11:10

This is a shame. Although not as luxurious as the pier and no noodle bar, it was a good place to chill out before the late night VS flight. Staff were also much more personal than in the Cathay lounges I found.
Nick says:

1 Mar1 March 11:19

OT – Bits – major SQ redemption changes just announced. Saver miles rates increased and full removal of the online discount… bad news
BUT some great news… removal of the YQ on redemptions 🙂
- Alan says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 11:42
  
  Ooh interesting – removal of discount and increase in rates bad, but their YQ is at BA levels, so that could actually more than offset the increase!
- Liz says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 12:24
  
  Where are the changes – I have just enough saved for a one way redemption from SIN-BNE for a booking I want to make in May
- Liz says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 12:33
  
  Found it but the numbers for SIN to BNE are not listed so need to do a dummy booking
  - Liz says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 12:41
    
    Duh! Dummy booking still shows 55k until after 23/3 !
  - Liz says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 12:57
    
    OK just phoned Singapore Airlines and the 55k has gone up to 58k – you can buy 1000 miles for $40 US
  - Nick says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 13:08
    
    The biggest headache is not the rates increase but the removal of the 15% discount for booking online. Obviously if you only ever booked by phone you won’t notice this.
  - Genghis says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 14:06
    
    In the email I received, they give two examples.
    
    One was Singapore to London one way in business
    – currently 68k with online saver + SGD241 fuel surcharges + airport taxes and fees
    – from 23 March, 85k + airport taxes and fees
    
    So delta is 17k miles for SGD241= £138 so worse overall for this redemption as only getting 0.81ppm
    - Alan says:
      
      1 Mar1 March 14:18
      
      Just got email from KF now too, annoyingly airport taxes and fees all still excluded so looks like I’d be better booking under the current deal if I can. I wonder if existing bookings can still have dates changed for free if required, without being subject to the new rules…
  - Matthew says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 20:13
    
    Liz – You will prob better off buying 3000 SPG points at $105 then converting to SQ. There may even be a point sale soon too. Small saving but worth it!
  - Liz says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 22:10
    
    Thanks Matthew I will hold out for a bit longer to see what happens with SPG pts.
- xcalx says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 12:57
  
  Liz after 23/3/17 E 28k PE 44k J 58k Suites 80k the links I posted don’t seem to work on HFP
  - xcalx says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 12:58
    
    PE 45k
  - Liz says:
    
    1 Mar1 March 13:25
    
    NIck I had saved the full 55k in my hubby’s account then discovered the 15% online discount – I now have 46750 in my account for the booking with the 15% discount – fortunately I kept my 5100 SPG pts in my account just in case I needed them for SQ – so now I will be 6150 short which I will get hopefully from the Plat card. Called them again to ask if I can use additional 3k miles from MR pts to pay for hubby’s shortfall but no can do so we need to buy his 3k for $120 US.
    - Alan says:
      
      1 Mar1 March 13:56
      
      Had a look at SQ Suites redemption to NZ – looks like 71k increase in miles vs before (given increased award chart plus loss of 15% discount). Question is whether ALL taxes/fees will go (saving £700, reasonable deal for mileage increase) or whether only ‘carrier-imposed surcharges’, as that’s £400 or so, making it a less appealing price to ‘buy’ miles at.
Tilly71 says:

1 Mar1 March 12:14

Anyone had VS – IHG points transferred since 22nd feb hit their accounts yet? If so, did they post as elite qualifying?
Scottydogg says:

1 Mar1 March 13:56

Im pretty bummed about the loss of the CH at HGK airport . I booked my first upper class redemption to return from HGK to Heathrow in 3 weeks time , I was looking forward to using the club house before the flight . Learning that it has now closed and that you have to use another lounge where anyone can walk up and pay to get in has slightly soared this experience .
Genghis says:

1 Mar1 March 16:38

OT – Hilton related. Having a look at some redemptions, the Waldorf Amsterdam seems to have increased to whopping 180k a night as a ‘premium room reward’ as standard.
- The Original Nick. says:
  
  1 Mar1 March 17:28
  
  Hilton Tallin has gone down from 30000 points/night to 27000 for 1st May when I’ll be there. Cancelled and re-booked.