Information to Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership: Earn and redeem factors for optimum worth

Years after diving into the factors and miles world, chances are you’ll not notice {that a} loyalty program you had neglected may have been certainly one of your strongest instruments.

I did not look carefully at Virgin Atlantic‘s loyalty program for a very long time as a result of I did not instantly see it taking part in into my travel rewards strategy, however Virgin Atlantic affords one thing engaging: enticing associate award charts, a rarity amongst different airline applications these days.

Regardless of adjustments to Virgin Atlantic’s partner award charts, Virgin factors at the moment stand out for providing unbelievable worth with many makes use of.

Let’s go over the fundamentals of Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership and present you the candy spots that make Virgin factors so priceless.

How one can earn Virgin factors

There are 4 main methods to earn Virgin factors instantly.

Flying

You’ll be able to actually nonetheless earn factors the old style manner by flying.

When you’re flying on Virgin Atlantic, you should utilize the airline’s earning calculator to find out what number of factors you will earn on your flight. When you’re flying one of the carrier’s partners, corresponding to Delta Air Strains, Air France or Hawaiian Airways, you’ll be able to choose to earn Virgin factors by including your Flying Membership membership quantity to your reservation. Virgin Atlantic is now a member of the SkyTeam alliance.

You’ll be able to examine your working service and fare class on Where to Credit for the most suitable choice on your flight.

Bank card rewards

You’ll be able to earn Virgin Factors instantly by means of the Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard®.

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The data for the Virgin Atlantic Mastercard has been collected independently by The Factors Man. The cardboard particulars on this web page haven’t been reviewed or supplied by the cardboard issuer.

Nonetheless, it is easy to spice up your Virgin factors steadiness with the suitable bank card, as Flying Membership is a switch associate of each main transferable point currency, together with:

Among the above applications provide common transfer bonuses to Flying Club, that means you may want even fewer factors than you first thought.

Many of those applications provide playing cards that characteristic terrific welcome bonuses. Here is only a pattern of the travel rewards credit cards that earn these transferable factors that may be transformed to Virgin factors:

Factors Booster

When you’ve flown a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight — whether or not you paid money or factors for it — you should utilize Flying Club’s Points Booster to attain further factors for reasonable. You’ll be able to often pay 0.01 British kilos (or $0.013) per level, however this system periodically affords bonus promotions.

You’ll be able to even use the Factors Booster for flights you will have already taken as much as six months again.

Different incomes companions

There are a number of companions by means of which you’ll earn Virgin factors by buying or touring:

• Car rental partners: Virgin Atlantic companions with Avis, Alamo, Enterprise, Hertz, Nationwide and Sixt to let members earn Virgin factors.
• Heathrow Rewards: You’ll be able to earn factors for buying or parking at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) and switch them to Flying Membership.
• Rocketmiles: You’ll be able to earn between 500 and 10,000 Virgin factors per evening for reserving motels by means of Rocketmiles.
• Shops Away: Earn Virgin factors by making purchases at over 1,000 retailers by means of Virgin Atlantic’s buying portal.
• The Virgin Group: From Virgin Accommodations to luxurious Virgin properties, you’ll be able to earn Virgin factors by means of a number of Virgin Group companions.

Associated: The beginners guide to airline shopping portals

Virgin Atlantic award chart

The award costs Virgin Atlantic fees are cheap. Listed here are the round-trip costs you’ll be able to anticipate throughout the usual (i.e., off-peak) season.

If you wish to stretch your factors additional, contemplate reserving journey throughout the next (off-peak) commonplace season dates:

Normal season dates	Caribbean and Indian Ocean commonplace season dates
Jan. 4 to March 21, 2024	March 4 to 21, 2024
April 16 to June 15, 2024	April 19 to Could 26, 2024
Sept. 5 to Oct. 24, 2024	June 3 to July 19, 2024
Nov. 6 to Dec. 6, 2024	Sept. 3 to Oct. 24, 2024
	Nov. 6 to Dec. 6, 2024

Spherical-trip costs improve through the peak season.

