Get a bespoke bonus when you buy Virgin Flying Club miles

Keen to magic up some extra Flying Club miles?  Virgin Atlantic has launched a ‘mystery’ Buy Miles promotion, running until 13th November.

This promotion gives Flying Club members the opportunity to buy Flying Club miles and receive an additional mileage bonus when they do so.

But here’s the mysterious part… you have to log in to your Flying Club account to find exactly how big that bonus is.

You can find out your bonus by logging in at this page of the Flying Club website.

You will receive a bespoke bonus offer.

It’s not clear how this is worked out.  From our unscientific research across the HfP office and family members we’ve found Red members with a 20% bonus and others with a 30% bonus.  A Silver member got a 40% bonus, but there may be additional offers out there too.  We don’t have any Gold members here so we can’t tell you what they get.

Here’s a couple of examples to show what you’d get with your bonus:

If you are offered the 20% bonus:

Buy 10,000 miles for £150, get an additional 2,000 mile bonus (12,000 miles in total)
Buy 50,000 miles for £750, get an additional 10,000 mile bonus (60,000 miles in total)

If you are offered the 40% bonus:

Buy 10,000 miles for £150, get an additional 4,000 mile bonus (14,000 miles in total)
Buy 50,000 miles for £750, get an additional 20,000 mile bonus (70,000 miles in total)

Does the bonus increase if I buy more miles?

In the past, some of Virgin’s Buy Miles promotions have had a sliding scale for the bonus, so the more miles you purchase, the higher the bonus.

However, with this promotion the bonus is the same regardless of if you buy 2,000 miles or 100,000 miles.  You do have to purchase a minimum of 2,000 miles to qualify for the bonus.

How many miles can I buy with the bonus?

You can buy a maximum of 100,000 miles plus whatever bonus you are offered.

Virgin Atlantic has reset your annual purchase limit.  Even if you bought miles between January and September, your annual cap has been reset to zero and you can buy an additional 100,000 miles – plus bonus – via this deal.

According to the terms and conditions of the offer, the miles will be credited to your account straight after purchase.

What is the cost per Virgin Flying Club mile?

Of course, it all depends on your mystery bonus. Using the 20% and 40% offers we know are out there:

20% Bonus – 1.25p per mile
40% Bonus – 1.07p per mile

At 1.07p you should do OK – you’ll struggle to lose money at this price if you redeem for a premium cabin flight.  1.25p is getting a little high, and I wouldn’t necessarily buy miles speculatively at this price.  Of course, if you have a firm plan for spending them where you know you will get better than 1.25p per mile then it is a different story.

If you are just topping off your account with the final few miles before you make a redemption, the exact price per mile doesn’t make a lot of difference anyway – but you can buy in the confidence that you paid less than you otherwise would.

How do I find this offer?

If you’d like to buy some additional Flying Club miles, this offer ends on 13th November 2019.

The link to the Mystery Buy Miles Bonus can be found 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:

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.)