Earn 700 Virgin Flying Club miles for £3

Reader Rich dropped me a line with details of an interesting Virgin Atlantic offer via their Shops Away online shopping mall.

Online hotel booking site booking.com is currently offering 700 Virgin Flying Club miles for any hotel booking made their site if you click through from Shops Away.

Anyone who collects Flying Club miles should be able to get £7+ of value out of 700 miles.  This means that it is a pretty good return on booking, say, a £100 hotel room.

It is, of course, an even better deal if you book a £3 hotel room.

The strength of booking.com is that, unlike Expedia, it has a lot of relationships with hotels at the bottom end of the value chain.  If you search for a city in, say, India and rank the hotels by price, you should find something at £3.

A B&B I found, which I won’t name because it is unfair to focus lots of ‘dead’ bookings at the same property, is only £3 for example.

I have made a £3 booking in India and I will report back when I get my miles.  The transaction is showing as ‘Pending’ with 700 miles due.  Rich has already received his so it does seem to work OK.

The link to the Shops Away online mall on the Virgin Atlantic website is here.  You need to search for booking.com once you have clicked through and logged in.

PS.  Some readers have shared their concerns, in the comments below, that this is not necessarily in the best interests of the hotel involved.  You need to decide – are you are helping the B&B by booking a room which would otherwise remain empty?  Or are you hurting the B&B by depriving them of selling the room to someone else who would actually turn up and spend additional money of food, tours etc (but would then want a breakfast and their room cleaning)?  I am personally OK with this one or I would not have run it but you should make your own decision.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend 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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points.