Here is the whole record of peak journey dates to concentrate on:

Peak season dates	Caribbean and Indian Ocean peak season dates
Jan. 1 to three, 2024	Jan. 1 to March 3, 2024
March 22 to April 15, 2024	March 22 to April 15, 2024
June 16 to Sept. 2, 2024	Could 27 to June 2, 2024
Oct. 25 to Nov. 5, 2024	July 20 to Sept. 2, 2024
Dec. 7, 2024, to Jan. 5, 2025	Oct. 25 to Nov. 5, 2024
	Dec. 7, 2024, to March 2, 2025

The worth chances are you’ll save by spending comparatively few factors (i.e., 20,000 round-trip itineraries between the East Coast and the UK) you’ll lose on the outrageous service surcharges Virgin Atlantic tacks onto award flights. Spherical-trip flights between the U.S. and the U.Ok. often price $450 for financial system flights. In the meantime, Upper Class seats (Virgin Atlantic’s enterprise class) may have effectively over $2,000 in charges spherical journey.

Associated: How to avoid fuel surcharges on award travel

Virgin recurrently reductions the variety of factors required for Virgin-operated flights by 20% to 50% throughout its Promo Awards offers, although, sadly, the charges, taxes and service surcharges will not be discounted.

There are many events the place chances are you’ll discover paid tickets for lower than these gas surcharges, particularly when you aren’t fussy concerning the working service. Your factors will not prevent cash in these eventualities. Even nonstop money fares in Virgin Atlantic Higher Class are available for below $3,000 spherical journey, so all the time examine tickets earlier than committing to these excessive surcharges.

Reserving one-way award flights as an alternative of spherical journeys will usually cut back the taxes and costs on award flights, doubtlessly by a whole lot of {dollars}. You may additionally profit from reserving Virgin Atlantic flights to London however not from London. Charges are typically increased for flights departing London because of government-imposed surcharges, so when you’ve received one other award foreign money you should utilize on your return flight, go along with that.

Associated: Save money on Virgin Atlantic award tickets by booking one-way flights

Flying Membership airline companions

The actual magic of Virgin factors lies in associate award charts thanks to just about two dozen further airways to e-book together with your rewards.

Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam alliance earlier this 12 months. With the present exceptions of China Japanese (coming later in 2024, in response to Virgin Atlantic), now you can redeem Virgin factors on all SkyTeam airways, including recently added ITA Airways.

Redemptions on SkyTeam airways are distance-based. Excluding flights operated by Air France-KLM and Delta Air Strains, you will have the next Virgin factors every manner per individual on all dates (no peak/off-peak pricing):

You’ll be able to solely redeem Air France-KLM, Delta Air Strains, China Airways, Korean Air, Center East Airways, ITA Airways and Xiamen Air on-line.

Virgin makes use of three completely different Delta award charts on its web site:

• U.S. to U.Ok. nonstop flights (observe availability in premium cabins could be very uncommon)
• U.S. to Europe (excluding the U.Ok.) nonstop flights (observe availability in premium cabins could be very uncommon)
• All different Delta award flights

Whereas there are some sharp will increase for redemption costs in 2024, Flying Membership will nonetheless cost fewer factors than Delta’s SkyMiles program might cost for a similar flights because of SkyMiles’ dynamic pricing. Due to this fact, it’s price checking the costs of each applications the place you will have transferable bank card factors, as there’s nonetheless worth available.

Associate redemption charts don’t embody top notch. This implies you’ll be able to’t redeem your Virgin factors for SkyTeam airways that provide top notch, together with Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air, Saudia and Xiamen.

Air France additionally affords top notch however restricts redemptions to elite members of its personal Flying Blue program.

Along with the 16 SkyTeam airways you’ll be able to redeem your Virgin factors with, you can too e-book award flights with the next airways utilizing Virgin factors:

It’s also possible to earn Virgin factors — however not redeem them — with companions Scandinavian Airways, IndiGo and LATAM.

