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Save 33% on (almost) all reward flights in Virgin Atlantic’s Black Friday reward seat sale

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Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red have teamed up to offer a 33% discount on ALL Virgin Atlantic destinations when you travel before 30th September 2024.

Premium and Upper Class flights are included.

‘2 for 1’ bookings made using a Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher are included.

It appears, based on feedback, that upgrades are not included.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

Taxes and fees are unchanged and remain high, with an Upper Class redemption to New York pricing at around 63,300 Virgin Points + £996 off-peak. The 33% reduction in points from the usual 95,000 does take the edge off.

You need to book by midnight on Monday 27th November, departing before 30th September 2024. If your return flight is after 30th September 2024, the discount will only apply to your outbound flight.

The offer does not apply to the ‘we will open up any seat, any flight for double points for Gold members’ benefit.

Where can you go?

To give Virgin Atlantic credit, this sale includes all routes, all classes and (virtually) all dates. The only flights you can’t book are for those few days in October 2024 which are currently available.

The list of current routes (we think) is in the pricing chart below. These are all from Heathrow.

From Manchester you have:

  • New York
  • Atlanta
  • Orlando
  • Barbados (seasonal)
  • Las Vegas (launching in 2024)

There is also Edinburgh to Orlando which operates in Summer-only.

Virgin Atlantic now guarantees that 12 seats are opened to redemption on every flight – two in Upper Class, two in Premium and eight in Economy Classic. Obviously some of these may already have gone, as some of these flights have been on sale for almost a year.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

What do Virgin Atlantic redemptions cost?

Here is the current pricing chart, EXCLUDING the 33% discount:

Return pricesStandard economyStandard PremiumStandard Upper ClassPeak economyPeak PremiumPeak Upper Class
Antigua20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Atlanta25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
Austin30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Barbados20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Bengaluru20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
Boston20,00035,00095,00040,00055,000115,000
Cape Town25,00050,000115,00045,00085,000135,000
Delhi20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
Dubai20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
Grenada20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Jamaica20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Johannesburg25,00050,000115,00045,00085,000135,000
Lagos25,00045,000115,00045,00065,000135,000
Las Vegas30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Los Angeles30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Maldives (Male)25,00050,000115,00045,00085,000135,000
Miami25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
Mumbai20,00035,00075,00040,00055,00095,000
New York20,00035,00095,00040,00055,000115,000
Orlando25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
San Francisco30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Seattle30,00055,000135,00050,00075,000155,000
Shanghai25,00045,000115,00045,00065,000135,000
St Lucia20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
St Vincent20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Tampa25,00045,00095,00045,00065,000115,000
Tel Aviv18,00032,00056,00022,00040,00066,000
The Bahamas20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Tobago20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Turks & Caicos20,00035,000115,00040,00055,000135,000
Washington DC20,00035,00095,00040,00055,000115,000

Sao Paulo is not on this list as it was recently cancelled.

You can find peak and off-peak dates on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Virgin Atlantic redemptions now earn tier points

Don’t forget that, unlike almost any other airline, redemptions on Virgin Atlantic earn you tier points.

On redemption flights, you will usually earn the following:

  • Economy: 25 tier points each way
  • Premium: 50 tier points each way
  • Upper Class: 100 tier points each way

You don’t earn Virgin Points on reward tickets, for obvious reasons!

You can learn about tier points on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

What can you expect flying Virgin Atlantic?

Virgin Atlantic now flies three different Upper Class seats. We have reviewed them all:

In addition to the usual amenities you’d expect form a business class flight, Virgin Atlantic aircraft also feature a bar or social space for Upper Class passengers – a unique feature that only the Middle Eastern airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways usually offer.

You’ll also get access to the impressive Virgin Clubhouse at Heathrow, which we’ve reviewed here.

You can read our review of Premium on Virgin Atlantic here.

Get 30% off Virgin Atlantic redemptions in ALL CLASSES

Conclusion

Virgin Atlantic has launched a major reward flight sale. What’s important is that ALL routes and ALL classes are included.

Economy redemptions ticketing into Economy Classic with 23kg checked baggage allowance.

Whilst you can’t get a 33% refund on an existing booking, if you called up and paid the £30 change fee to move your outbound or inbound flight the whole trip should reprice at the lower rate. You could also cancel completely and rebook if seats are available. Be wary of doing this if you booked a long time ago when taxes are lower, as you would be liable for the current rate.

You need to book by Monday 27th November, for flights departing before 30th September 2024.

The savings should be live on the Virgin Atlantic website here – although we wrote this last night so we are trusting Virgin Atlantic to have done it. Just enter your destination and dates. To find reward flights, simply click ‘Advanced’ and select ‘Points’.


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.

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.

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

Comments (94)

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

  • Andrew Hague says:

    Virgin have just told me that changing the date of a booking will NOT get the discount on points as the booking reference will stay the same , and as the article says, you can’t get the discount on existing bookings

  • Erico1875 says:

    What would the tax and fees be for say Bengaluru or Mumbai in Economy and Premium?

    • Mike says:

      A dummy booking takes 30 seconds.

