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NEW: Get 50% off USA redemptions in a new Virgin Atlantic reward seat sale

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Virgin Flying Club has launched a new sale on flight redemptions – and it’s a big one.

Redemption flights to the United States are reduced by a whopping 50% for the next week.

You have until 20th March to book.

You can check availability and taxes on the Virgin Atlantic website here. If the reduced pricing doesn’t show, check back later in the morning.

Virgin Atlantic reward seat sale

Discounts apply to the Economy, Premium and Upper Class cabins.

The discount applies to full redemptions and to flight upgrades.

You must travel by 30th June 2024. If you only fly out before that date, only the outbound portion will be discounted.

You must book on a Virgin Atlantic aircraft. Redemptions on partner Delta Air Lines are not included.

Here are the participating routes. Full taxes and charges are payable on top – no reductions here! – which will be around £1,000 return in Upper Class, £500 in Premium and £300 in Economy.

From London Heathrow:

  • Atlanta
  • Boston
  • Las Vegas
  • Los Angeles
  • Miami
  • New York JFK
  • San Francisco
  • Seattle
  • Tampa
  • Orlando
  • Washington

From Manchester:

  • Atlanta
  • New York JFK
  • Las Vegas

From Edinburgh:

  • Orlando

You can see the Virgin Atlantic reward charts, showing the points needed before the discounts above, on this page of its website. The same page has the peak and off-peak pricing dates.

You can combine these discounts with a Virgin Atlantic credit card 2-4-1 voucher.

You CANNOT combine them with a Gold reward (opens up any seat for double points if you are Gold) or ‘Points Plus Money’.

You CANNOT change the date of your booking after 20th March without the booking repricing at the standard rate.

Reward tickets will earn Virgin Flying Club tier points at the usual rates.

If you want to earn more Virgin Points, our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard credit card is here (15,000 bonus points) and our review of the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card is here.

You can find out more on the Virgin Atlantic website here. If the sale is not live when you read this, give it a couple of hours and check back.

PS. If you are short of points, there is a 70% bonus when you buy Virgin Points at present. See here.

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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 (116)

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

  • Frank says:
    14 Mar14 March 07:38

    At the riskk of sounding boring, the amount Vigin takes for charges is just obscene. Virgin Upper Class is not all it is made out to be either. Check carefully to make sure you are not going to be stuck in an old uncomfortable plane. Whilst the BA charges are not dissimilar, the BA Business Class product is far superior, with the sole exception of the Lounge at Heathrow. The Virgin Lounge beats all the European airlines at Heathrow.

    • LittleNick says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:13

      Have to agree, cash is always King! Would rather pay 100% points + 50% of the cash fee. I would never buy refundable cash fares so the value of flexibility on points fares is essentially zero, so will always compare against the non-refundable cash cost.

      • Rob says:
        14 Mar14 March 10:30

        This literally makes no sense: “I would never buy refundable cash fares so the value of flexibility on points fares is essentially zero”

        It would only make sense if you said: “I have never, ever had the need or desire to cancel, change or amend a flight ticket and never will in the future (so confident am I about the health of my loved ones, my control over my work schedule and my understanding of the weather and other issues which may impact my destination) so the value of flexibility on points fares is essentially zero”.

        • LittleNick says:
          14 Mar14 March 11:51

          Yep, pretty much, if my loved ones are not well, I won’t travel/book a holiday in the first place. I typically book holidays around work and plan it well. Ok weather is a fair point but won’t stop me travelling or else I’d never leave my house and do anything! So yep I tend to have little need for flexible air fares

          • VinZ says:
            14 Mar14 March 18:31

            Ahem what about when you book a holiday and then you fall ill. I doubt you can control that. I had an entire year worth of holidays planned then my mother in law fell ill and died. I managed to recover all costs because it was all booked on points. So grateful for flexible points.

          • Mark says:
            15 Mar15 March 11:25

            That’s why you have travel insurance…. the most useful benefit of redemption flexibility to us is that I often don’t need to renew our travel insurance when it expires, but can wait until we either have non-refundable bookings or are about to travel.

    • mhughes says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:41

      Yes, when you remember yesterdays article of EI Paris to New York on a revenue for £990, it gives you a sense of the true value of those Virgin Atlantic miles when the cash they want is around £1K

      • Rob says:
        14 Mar14 March 10:34

        If you want to fly to Paris (extra cost) then go to Dublin and then to New York, then back to Dublin and then hop out and get a separate ticket to London (extra cost) then feel free 🙂

        Saturday night required too.

        • Mark says:
          14 Mar14 March 18:11

          Assuming you can hop out at Dublin on the way back. If you have checked luggage and they refuse to short check it, you may find yourself with a problem….

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
    14 Mar14 March 07:55

    Anyobe seeing this live yet?

  • jj says:
    14 Mar14 March 08:26

    Interesting that these sales are USA specific. Anecdotally, many friends have fallen out of love with the USA – sky-high prices, hidden surcharges, squalor, crime and open drug use are the most common complaints. I’ve heard many people say, ‘Never again’ about New York, even from people who have historically been regular travellers there.