Every non-SkyTeam associate has a distinct award chart. Some are distance-based, and others are zone-based, so every airline can have completely different phrases and circumstances. You have to name Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500 to e-book award tickets for carriers that don’t seem on-line.

Nonetheless, you’ll be able to nonetheless seek for availability on different web sites. For instance, the United Airways web site is superb for locating out there seats on Star Alliance carriers. As soon as you discover what you need, observe the journey dates and flight numbers. Then, name Virgin Atlantic and feed that data to the customer support consultant.

Associated: How to book Delta award flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

Finest makes use of of Virgin factors

With 23 completely different airline companions, these are one of the best methods to make use of your Virgin factors.

SkyTeam airways

If you wish to fly from North America to Europe, strive discovering Air France-KLM availability. It is because you will have fewer Virgin factors than different SkyTeam airways require.

SkyTeam is powerful in Asia, with members like Korean Air, China Airways, Vietnam Airways and Xiamen Air flying nonstop between the U.S. and Asia. You’ll be able to fly from the West Coast to Korea with Korean Air in enterprise class for 85,000 Virgin factors every manner, plus charges, taxes and surcharges. It is a respectable redemption, although see beneath for the unbelievable ANA candy spot to Japan.

Bear in mind, Virgin fees per phase, not per journey, so in case you are connecting on, say, China Airways from New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) by means of to Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) in Bangkok by way of Taiwan Taoyuan Worldwide Airport (TPE) in Taipei, you’ll be charged a whopping 160,000 factors every manner in enterprise class, which isn’t an amazing redemption.

So, when redeeming on SkyTeam airways, intention for direct flights and decrease connections to save lots of factors.

All Nippon Airways

Virgin Atlantic’s unbelievable redemption charges for ANA-operated flights ought to all the time be thought of if you wish to get between the U.S. and Japan. This route is without doubt one of the finest award journey candy spots and sure the one finest use of Virgin factors — even with this year’s devaluation of first-class pricing.

Associated: The new gold standard: Review of The Room, ANA’s new business class on the Boeing 777-300ER

Check out Virgin Atlantic’s award chart for ANA flights. These costs are for round-trip journey. Open-jaw bookings are allowed, so you’ll be able to examine award availability on different routes in case your most well-liked route is not out there. It is also price noting that you could e-book one-way awards for half the round-trip ticket price.

When you have been to e-book a round-trip, first-class seat to Japan in certainly one of ANA’s fancy suite seats, you’d spend simply 170,000 factors for a seat costing $20,000 or extra. Enterprise class can also be a wonderful deal at simply 95,000 factors.

It is also price noting that round-trip award flights are extremely low-cost for infants below 2 years previous who do not want a seat of their very own:

• Economic system seats price 2,000 factors.
• Enterprise-class seats price 10,000 factors.
• First-class seats price 14,000 factors.

Air France-KLM

Virgin Atlantic has a number of award charts for each KLM and Air France. You’ll be able to visit this page to see all of them. It divides the world into 10 zones and calculates your award value primarily based in your origin and vacation spot zones. Listed here are some highlights from the U.S.:

• One-way financial system flight to Europe from the West Coast for 15,000 factors
• One-way financial system flight to the Center East from the East Coast for 25,000 factors
• One-way business-class flight to Europe from the East Coast for 48,500 factors
• One-way business-class flight from the East Coast to North Africa for 66,500 factors

You may usually incur gas surcharges on your flights, however they are not almost as excessive as for Virgin Atlantic awards. In my expertise, surcharges are slightly below $300 for a one-way business-class ticket from the U.S. to Europe, making Air France-KLM a less expensive possibility for business-class redemptions to Europe.

Virgin Australia

The Virgin Atlantic award chart for Virgin Australia flights is usually distance-based, that means it might be a superb worth for brief and costly intra-Australia flights, as flights begin from simply 8,000 Virgin factors every manner.

This present award chart signifies that you could now solely e-book financial system seats. Nonetheless, it does value toddler rewards at 2,000 factors in financial system and 10,000 factors in enterprise class. You’ll have to succeed in out to Virgin Atlantic when reserving your flight to be taught the business-class value of your route.

