Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Say goodbye to Virgin Atlantic’s 747s with dinner, champagne and aircraft tour for £50

Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission.  See here for all partner links.

Virgin Atlantic is putting on an exclusive farewell retirement event for its Boeing 747 fleet at Heathrow next Saturday.

With 747s disappearing from the skies, this could be your last opportunity to explore the aircraft. It includes areas not normally open to the public, including crew rest areas and the cargo hold under the passenger deck.

Virgin Atlantic 747

The experience also includes a champagne reception in the upper deck ‘bubble’ of the 747 as well as a three course meal in the comfort of your own Upper Class seat.

(For clarity, the aircraft is not flying anywhere – this is a hangar event!)

Tickets are £50 which is, frankly, unbelievably cheap, given you would struggle to get a champagne three course dinner in a West London pub for that price!

The event will be held on Saturday 12th December with several different time slots available. There are 50 tickets available in total at £50 each.

Tickets will be on sale from 9am on Monday 7th December from this Eventbrite page.

Due to Covid restrictions and social distancing measures there are only 50 tickets available in total, for several different slots during the day.

All proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Trussel Trust, which supports a network of food banks.

What’s included?

The experience is a three hour event at Heathrow and includes:

  • Champagne reception on the 747 upper deck
  • Three course a la carte meal in Upper Class
  • Full aircraft tour, including cockpit, crew rest areas, cargo hold etc
  • Opportunity to speak to Virgin Atlantic pilots, cabin crew and engineers including Yvonne Kershaw, the first female pilot to Captain the Boeing 747
  • Opportunity to get your photo taken sitting inside one of the jet engines!

For anyone who doesn’t get tickets, Rob and I will be attending a press event on Friday and are hoping to live-blog the event on our Instagram page. We will update you closer to the time when that will be happening!

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

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. 

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (80)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Titus Adduxas says:
    5 Dec5 December 08:47

    You’ve surely missed a 0 off the price. A 3 hour, really interesting experience with champagne and food costing £500 would still sell out in no time and actually make a meaningful contribution to the charity!
    This is surely just going to make hundreds if not thousands of people really disappointed when they can’t grab a slot which will all be gone in a minute or two!

  • colin reynolds says:
    5 Dec5 December 11:48

    Really hope I get a ticket, never ever been on a 747

  • Andrea says:
    5 Dec5 December 13:43

    Taj Gold card: if you are travelling in India, it is worth requesting the card. The service in Taj hotels is – based on my experience of more than 20 (often lenghty) trips to India – very good but the card does offer that bit extra. The Taj West End in Bangalore (my favourite because it is so small) gives you access to the Leopard Lounge which offered aperitifs and canapes. Arriving on the early morning flight (before the b/fast service starts), I was always asked whether I wanted something to eat. They even remembered my favourite tea between stays. When I stayed in a ‘Vivanta by Taj (they have sprung up near business parks) when I couldn’t face a long drive to a customer every morning have always offered me an upgrade, fruit, so many pieces of free laundry.

  • Renaud says:
    5 Dec5 December 13:50

    I’m sorry to be that guy, but I think someone had to say it :

    Lunch with strangers (obviously without masks), in a confined space with (presumably) doors closed and air filtering system off, with only the near-useless security theatre that is “social distancing” (because the virus is airborne. Latest South Korean study this week demonstrated transmission 20ft apart in a restaurant in only 5 minutes..)
    What could possibly go wrong here?

    Actually, not sorry to be that guy : stay safe, people. Help may be on the way and here soon, the law might be more optimistic than the science, but in reality it’s not over till it’s over.

  • Sheena Stuart-Yildirim says:
    5 Dec5 December 17:45

    this feels like a kick in the teeth in that we had the 747’s here at Manchester but the event is held in London where we are not supposed to travel too. Why can’t they do the event in Manchester as well and more of them

    • 1ATL says:
      7 Dec7 December 01:31

      Because the plane is at Heathrow having been bought back from storage before going on to its new owners Atlas Air.
      Virgin have their own hanger space at Heathrow. They don’t have their own facilities at Manchester. Realistically this probably has more to do with it than being some sensationalist North/South arguement.

  • mutley says:
    6 Dec6 December 15:35

    We were lucky enough to get invited to the flight deck of a Virgin 747 on arrival at Barbados two years ago, we spent 15 minutes there, whilst the crew answered my 9 and 11 year olds questions, and they also had their picture taken with the pilots.

    Best place to get picture taken in an engine is probably the BA Waterside museum if its still open.

  • Gary Arnold says:
    7 Dec7 December 09:01

    Gone in 30 seconds!

    • EmmaB says:
      7 Dec7 December 09:03

      Yep, that was ridiculous! Though given there was a password-protected page up first I wonder how many were even left for general sale.

      • jc says:
        7 Dec7 December 09:05

        Password is often just used as a way to keep everyone out until a set time on Eventbrite. Doesn’t necessarily mean anyone was given a password

    • Rhys says:
      7 Dec7 December 09:04

      Not surprising!

    • Rob says:
      7 Dec7 December 09:05

      Unsurprising. We had 2,500 clicks from the HFP link testing out the Eventbrite page on Fri and Sat.

    • jc says:
      7 Dec7 December 09:06

      Less than 30 seconds, I was through all the screens about 4 seconds after it opened and it was too late.

  • Matthew says:
    7 Dec7 December 09:03

    Had a ticket in my basket too and the app spat me out!!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

New to Head for Points?

Welcome!  We’re the UK’s most-read source of business travel, Avios, frequent flyer and hotel loyalty news. Let us improve how you travel. Got any questions? Ask them in our forums.

Get 25,000 Avios with the Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

GET A SIGN-UP BONUS OF 18,000 VIRGIN POINTS!

Latest Forum Posts

Get 80,000 bonus points (worth 80,000 Avios) and £400 of dining credit with The Platinum Card (Offer ends 27th May)

Check reward flight availability instantly for free!

See a whole year of reward seat availability on one page at SeatSpy.com

Get up to 10,000 bonus Hilton Honors points

Booking a luxury hotel?

Our luxury hotel booking service offers you GUARANTEED extra benefits over booking direct. Works with Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, The Ritz Carlton, St Regis and more. We've booked £1.7 million of rooms to date. Click for details.

SME? GET THE ONLY FREE SMALL BUSINESS CREDIT CARD WHICH CAN EARN AVIOS

Get points worth 30,000 Avios with 'first year free' American Express Gold (ends 27th May)

The UK's biggest frequent flyer website uses cookies, which you can block via your browser settings. Continuing implies your consent to this policy. Our privacy policy is here.

Got it!