Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Virgin Atlantic offering a targeted Miles Booster ‘buy miles’ promotion

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Virgin Atlantic has brought back its occasional ‘Miles Booster’ promotion with a 30% bonus.  This allows you to buy Virgin Flying Club miles very cheaply if you have a Virgin Atlantic cash or reward booked or have taken one recently.

This offer appears to be targeted to people who were emailed about it by Virgin Atlantic.  I cannot find any reference to the deal on the Flying Club website.  If you were not contacted yesterday then you should assume you are not included.

Virgin Atlantic 350

Miles Booster only works if you have a Virgin Atlantic cash or reward flight booked or have taken one in the last six months.  You are able to buy an additional 200% of the base miles you will earn from the flight for just 1p each.  This gets even cheaper during this promotion.

Click here for details. If you have a New York economy flight booked, for example, you would earn 6,916 base miles from your trip.

Miles Booster allows you to buy up to 13,832 additional miles for just 1p each. Plus, until 9th March 2018, you would get an extra 30% bonus as well.

If you maximised the Miles Booster option for a New York economy flight, you would be able to buy a total of 17,981 Virgin Flying Club miles for just £138.32. That is 0.77p each, which is well worth considering.

You can retrospectively buy miles via Miles Booster for any Virgin Atlantic flights taken in the last six months, cash or reward.  Yes, even previously flown or currently booked redemptions count.  If your trip is in the future, you will not receive your Miles Booster miles under three days after you return.


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 (89)

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

  • roberto says:

    Unsure if the Virgin Booster option is targeted as suggested – reports on vflyer yesyerday suggests its open to all.

    I am travelling currently and cant see for sure on my mobile but prehaps someone with a PC ( or better eyes ) could have a look at the “red letters on the miles booster page” where the 30% bonus is allegedly offered to confirm/deny..

    • Tracy Regan says:

      I received the 30%bonus but my husband didn’t. I assumed it was for everyone so boosted his miles before I realised he didn’t receive the extra miles. Annoying.

      • Helen says:

        Following a telephone conversation with customer services yesterday, I can confirm it is targeted. The customer services assistant explained it is for people with a minimum number of miles in their account (I had 55k, so it would be interesting to find out what that minimum number is). I was able to claim miles flown in October as part of the Booster promotion.

        • Leo says:

          Partner had email. 23K in account.

        • Clive says:

          Re. minimum miles – I have over 150k miles and there is no bonus if I try to boost for an upcoming flight… although I am able to pay just for 1x or 2x miles flown as normal. Shame, as I’d been waiting for the bonus…

        • Clive says:

          Given these data points, it seems it might be for people below a mileage balance, rather than above one. Maybe to encourage people who aren’t already collecting…

        • Lady London says:

          I can;t remember but I think I have about 20K and no email. I’m really struggling to find an economical way of getting rid of them without paying huge taxes.

    • Ian says:

      I gave them a call on the off chance that I’d qualify as I recently flew to Hong Kong with Virgin. No go. Without the code on your account you don’t get the 30% bonus. It’s very strange as I’ve about 50,000 miles in the account and have past a future bookings that I would’ve thought would qualify…

  • Pauk says:

    Is AA 777 Business Seat better than club world?

    • JamesB says:

      Yes, I think most people would say so.

    • Doug M says:

      Yes and no. It’s not better than 62/64 AK on the 747 upper deck, but it’s better in most regards than most BA seats. The issue for BA is all seats vary greatly, not so much on AA. I personally find the CW seat fine, although typically windows lack access unless you easily step over your seat mates legs, aisle seats lack privacy, middle seats just lack, but would be nice for couples that that proximity. AA much more consistent so less care about which seat you get. AA have the so called foot coffin, not a problem for me, but is for some. If like me you spent years flying in economy all the business seats are just great.

  • JamesB says:

    OT: My partner has been downgraded overnight from an AF business seat to a KL economy seat for a flight departing tomorrow. What’s best to do about this? OLCI opens in less than an hour, my thinking is check in online for the KL flight and try to sort the mess out later when telephone support opens at 9? IIRC compensation should be 75% of sector fare as it is a longhaul flight?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      They should be able to move them to another flight in business with AF/KL. I wouldn’t OLCI at all.

      • JamesB says:

        That was my first thought but due to reaccommodations resulting from the strike on Driday I a guessing there is no business seats available as the the flight was changed to economy.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          Sometimes they just move you to the next available flight not always the best option for you. I would phone and speak with someone and not OLCI even then I’d go to a check in desk and tell them what’s happened maybe something can be done if there’s a no show etc

        • JamesB says:

          Thanks, will see what they say when CS opens at 9.

        • JamesB says:

          CS advised to proceed to check in for on the spot opportunities for reaccommodation as nothing was possible at the moment. If situation remains unchanged then my partner can expect to receive a goodwill gesture at checkin and can claim 75% of the fare on return to EDI after ticket has been used.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    “You receive the same Avios and tier points irrespective of which airline you choose.”

    Only true if it’s a BA codeshare? Or do you get status based bonus on AA flight numbers too?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      Example BA Silver on AA flight LHR to JFK in Lowest Business – 6041 same flight in same class on BA 6916 875 miles less. LHR-LAX AA – 9548 BA – 10884 1336 diff. not earth shatteringly different but still different.

      But maybe its just the calculator and the reality is different in the experience of much more regular fliers than me?

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Forgot to add there is a significant difference if you are on an actual flexible ticket i.e. J/C/D

  • totaltool says:

    Flying QATAR next week and want to make sure I get avios rather than Qmiles. Can’t see anywhere to put in BAEC number. Can anyone tell me how to do it? Thanks in advance.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      I’m sure manage your booking on the Qatar website has it but its hard to find.

      I have used Finnair website to manage my bookings for one world airlines in the past but not sure if the rules have changed, worth a try?

      • Rob says:

        Can be done via Manage My Booking on Qatar (or at least it could, for ANY oneworld booking). Same with Finnair’s site.

    • jkay says:

      Enter the Manage Booking page, then select “Update passenger details”, which is available on a column on the right side of the page, you should then immediately see the page to enter your FF details

  • Andrew Hall says:

    Hi. Does anyone know which Florida airports are included in the BA offer? Struggling to find anything on Orlando. Thanks.

  • N says:

    Quick OT: managed to get 200EUR value out of the Cat 1-5 Megabonus certificate from Marriott in Amsterdam for King’s Day.

    Paired with a 25k redemption the night after (200EUR, so 0.7ppm).

    Happy with that, considering I won’t be travelling out of Europe for the forseeable!

    Also just finished my Plat challenge, so should be treated OK for upgrade etc.

  • ringingup says:

    I would add that there is minimum stay requirement of 7 days!

    • David says:

      Thanks for that.

      I was looking at 3 night trips and there were no cheap prices!

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