    • Travel Strong says:

      Given the sky high USA fees, this would actually be a great addition to the table.
      Personally, I’ll probably run quotes later for every non-USA destination to find out what the fees are, and determine the value.
      I’ll post any results here if I have time – but adding to the table would actually be quite useful.

      • meta says:

        Taxes and surcharges fluctuate daily/seasonally so you do need to check on your own.

    • lumma says:

      India is around £250 in eco, £500 in premium

      • Erico1875 says:

        Thanks

        • BJ says:

          And if any kind generous soul would like to spare me 90s of my life I’d be grateful if they could let me know the cost of a founle entry tourist visa for India?

          • BJ says:

            No need, just found it, much cheaper than expected at around $28 if I got my research right.

  • Azzam says:

    Is this valid for partner bookings???

  • Venturelog says:

    Is this only for flights departing UK? I’ve tried a dummy booking and discount doesn’t seem to apply but not sure if it’s because it’s not live. This is via the app.

  • Ben says:

    Just tried to upgrade my flight using points but told the offer wasn’t available for upgrades

  • Chris W says:

    With these promotions, I can’t decide whether Virgin Points are really valuable, or really worthless.
    You need very few points with these discounts (6,666 to New York!) Which suggests they are very valuable but the absurd surcharges on all Virgin redemptions in all classes suggest they are actually hard to use because you would avoid redeeming them where you have to pay the surcharges so they are not valuable.

    When I think of a virgin flight redemption I think more of the cost of the surcharges than the cost of the points

    • Rob says:

      Most of these discussions seem to be based on some little fairly land where you can buy New York return flights for £199 in cash, or £1299 in Business. Those days are gone, at least for another 12 months, out of London.

      (I accept that Aer Lingus is doing NY in Business for under £1000 out of Rome.)

      If you did the maths on a Virgin return to NY for next Summer under this offer I suspect you’d be getting 1.5p+ per point. A random weekend in June I looked at was £493 each in Economy Classic (ie with a checked bag). A reward is £280 of taxes / charges plus 13,400 points and can be cancelled.

      • Niall says:

        And Finnair, Helsinki to Chicago < €1300

      • robkeane says:

        I’d say there is a lot of discussion based on people taking out the virgin credit card and doing the spend to get 2-for-1 etc on the basis they’ll be able to do business class perhaps for the first time, and only pay a bit of cash to pay some taxes and fees….and then find out perhaps 2 years later when they have a good stash of points that it costs £2K to use the points. No one in their right mind coming to points collecting fresh will reasonably assume the taxes and fees are going to be a 4 digit figure for a couple, until they go to use the points. I imagine there is a large swath of credit cards where the points are never actually used for this reason, which is a nice earner for virgin given the fees for the premium card.

      • BJ says:

        I think I saw SAS UK-NYC in business for £1245. Even so, I think we have to compare to contemporary norms not headline deals that are often not so straightforward as they seem. Plus reward flights are flexible which is often ignored in such comparisons. Still, Fairytale of New York is seasonal 🙂

    • lumma says:

      The problem with Virgin points Vs Avios is that it’s hard to get value from low amounts so you almost have to be saving for something aspirational or accept 0.5p per point for something not flight based.

      Just a couple of thousand Avios can get you a last minute one way short haul, which could actually save you hundreds (even air France/KLM on virgin points don’t seem to have last minute tickets like BA).

      In around a decade of collecting both I’ve only ever made one redemption via virgin for ANA business class. Compared to well over 100 Avios seats

      • Rob says:

        Can’t argue with that.

      • BJ says:

        I mostly redeem miles longhaul J so not an issue. Problem for me is lack of domestic connectivity. This incurs extra costs, risks and uncertainty unless I’m prepare to boojend a Virgin award with two short breaks in London. Doing one of those is easy but two a bit tiresome, especially if heading somewhere hot during British winter..

        • lumma says:

          Unless the domestic is from Belfast, why can’t you get the train to or from London?

          • Alan says:

            @lumma – possible but a right PITA (esp if with luggage) having to get from LHR to train and vv and same issue of not having a protected connection so having to pad trip at either end. Plus 4-5h train either end quite a hassle before/after a long flight.

        • Alan says:

          Agree, really frustrating to have to leave so much of a gap in London to ensure no missed connection, wish they’d bring back Little Red or at least offer interlining on rewards!

  • LittleNick says:

    Booking a reward on Virgin to New York seems a little crazy when business return fares can be had for £/€1000 if prepared to depart from Paris/Rome/AMS etc, you’re then paying +63.3k points for the privilege of departing from London which for some of course is about convenience

    • Boon says:

      Why would you not compare apples to apples (ie ex-LON)?

      Is getting to a European airport not additional cost and time?

      This is like saying that it’s not worth having an Italian meal in London because it will cheaper and better going to Rome to eat it.

    • Chris W says:

      You’re paying the 63k points for the time and cost saving of flying direct

      • lumma says:

        Yeah, unless you can specifically make a two city holiday work, why would you pay over a grand for the inconvenience of a three stop trip to somewhere like New York. 7 hours sitting in economy Vs doubling your travel time with two flights in a short haul seat anyway

  • pappap647 says:

    Taxes are so high now on Virgin. Its made me cancel my credit card and not bother adding any more miles to account.

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

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