How to use your annual Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher (Virgin Redemption University #13)

How can you get better value from your Virgin Atlantic flight redemptions by earning and using a Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher?

This article is the final part, Part 13, of our ‘Virgin Redemption University’ series.

(Although we’re going to have to re-write a couple of parts on 1st November when the changes to how Virgin Atlantic redemptions are priced come into effect.)

Here are the other 12 articles in the series:

• How does Virgin Red differ from Virgin Flying Club?
• How many Virgin Points do you need to fly to ….?
• How to redeem Virgin Points on Virgin Atlantic flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on ANA and other partners
• How to upgrade your Virgin Atlantic flight with Virgin Points
• How to convert Virgin Points to Hilton or IHG hotel points
• How to use Virgin Points for a Virgin Holidays discount
• How to redeem Virgin Points for hotel rooms via Kaligo
• Is Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Points Plus Money’ feature a good deal?
• What’s the best non-flying use of Virgin Points?
• What is the cheapest way to top up your Virgin Points?

A quick reminder of the two UK Virgin Atlantic credit cards

Virgin Atlantic has two credit cards in the UK:

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard (review here, apply here, image above)

• Fee: £160
• Sign-up bonus: 18,000 Virgin Points after your first purchase
• Receive an annual voucher each year once you have spent £10,000 on the card
• Voucher is valid for 24 months

The representative APR is 69.7% variable, including the annual fee.  The representative APR on purchases is 26.9% variable.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard (review here, apply here, image below)

• Fee: None
• Sign-up bonus: 3,000 Virgin Points after your first purchase
• Receive an annual voucher each year once you have spent £20,000 on the card
• Voucher is valid for 24 months

The representative APR is 26.9% variable.

If you are reading this article after it was originally published in October 2024, the APR data above is correct – it automatically updates – but you should click through to the application site to see if there is a temporary enhanced sign-up bonus.

How to earn a Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher

You receive a voucher:

• when you spend £20,000 per year on the free Virgin Atlantic Reward credit card, or
• when you spend £10,000 per year on the fee-paying Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card

Following a recent app update, Virgin Money has finally added a tracker so that you can see how close you are to triggering your next voucher.

Vouchers are deposited into your Flying Club account within 30 days of hitting the spending target and can be used immediately.

You should receive an email from Virgin Flying Club confirming it has arrived. If not, look in the ‘Vouchers’ section of the Virgin Atlantic website under ‘My Account’.

The voucher is valid for 24 months, and you need to have booked and flown the outbound flight (if that’s what you’re redeeming for) within that time frame. Your return flight can be after the expiry date.

Unlike a British Airways American Express voucher, the expiry date – two years – is the same irrespective of whether you have the free or paid-for credit card.

The voucher cannot be redeemed online. You need to call Virgin Flying Club to book.

What does the reward voucher do?

The reward voucher will change on 30th October 2024 to reflect Virgin Flying Club’s move to dynamic pricing for reward flights.

All existing but unused vouchers will be transferred to these new terms.

You can use your annual Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher in three ways:

• towards a companion ticket for a friend on a cash booking

• towards a companion ticket for a friend on redemption booking

• towards an upgrade for a solo traveller on a cash booking

It is not yet clear if you will be able to upgrade an existing redemption booking with the voucher.

Your voucher is worth:

• 75,000 Virgin Points if you have no Virgin Flying Club status at the time of booking

• 150,000 Virgin Points if you have Silver or Gold status in Virgin Flying Club at the time of booking

You can redeem your voucher on:

• Virgin Atlantic

You cannot redeem your voucher on:

• Delta Airlines
• Air France
• KLM
• Vietnam Airlines
• ANA
• EL AL
• …. or any other SkyTeam or third party airline partner

Let’s go through the options:

Using the Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher to fly with a friend

Remember that these terms apply from 30th October 2024. Redemptions made in the next three weeks take place under the old rules. There may be additional small print involved in using a credit card voucher in the future which will not become clear until November 2024.

If two of you are travelling, Virgin Atlantic allows you to use your reward voucher towards the cost of a 2nd ticket for a friend.

This can represent a huge saving on the cash or points cost of a second ticket.

The good news is that you can book the companion ticket for anyone – you do not need to be related or share the same name. You can travel with a friend, partner, parent, child …. anyone.

The voucher is non-transferable and can only be used by the person who earned it unless you have Gold or Silver status in Virgin Flying Club. In this case, you can transfer it to another member via the call centre.

Virgin Atlantic lets you use the voucher for a second ticket on a points or cash booking, massively increasing the flexibility on offer.

The voucher works in the same way, regardless of whether you’re using cash or points to pay for your own flight:

• You can check the cost of a second seat in Virgin Points on the Virgin Atlantic website here. Unless the flight is sold out, seats will definitely be available although you may not be happy with the price!

• You receive a discount of either 75,000 Virgin Points (if you have no Virgin Atlantic status) or 150,000 Virgin Points (if you are Silver or Gold in Virgin Flying Club) off the cost of the second ticket

• If your ticket requires more points than are provided by the voucher, you can make up the difference from your Virgin Points account. You do not receive any ‘change’ if you redeem for a flight which requires fewer points than are covered by the voucher.

