BIG BONUS: Get up to 60% extra when you buy Virgin Points

Virgin Flying Club has launched another big bonus if you buy Virgin Points – see here.

The maximum bonus is 60%. If you are a Gold member of Virgin Flying Club, you get 70%.

To put this in perspective, before 2020 Virgin Atlantic had never even run a 50% bonus. 15% to 30% was the best you could expect.

The link to buy points is here.

The closing date for the bonus is 21st December.  The bonus is staggered:

• 15% bonus when you buy 5,000 – 24,000 points
• 20% bonus when you buy 25,000 – 69,000 points
• 40% bonus when you buy 70,000 – 119,000 points
• 60% bonus when you buy 120,000 – 200,000 points

At the top end, 200,000 Virgin Points, which comes to 320,000 points with the bonus, will cost you £3,000.  This works out at 0.94p each. If you are Gold with a 70% bonus, you are paying 0.88p.

0.94p is certainly cheap for a direct miles purchase. Most Virgin Atlantic commercial partners will be paying the airline more than 0.94p for their miles.

What sort of deals can you get with 0.94p miles?

The issue with Virgin Points is that there are virtually no short haul opportunities to spend them. The best deals are long haul Business Class flights across the Virgin Atlantic network and of course the route network is limited.

You can see the Virgin Atlantic reward chart on this page of their website.

Unsurprisingly, the numbers are not dissimilar to the Avios chart and you will find that taxes and charges are also very similar.

You want to looking at premum cabin redemptions to get full value if you are buying points.

There are great deals with partners

There is real value to be had with Virgin Atlantic’s airline partners too:

• The fact that you can now book Air France and KLM flights with Virgin Points is HUGE. Suddenly, parts of the world which were not available to you because of the limited Virgin Atlantic network are bookable. Our recent in-depth look at redeeming Virgin Points on Air France and KLM is here.

• ANA remains, by far, the best value partner redemption. This article explains how to book ANA’s amazing business class seat to Tokyo for just 95,000 Virgin Points return, or for 120,000 points in First Class.

• There is astonishing value in Delta redemptions from the US to Continental Europe, because the one way taxes are just £4 as we explain here

Don’t forget the 2-4-1 voucher with the Virgin Atlantic credit cards

If you do choose to buy points, remember that you will also receive 15,000 Virgin Points as a sign-up bonus with the £160 Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card. 

Our full review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card is here. The review also gives you an overview of how the 2-4-1 voucher issued by the Virgin credit cards works. Unles the BA Amex credit card, the annual voucher with the Virgin Atlantic credit cards can also be used to upgrade flights which makes it useful for the solo traveller.

Buying points for 0.94p and redeeming them with a Virgin Atlantic 2-4-1 or upgrade voucher should offer good value.

The link to buy Virgin Points is here. The offers runs to 21st December.