    Premium leisure travel is driving airline profits these days. Those people can travel anywhere in the world, and other destinations look more attractive right now.

    • Jonathan says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:20

      Yeah I’m literally exactly the same, I went via Miami a few weeks ago for overnight transit to Colombia, they sent me over to secondary bag check on both occasions…

      I understand that U.S. CBP have a job to do, but they’re not at all welcoming, I’ve mentioned to Americans on organised tours I’ve booked onto and bern part of about what border control is like, and they confirmed that they’ve heard all kinds of horror stories about their borders for foreigners

    • Andrew J says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:49

      Totally agree. I used to go to NYC a couple of times a year, but I can’t stand it anymore – rundown and absurdly over priced. No wonder Virgin are feeling the pinch and needing to offload flights via reduced redemptions.

    • Tracy says:
      14 Mar14 March 11:16

      Totally agree. I’ve visited NYC five times in the last 8 years and said that I am in no rush to return after my last visit. I felt it was so dirty, drug addicts galore and very expensive…I’ve had to resort to paying UK prices for Tiffany jewellery lol.

    • Dace says:
      14 Mar14 March 11:18

      Yeah, I am done with the US. I used to go at least once a year, however the tipping culture got so out of hand on my last visit in 2019 I swore I wouldn’t go back and haven’t.

      • Rizz says:
        14 Mar14 March 12:09

        Tipping and all the other crazy charges… “Destination fees” everywhere, service fees, amenity fees, 6-7% “SF mandate” on restaurant bills in SF… Even a fuel surcharge (!) when you order groceries online from Fresh Direct.

        • jj says:
          14 Mar14 March 12:57

          Clincher for me was being presented with a pre-populated $20 receipt to sign each morning as a tip on my all-inclusive breakfast. Plus $100 per day expected as tip for the cleaning staff. Plus tips for lunch, dinner, drivers, bag handlers.

          I paid all these, of course, as I have more money than the serving staff and the broken system isn’t their fault. But I’m not going back anytime soon. The world has so many better options.

          • VinZ says:
            14 Mar14 March 18:34

            Totally agree with all the comments above. I’m only going for work and will use the trip to visit my aunt and cousins too. But the USA are not on my bucket list anymore.

  • Mark says:
    14 Mar14 March 08:54

    As people say, selling seats appears to be getting harder and harder for Virgin. I booked MAN to JFK using miles and a 2-4-1 in UC last December for pre Christmas this year. we are the only two on the plane in UC.

    • Jonathan says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:14

      The last couple of times I’ve been in UC, it’s been completely full up as well as Premium, and Economy has far more available seats

    • Rhys says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:24

      I’m not sure Virgin really expects to sell out Upper Class 9 months in advance, though 🙂

      • Jonathan says:
        14 Mar14 March 10:09

        I think I recall their A346’s having a lot of UC seats, I’m fairly certain that this type of aircraft was used on their Lagos route (a visiting friends and family route), how many seats they filled is different matter, but there must’ve been enough Nigerians willing to pay the premium for the best seats available !

        • Rhys says:
          14 Mar14 March 10:35

          Virgin’s A340s were retired years ago.

          Nigeria is a big oil destination 🙂

          • Jonathan says:
            14 Mar14 March 11:28

            There’s no point trying to deny either of your two points, the A340’s are very aged aircraft now, and drink a lot of fuel

            Lagos is pretty much a friends and family route for leisure travellers

  • lumma says:
    14 Mar14 March 09:00

    Are there any easy ways to get just over 2k VS points? Other than purchasing 3000 points for £60?

    • Jonathan says:
      14 Mar14 March 09:13

      Depends how quickly you need the points in your account, you can easily get bonus points from financial products like stocks and shares isa, or from their plus credit card, also Amex MR points

      • lumma says:
        14 Mar14 March 09:22

        To take advantage of this offer. If I transfer my MR points out, I’m 2200 points short.

        As it will literally save me £900 cash and not have to use a BA 241 I might just pay the £60 to buy the remaining points

        • Mike says:
          14 Mar14 March 09:26

          Only other option is if a friend has any to share. It costs £10 to transfer.

  • J W says:
    14 Mar14 March 09:41

    Manchester-Orlando explicitly not included, or just a typo?

  • NorthernLass says:
    14 Mar14 March 09:43

    Grrr. My flights won’t be released until April. Virgin getting less and less attractive.

  • pigeon says:
    14 Mar14 March 09:46

    Just a warning – I cancelled a Virgin rewards ticket and a refund took ages. Looks like a common problem.

    Not saying they have a cashflow problem, but lots of sales + holding onto money isn’t a good look.

    • Simon says:
      14 Mar14 March 10:52

      I had the same issue – 6 weeks, several phone calls and a formal complaint letter before I saw refunds. BA, for all their faults, put funds back on your card within 48 hours without fail.

    • Danny says:
      14 Mar14 March 11:18

      I used to like the Virgin brand but I just feel very ‘meh’ about it now. Style over substance.

      Virgin Money is useless, the train service splurged money on hideously refurbing the lounges and hiring too many managers then miraculously went bankrupt… And the less said about Virgin Media, the better.

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