NEW! Get 30,000 Virgin Points Sign-Up Bonus With The Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card

For the first time in roughly 12 months, Virgin is offering an increased sign-up bonus on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card. Usually, the card comes with a 15000 Virgin Points Sign-up bonus but until the 13th of June 2022, this has been doubled to 30000 Virgin Points. Unfortunately, there is no bonus on the free card (Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard.)

Am I eligible for the sign-up bonus on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card?

You will be eligible for the bonus if you don’t currently hold nor have you held a Virgin Atlantic card in the previous 6 months. So if you have any other Virgin Money credit card you WILL be eligible for the bonus if you don’t currently hold nor have you held a Virgin Atlantic card in the previous 6 months.

What Are The 30000 Virgin Points Worth?

We value Virgin points at 1p which means you should be able to get at least £300’s worth of value from the 30000 Virgin Points sign-up bonus. See our article here on how to work out the value of your own points.

With 30000 Virgin Points, you could…

Short-haul

Two return economy seats on Air France or KLM for destinations under 600 miles e.g. London – Paris for 8000 points per seat (off-peak, 9000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due). You could also get a return Business Class seat for 16000 points (off-peak, 18000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due).

Up to two return economy seats on Air France or KLM for destinations under 1249 miles e.g. London – Rome for 15000 points per seat (off-peak, 17000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due). You could also get one single business class seat for 25000 points (off-peak, 26000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due).

One return economy seat on Air France or KLM for destinations under 1749 miles e.g. London – Athens for 18000 points (off-peak, 22000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due).

Remember these redemptions require a change of aircraft unless you are heading to Paris or Amsterdam. A further benefit of redeeming with Virgin Points is there is no charge for connections, you are charged one price for the distance flown. Don’t forget ‘taxes & fees’ will be higher on Air France or KLM redemptions compared to BA as there is no tax cap.

Want to see how many points you’d need for your dream location? To calculate how many points you will need for redemption you can use Virgin’s booking tool here – https://www.virginatlantic.com/flight-search/book-a-flight – don’t be alarmed if you are searching for short-haul trips as it doesn’t normally recognise your destination airport when typing it in, just click full airport list and browse for your destination there. Before searching make sure you select show price in points.

Long-haul

Don’t forget short-haul connections are FREE in terms of points. Flying Paris to Bangkok would cost the same number of miles as Birmingham – Paris – Bangkok.

Virgin Atlantic

A return economy seat to Israel for 18,000 Virgin Points (off-peak, 22,000 peak)(‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak return economy seat to India & Pakistan for 20,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

A return off-peak economy seat to USA – Northeast (Boston, Newark, New York JFK, Washington DC) for 20,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak return economy seat to the Caribbean for 20,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

A return off-peak economy seat to USA – Midwest & South (Atlanta, Miami, Orlando) for 25,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak return economy seat to Nigeria, China and Hong Kong for 25,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

A single off-peak return economy seat to South Africa for 25,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak return economy seat to USA – West (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle) for 30,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

KLM/Air France

Reward bookings are priced via zone (similarly to BA.) You will be able to get a return off-peak economy seat to Zone 2 – 7 destinations. Remember that short-haul flights under 1,750 miles do NOT price off this chart and instead use the short-haul pricing we mentioned earlier. Each zone is using off-peak pricing and is one-way, add 10,000 points each way for peak pricing. Double the total cost for a return.

In these examples taxes and fees will be a lot lower if you do not book a through-ticket from the UK. If you book a through ticket from the UK they will be similar to redeeming with Avios.

Zones

Zone 2 (Eastern Europe and North Africa) – 18,000 Virgin points includes:
Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Canary Islands, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Libya, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Madeira, Moldavia, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, West Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

West Russia includes the following Federal Districts – Central Federal District, North-western Federal District, Volga Federal District, Southern Federal District and North Caucasian Federal District.

Zone 3 (Middle East and Russia) – 24,000 Virgin points includes:
Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Central Russia, Egypt, UAE, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Qatar, Uzbekistan and Djibouti.

Central Russia to include the following Federal Districts – Urais Federal District and Siberian Federal District.

Zone 4 (Central Africa) – 24,000 Virgin points includes:
Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Republic of South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Chad, Zambia and Sierra Leone.

Zone 5 (Southern Africa, Indian Ocean and Indian Subcontinent) – 30,000 Virgin points includes:
Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Reunion Island, Seychelles, Mayotte, Comoros, Madagascar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Zone 6 (East Coast North America & Caribbean) – 24,000 Virgin points includes:
East Coast USA, East Canada, Antigua, Barbados, Bahamas, Cuba, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, French Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Caiman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Martinique, Haiti, Porto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Marteen.

Includes the following US states – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida

Includes the following Canadian provinces – Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island

Zone 7 (West & Central North America and Central America) – 30,000 points includes:
Central & West USA, Hawaii, Central & West Canada, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua.

Includes the following US states – Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California, Hawaii and Alaska.

Includes the following Canadian provinces – Nunavut, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwest Territories, British Colombia and Yukon.

How do I get the 30000 Virgin Points?

You will get 15,000 points after your first purchase (as long as it is within the first 90 days.) The second 15,000 points will be awarded after spending £3,000 on the card (again as long as it is within the first 90 days.) That means you need to be able to put £1000 a month or £250 a week on your card to meet the sign-up bonus.

