How you can earn Virgin Flying Club miles shopping at Waitrose

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Our other article today includes ways of topping up your Virgin Flying Club account. One of these ways is earning miles at Waitrose.

I realised that we haven’t actually mentioned this partnership for almost two years, and it is possible that a lot of Head for Points readers don’t know about.

Via a deal with Virgin Atlantic, you will earn miles in Virgin Flying Club for every £1 you spend in-store at Waitrose.

The earning rate varies by account, and seems to change based on how much you spend at Waitrose and how your spending pattern fluctuates.

For purchases under £20, you earn a flat 1 Flying Club mile per £1

For £20+, you need to log in to your Virgin Flying Club account and check. I am currently earning 3 Flying Club miles per £1 until 26th April.

This is, for £20+ purchases, more miles than I would earn at Tesco via Clubcard (1 Clubcard point per £1 which converts to 2.4 Avios or 2.5 Virgin Flying Club miles).

This would also allow John Lewis shoppers to buy Waitrose / John Lewis gift cards in Waitrose and collect the extra miles.

This offer is part of the Virgin Atlantic in-store shopping scheme. To sign up, you need to visit this page of the Virgin website and register your credit cards. Make sure you register your partners cards as well if they are also likely to visit Waitrose.

If you don’t already have a Virgin Flying Club account, you may want to sign up purely to take advantage of this deal. At the very worse, you can redeem 12,500 miles for a £50 voucher valid at many Virgin Group companies or for Theatre Tokens. It is also worth remembering that you can transfer Virgin Flying Club miles into Hilton Honors points (at 2:3) and IHG Rewards Club points (at 1:1) with a minimum transfer of 10,000 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

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

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

Grant says:

8 Apr8 April 20:13

Comment of the day, Simon. Thanks!
AndyGWP says:

8 Apr8 April 20:42

Bah! I have “Spend £24 or more, get £18 back”
- Grant says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 09:01
  
  If you add a single bottle / can or two to the order, it should take it over £24. You’re getting an even better deal then.
  - AndyGWP says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 15:59
    
    Yeah – tried that but it won’t let me – it’s treating them as separate transactions (ie. I have 1 bottle of beer in my basket, but the offer doesn’t actually go through the same basket as the shop unfortunately 🙁 )
Jim says:

8 Apr8 April 21:20

OT

In terms of the two free lounge passes I got when I got my gold card, can I use these free ones for me and a guest. Or are the free passes for my use only?

Traveling with a companion for the first time since getting the card and wanted to get us both in.
- thehornets says:
  
  8 Apr8 April 21:27
  
  You and a guest will work fine.
  - Mutley says:
    
    8 Apr8 April 21:43
    
    O/T What a comeback fella
- Rob says:
  
  8 Apr8 April 21:47
  
  Either.
- RussellH says:
  
  8 Apr8 April 22:29
  
  You and a guest – at least, that is how it worked in the last two years.
AB says:

8 Apr8 April 22:42

O/T- Is there a way to pay now on Hilton, trying to take advantage of the Amex Credit for a September stay but the cheapest (Honors Semj-Flex) or any other options appear to be book now, pay later.
- Lady London says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 00:11
  
  book then phone the hotel and ask them to take the money upfront
  - Alan says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 08:04
    
    Interesting, didn’t know they do that for semiflex, I’d only tried it for prepay before (where they all vary how far in advance they charge the card).
- Qwerty Bertie says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 00:22
  
  Use the advance discount rate, if you want the cheapest rate and are fully committed to the stay. However, Lady London’s suggestion is an interesting idea, as in theory you’d retain flexibility. I wonder though, how easy it would be to get a refund say ten months down the line, if exercising the right to cancel.
  - PaulC says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 07:30
    
    Does advance discount paid online work as it clearly states in the T&C’s “Offer excludes online payments and is only valid on checkout spend”
    I need a hotel in Edinburgh in August for the Edinburgh Tattoo and obviously everywhere is expensive including the Holiday Inn’s and Travelodge’s so Id rather pay a little more and stay in a Hilton especially if I can get £75 back which could make it cheaper than the hotels previously mentioned.
    - Alan says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 08:04
      
      Yes it does, as long as card charged.
    - Rob says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 09:24
      
      Works, done it myself. How is Amex meant to know?!
    - PaulC says:
      
      9 Apr9 April 09:37
      
      Cheers guys, best get it booked, nice little treat instead of a Travelodge for a similar price.
Qwerty Bertie says:

9 Apr9 April 00:39

Regarding the Virgin points at Waitrose, do they sell Tesco giftcards? I know that may sound strange, but then Tesco sells John Lewis and Marks & Spencer…

If they do, then the full tally of the game per pound spent, culminating in using the Tesco giftcards normally, would be:

X points, where X equals normal reward for spending on whatever card used to purchase giftcards
+ 3 Virgin points
+ 1 Clubcard point

If just after Virgin points, that could be a total of 7 Virgin points per pound for Tesco shopping/purchases in store, plus a load of spend towards a voucher on the Virgin+ card.

Tesco giftcards last five years…so why not go and get £15k to £25k worth tomorrow? 🙂
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 01:11
  
  Take me a lifetime to spend that much in Tesco if I’m excluding fuel
  - Qwerty Bertie says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 01:31
    
    You could include fuel, but of course that would bring down the Clubcard earning rate. 50% isn’t it for fuel?
    
    Could purchase electronics and assorted nik naks in store, not just groceries and booze.
    
    I wonder if it’s possible to use them to purchase/convert to other company gift cards, picking up the Clubcard points on the purchase.
kk says:

9 Apr9 April 00:43

So when I register my Virgin MC for Waitrose, do I get points from both the shop and the card spend?
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 01:13
  
  Yes the you will get both the in store miles for using a registered card and the spend miles on your card.
  
  You can register nearly all cards except store cards like HOF credit card etc
  - kk says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 13:47
    
    Thanks for this!
- Rob says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 09:26
  
  Yes
  - kk says:
    
    9 Apr9 April 13:47
    
    Thank you!
Chris Cannon says:

9 Apr9 April 08:13

Great news on Lidl deal. Will stack with Sunday times voucher for £10 off £40 spend
Nigel says:

9 Apr9 April 12:49

OT: does anybody have experience of the Hilton Points Pooling feature? Do you happen to know how long the transfer usually takes? Thanks.
- Peter 64K says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 14:06
  
  About 5 days I think. Done it several times, very simple. Each account needs to be open over 90 days (or was it 30 days?).
- Mark2 says:
  
  9 Apr9 April 15:26
  
  I have just transferred some to my sister and it was two days but YMMV.