Much less priceless Flying Membership companions

Whereas having an extended record of incomes and redemption companions is nice, some key companions do not present a lot redemption worth for Flying Membership members.

• Air New Zealand: Releases just about no award house to companions like Virgin Atlantic.
• Delta Air Strains: Sometimes solely releases economy-class house to Virgin Atlantic.
• Singapore Airways: Solely permits a restricted variety of routes to redeem Virgin factors on, and you may solely redeem in financial system.
• Hawaiian Airways: Requires charges much like Hawaiian Airways and JetBlue, so there’s little motive to e-book with Virgin factors.

If you end up with a whole lot of 1000’s (or thousands and thousands) of Virgin factors, you’ll be able to trade them in for a unprecedented stage of luxurious — or altitude:

• Virgin Voyages: Look ahead to occasional discounted cruises the place you’ll be able to sail as much as 12 nights for as little as 80,000 Virgin factors.
• Necker Island: Keep at Richard Branson’s non-public island residence for 4 nights for 540,000 Virgin factors, plus $5,400.
• Mont Rochelle: Keep at Branson’s Cape City vineyard for 3 nights for between 120,000 and 200,000 Virgin factors.
• Kasbah Tamadot: Spend three nights in Branson’s Atlas Mountain retreat in Morocco for between 240,000 and 280,000 Virgin factors.
• The Lodge: Keep three nights in a single bed room of Branson’s nine-bedroom Swiss Alpine resort for 380,000 Virgin factors.
• Mahali Mzuri: Spend three nights in a luxurious tent at a Kenyan safari camp for 600,000 Virgin factors or 5 nights for 950,000 Virgin factors.
• Ulusaba Non-public Recreation Reserve: Use 600,000 Virgin factors for a three-night keep for 2 folks in a Safari Lodge room or 950,000 Virgin factors for a five-night keep for 2 folks in a Safari Lodge room.

Or, you’ll be able to enter a raffle for an opportunity to fly in house on Virgin Galactic for a cool 2,000,000 Virgin factors — however all of these factors will need to have been earned from Virgin Atlantic flights.

Now that you understand why it’s best to care about Virgin factors, let’s present you how you can redeem them for award flights. You’ll be able to simply seek for seats on Virgin Atlantic’s homepage. Simply click on “Superior Search” and choose the “Factors” possibility.

You may then be proven availability on the date you chose and three days on both aspect.

The place there’s a couple of flight out there in your chosen day, you’ll be able to select the schedule and service that fits your wants after which proceed to e-book on-line, paying charges, taxes and surcharges concurrently.

There’s additionally a helpful Reward seat availability checker by month for Virgin Atlantic- and Delta-operated flights.

Concerning associate award searches, the Virgin Atlantic web site can fall brief. Virgin Atlantic solely permits you to search award flights to or from airports loaded into its system — and lots of of its companions aren’t bookable on-line.

If you cannot discover what you are searching for, head to a different web site that does present availability for that airline. For instance, the United Airways web site reveals Singapore Airways and ANA flights. As soon as you discover what you are after, copy the flight data and journey date and name Virgin Atlantic to e-book.

The small print

Vacationers can change their journey date, routing and/or class of service earlier than journey for a service payment of simply $50 (plus mileage distinction, if relevant) for flights originating within the U.S.

You’ll be able to cancel your ticket and obtain all of your factors again for a cancellation payment of $50 for flights originating within the U.S. so long as you cancel at the very least 24 hours earlier than departure. When you’re inside 24 hours, factors grow to be nonrefundable.

Flying Membership costs one-way awards at half of the award chart value for many companions. This includes ANA flights, which used to require round-trip bookings.

If you cannot discover award availability each methods on the route you need, you’ll be able to e-book an open-jaw award — which implies you are flying into or out of a distinct airport in your return leg. There is not any penalty for doing this, and the mileage costs out as half of the round-trip price for every of the 2 legs booked.