How can I earn more Virgin Points on my Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card?

Apart from spending more on your card, the best way to earn additional Virgin Points is through the Virgin Red app. Here you can collect points on things such as train tickets, shopping at eBay & Apple or switching your bank account to Virgin Money to name a few examples. You can sign-up for Virgin Red here – https://www.virgin.com/virgin-red – where you will be able to see all the current offers. If you have a partner you could combine your 30000 Virgin Points to get two off-peak economy return to most locations or a Premium return for one to all of Virgin Atlantic’s destinations.

What other benefits does the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card have?

The main benefit of the card (for us) is having the flexibility of being able to collect an additional airline ‘currency’ on a non-amex card. As the Virgin Atlantic cards are MasterCard it provides an extra option to collect points where Amex isn’t accepted. In addition to this, they can be linked with Curve to pay things where credit cards aren’t typically accepted such as your tax bill (fees may be applicable depending on what Curve plan you are on.)

In what is incredibly rare for Airline loyalty schemes you can also transfer out to either Hilton or IHG. Both options reduce the ‘value’ of your points but if you collect Hilton points & have heavy spending that you can’t put on an Amex card you may find earning 2.25 Hilton points per £1 a reasonable option. IHG is a worse option with you earning 1.5 IHG points per £1. However, there is no current product offering the chance to earn IHG points (the IHG credit cards closed to new applicants last year) you might be tempted to at least transfer some points to top up your account to make a redemption.

The additional benefits you may find useful include…

Earning rate

Each £1 spent on the card will earn you 1.5 Virgin Points. (also converts into Hilton at 2:3 (2.25 Hilton points per £1, or IHG at 1:1 (1.5 IHG points per £1).

3 points for every £1 you spend with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays.

Voucher at 10K spend

At £10,000 spend you will have the option to choose between a 2-4-1 voucher, upgrade voucher, or a Virgin Clubhouse lounge pass. Obviously, the most valuable options here are the 2-4-1 voucher or the upgrade voucher.

2-4-1 voucher

The voucher is valid for two years after receiving it and (unlike BA’s) is valid on points AND cash bookings. You need to be flying on VA metal but the valid is valid in all classes (Upper Class, Premium or Economy.) If you have no status with VA (Red member) you will need to pay 50% of the points for your second ticket if booking into Upper Class. This means for Red members Upper-Class redemptions are effectively 2 for 1.5 with the voucher all other classes (Economy/Premium) are a ‘genuine’ 2-4-1. If you have status with Virgin Atlantic your voucher will be a genuine 2-4-1 in Upper Class.

Upgrade voucher

Again this is valid for two years and valid on points AND cash bookings. You need to be flying on VA metal and with it, you can either upgrade Economy Light/Delight to Premium or Premium to Upper Class. This is valid on either a return trip as a single traveller or two one-way legs of a return trip if a couple. There are no restrictions or changes to the voucher if you don’t hold status with Virgin Atlantic.

Virgin Clubhouse lounge pass

Virgin Clubhouse lounge pass which allows ONE visit. (To visit you will also need a same-day Virgin Atlantic, Delta, KLM, or Air France flight.) If you are a Gold status member with Virgin Atlantic and choose this option you will receive TWO lounge passes.

Don’t forget if you are using the 2-4-1 or upgrade voucher it requires that there is reward availability for the second seat (in the case of the 2-4-1 voucher) or reward availability in the class above for the return/two one-way legs (in the case of the upgrade voucher.)

With both vouchers, you are required to pay ‘taxes & fees’ including on the second ‘free’ seat when using the 2-4-1 voucher.

No FX fees in Europe

As far as we are aware the Virgin Atlantic cards are the ONLY travel reward credit cards that have no FX fee charged on purchases in Europe. As per the credit agreement, you will pay no FX fees on spending in Euro, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei. This means you can collect points on your purchases abroad and not get stung by a horrible 3% charge.

As per – https://gethelp.virginmoney.com/helptopic/subtopic/pagecontent/article/KA-01285/en-us

If you use your card to make a purchase or withdraw cash in Euros, Swedish Kronor or Romanian Lei anywhere in the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA), we won’t charge you a Non-Sterling Transaction Fee. Just go to www.gov.uk/eu-eea (PDF opens in a new window) for a full list of these countries.

What about the annual fee?

It does have a £160 annual fee BUT you may find the benefits worthwhile for you, particularly in the first year if you are eligible for the sign-up bonus. Unfortunately, unlike with Amex, you won’t get a pro-rata refund of the annual fee.

If you are eligible for the sign-up bonus you could look at it this way. 30000 points are worth £300 with our 1p valuation, this would leave you at least £140 ‘up’ on your first year. Or if you converted into Hilton Points (which we value at 0.5p) you’d get 45,000 Hilton Points worth £225, leaving you at least £65 ‘up’ on your first year.

How do I apply for the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ credit card?

You can read about the card on Virgin’s website here – https://uk.virginmoney.com/cards/products/vaa-cards/pre-apply?product=reward-plus-card

The representative APR is 69.7% variable including the £160 fee based on a notional £1200 credit limit.  The interest rate on purchases is 26.9% variable.