See Elton John in Manchester with your Virgin Points

One of the most interesting elements about the new Virgin Red loyalty programme is its suite at the AO Arena in Manchester.

Our introductory article on Virgin Red is here if you are not already a member. You can register here.

In the same way that Marriott Bonvoy has a suite at the O2 Arena in Greenwich, Virgin Red will allow you to see top acts from the comfort of their private suite at the AO Arena.

Tickets have now appeared for Elton John’s farewell tour, on Saturday 30th October.

(EDIT: Virgin has now confirmed that the date is the 30th and that the date originally showing in the app – 31st – was wrong.)

The cost is 70,000 Virgin Points. This is for TWO tickets for the Virgin Red suite. A car parking pass is also included.

70,000 points isn’t cheap, clearly. Based on my 1p valuation of a Virgin Point, you are ‘paying’ £700.

However, I am also realistic:

• lots of people are sitting on Virgin Points with little chance of a flight redemption in the short term

• if you obtained your points from business travel in the first place, you didn’t pay for them and may be less worried about value

• you could earn priceless brownie points for yourself by giving a loved one your second ticket for the Elton John concert

If you have not already downloaded Virgin Red, you will need to do so – registering using the same email as your Flying Club account – and then link it to your airline account via the options in the app.

To order tickets, open the Virgin Red app and scroll down the ‘spend’ page. You should see the image above.

If it isn’t there, the tickets will have gone. It is only a small suite and there are lots of HfP readers out there ……

If you do miss out, I would expect Marriott Bonvoy to have tickets for the concerts at the O2 at some point. Marriott Bonvoy give you free food and drink – Virgin Red expects you to pay ……

You can register for Virgin Red, if you are not already a member, via this page.

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.)