• You must pay taxes and fees on the second ticket, irrespective of whether the first ticket was bought for points or cash

This final point is worth noting, because the taxes and fees on a reward ticket can be quite steep. On a return flight from London to Los Angeles, for example, you can expect to pay:

• £289 in Economy
• £569 in Premium
• £1,041 in Upper Class

That said, a companion voucher still offers value, particularly in Upper Class.

Using the voucher for an Economy flight is poorer value, as cash tickets are often available for little more than the taxes and charges on a reward booking.

Here is an example of how it works:

• You have bought an Upper Class flight to New York in a Virgin Atlantic sale for £1,750 return. The cost of an Upper Class reward seats on the same flight is 175,000 Virgin Points plus taxes and charges.

• You have a credit card voucher which is worth – because you do not have Virgin Atlantic elite status – 75,000 points.

• You ring the Virgin Atlantic call centre and use the voucher to book a ticket for a friend on the same flight as yourself. It will cost you 100,000 Virgin Points (175,000 points less a 75,000 points credit for using the voucher) plus £1,041 in taxes and charges.

The same system applies if you booked your personal seat using Virgin Points instead of cash.

Remember that, under the new redemption system, there will ALWAYS be reward seats available, albeit not always at a price you will want to pay.

Using the Virgin Atlantic credit card reward voucher as an upgrade voucher

Remember that these terms apply from 30th October 2024. Redemptions made in the next three weeks take place under the old rules.

We do not yet know if you can use a credit card voucher to upgrade flights for more than one person. We also do not know if you can upgrade an existing redemption flight, which would effectively allow you to discount a solo redemption flight. There may also be other unknown unknowns!

Another great use of your annual reward voucher is to upgrade a flight for yourself.

The voucher is non-transferable and can only be used by the person who earned it unless you have Gold or Silver status in Virgin Flying Club. In this case, you can transfer it to another member via the call centre.

You have a lot of flexibility when upgrading:

• you can upgrade from Economy Delight or Economy Classic (but not Economy Light) to Premium

• you can upgrade from Economy Delight or Economy Classic (but not Economy Light) to Upper Class

• you can upgrade from Premium to Upper Class

Remember that, under the new Virgin Points redemption system, there will ALWAYS be availability to upgrade unless the flight is sold out. You are unlikely to be happy with the upgrade price, unfortunately, unless ‘Saver’ seats are available in the cabin you want to fly in.

This is how the voucher works:

• You can check the cost of a reward seat in Virgin Points on the Virgin Atlantic website here. Unless the flight is sold out, seats will definitely be available.

• The cost of the upgrade is the cost of a reward seat in the cabin you want to fly in MINUS the cost of a reward seat in the cabin in which you are currently booked

• You receive a discount with your voucher of either 75,000 Virgin Points (if you have no Virgin Atlantic status) or 150,000 Virgin Points (if you are Silver or Gold in Virgin Flying Club) off the cost of the upgrade

• If your ticket requires more points than are provided by the voucher, you can make up the difference from your Virgin Points account. You do not receive any ‘change’ if your upgrade requires fewer points than are covered by the voucher.

• Additional taxes and charges will be due, which can be substantial. Ignoring Virgin Atlantic’s own surcharges, upgrading out of Economy will trigger the premium rate of UK Air Passenger Duty.

Here is an example of how it works.

• You have bought an Economy Delight flight to New York in a Virgin Atlantic sale for £450 return

• The cost of an Upper Class reward seat on the same flight is 175,000 Virgin Points plus taxes and charges

• The cost of an Economy Delight reward seat on the same flight is 25,000 Virgin Points plus taxes and charges

• You have a credit card voucher worth – because you do not have Virgin Atlantic elite status – 75,000 points.

• You ring the Virgin Atlantic call centre and use the voucher to upgrade your Economy Delight seat to Upper Class. It will cost you 75,000 Virgin Points (175,000 points for Upper Class less 25,000 points because you already have an Economy Delight ticket less 75,000 points for using the voucher) plus the difference in taxes and charges.

You can read our review of Premium on Virgin Atlantic here as well as our review of Upper Class on the A350 here. Our review of Upper Class on the new A330neo fleet is here.

How to redeem your Virgin Atlantic credit card voucher

Once you’ve decided how and when to redeem your reward voucher you’ll need to call Virgin Atlantic on 0344 874 7747 to make the booking, as there’s no online functionality.

Conclusion

The Virgin Atlantic credit card reward vouchers can potentially offer great value.

If (and it is a big ‘if’) there is still 1p of value in a Virgin Point following the November 2024 changes, the vouchers will be ‘worth’ £750 for someone with no Virgin Atlantic status and £1,500 for a Silver or Gold member. This would be an impressive return.

If there is still value to be had, it would be well worth putting £10,000 or £20,000 per year of spend on your card, depending on which Virgin Atlantic credit card you hold, to ensure you trigger one.

You can apply for the cards here.

Disclaimer: Head for Points is a journalistic website. Nothing here should be construed as financial advice, and it is your own responsibility to ensure that any product is right for your circumstances. Recommendations are based primarily on the ability to earn miles and points. The site discusses products offered by lenders but is not a lender itself. Robert Burgess, trading as Head for Points, is regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as an independent credit broker.

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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):

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.

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.

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

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