Save £30 on Economy Delight and £50 on Premium with a new Virgin Atlantic flight offer

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Virgin Atlantic has launched a special deal for Premium and Economy Delight flights.

Until Tuesday 11th June:

you can save £30 on Economy Delight flights to all Virgin Atlantic destinations

you can save £50 on Premium (Virgin’s name for Premium Economy) flights to the US

Miami unsplash

Full details are on the Virgin Atlantic website here. You do not need a promo code to book the offer.

In addition Virgin Atlantic has launched an offer for flights from London to Tel Aviv:

you can save £30 per person on Upper Class flights from London to Tel Aviv

you can save £20 per person on Economy and Premium flights from London to Tel Aviv

For this offer you need to add the promo code FLC03 when booking. The offer is for travel between 1st November 2019 and 11th December 2019 as well as 1st January to 31st March 2020.

What are the Premium deals?

Lead in fares for return flights in Premium from London to the US include:

Boston from £684
New York from £724
Miami from £831

Lead in fares for return flights in Premium from Manchester to the US include:

New York from £690
Los Angeles from £797
Orlando from £796

Travel dates cover the Winter season, from 27th October to 27th March 2020. There are blackout dates in the run up to Christmas, but you can travel between Christmas Eve and early January.

What do I get with an Economy Delight deal?

The benefits of Premium over standard Economy tend to be obvious. You might be less clear about the difference between Economy Delight and Economy Classic on Virgin Atlantic.

An extra saving of £30 for Economy Delight flights should make it easier to decide whether or not it’s worth spending a bit extra for a better Economy experience.

There are two good reasons – one relating to comfort and one relating to miles. Most people only look at the first one and don’t bother to work out the impact of the improved mileage earning, which is a mistake.

First up is comfort.

Economy Classic: Standard Economy fare with checked luggage included, can be upgraded to Premium Economy with miles

Economy Delight: Extra legroom (34″ pitch), priority check-in and priority boarding, can be upgraded to Premium Economy with miles

The second reason is more miles.

Economy Classic: earns 50% of miles flown plus 25 tier points each-way

Economy Delight: earns 150% of miles flown plus 50 tier points each-way

How many more miles would I earn with Economy Delight?

Here are two sample screen shots, based on being a base level (Red) Virgin Flying Club member. Flying to Los Angeles in Economy Classic would get you:

…. whilst flying in Economy Delight would get you:

As you can see, you will earn an extra 10,908 miles on a return flight. These are worth £109 if you assume 1p per mile. You can add in the very substantial benefit of the extra legroom for 24 hours of flying time.

In general Economy Delight is usually priced at £100 return above Economy Classic. You should find the gap is even lower during this sale.

On the longer Virgin Atlantic flights the additional cost of Economy Delight is virtually offset by the additional Virgin Flying Club miles you earn. The extra leg room and other benefits are pretty much free.

We reviewed Economy Delight last year on a flight to New York which you can read here.

If you want to find out more about the different Economy products, you can read our in depth comparison here. This page of the Virgin Atlantic site shows you the differences between the fare classes.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is one of the two Virgin Atlantic Reward credit cards. These earn double miles (3 per £1 on the paid card or 1.5 per £1 on the free card) when you book at virginatlantic.com or via Virgin Holidays. Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

You can book the £30 off Economy Delight and £50 off Premium fares on the Virgin Atlantic website 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: