Virgin Point Value – How Much Are They Actually Worth?

When comparing different loyalty schemes and credit cards it’s important to know the value of their loyalty ‘currency’ to see if collecting them makes sense for you. This is important because you may find that collecting a different ‘currency’ or even cashback making more sense for you. Whilst that sounds easy enough, the problem is your valuation could vary depending on numerous different factors. We’re going to cover some of the factors that might influence your Virgin Point value below to help you decide…

Why is it important to know your own Virgin Point Value?

Because you want to get the best possible return on your spending and loyalty! Although. Rather than collecting Virgin Points, you could collect points in another loyalty program, or with credit card spend you may get a cashback card. Whilst there is no outlay on your behalf (unless you get a card with an annual fee) there is an opportunity cost. To view some of the top cashback credit cards check out Money Saving Expert’s guide here – https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/best-credit-card-rewards/

Working out your Virgin point value will allow you to compare to other cards on the market. For example, if you end up valuing a Virgin Point point at 1p, this is what your ‘cashback’ may be on some popular cards…

Please note…

This is my experience using the points system and is not a recommendation of any financial product. There are other credit cards that can earn you travel points including IHG credit card, Nectar Credit Cards (by exchanging Nectar points for Avios,) Tesco Credit Cards (by exchanging Clubcard points for Virgin points, hotel stays and more) & American Express cards. If you use my link for a referral to an American Express card upon you being accepted I will receive points, this varies between 9,000 – 18,000 depending on the card I refer you from

Get a referral for bonus points here – https://pointsuncovered.com/amex-referral-link-uk/

Virgin Atlantic Reward Credit Card (no annual fee)

On the Virgin Atlantic Reward Credit Card you are getting 0.75% ‘back’ (0.75 Virgin Points per £1) on general spend.

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card (£160 annual fee)

On the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card, you are getting 1.5% ‘back’ (1.5 Virgin points per £1) on general spend.

The American Express Rewards Credit Card (no annual fee)

On the American Express Rewards Credit Card, you are getting 1% ‘back’ (1 Membership reward point per £1) on general spend. Membership reward points transfer 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Gold Amex Gold (FREE first year, £140 annual fee afterwards)

On the Gold Amex Card, you are getting 1% ‘back’ (1 Membership reward point per £1) on general spend. Membership reward points transfer 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Other things to note

Sign-up bonuses

If you are new to Amex you may be eligible for a sign-up bonus. (check here to read about the eligibility rules.) This can massively boost your earnings in your first year with the card. You may be eligible for a sign-up bonus on the Virgin credit cards too, check the information on their website. I’ve included a few examples below so you can see how lucrative they can be!

The Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card comes with a 15,000 Virgin Points welcome bonus on your first transaction within 90 days of account opening. To earn that normally on the card you’d need to spend £10,000.

The American Express Rewards Credit Card comes with a 5,000 membership reward points (equal to 5,000 Virgin Points) welcome bonus if you spend £2000 in 3 months. To put that into context you’d need to spend £5,000 on the card to earn them normally.

The Gold Amex Card comes with a 20,000 membership reward points (equal to 20,000 Virgin Ponts) welcome bonus if you spend £3000 in 3 months. To earn that normally you would need to spend £20,000 on the card on general spend.

Annual fees

Some credit cards have annual fees. Whether or not these represent good value to you is down to your personal preference/spending. The ones that have annual fees tend to have higher sign-up bonuses, increased earn-rates and other benefits. It’s worth noting that Amex annual fees are pro-rata refunded on cancellation. That means if you kept the Amex Gold Card (annual fee £140 after the first year) for 3 months past your first year you’d receive a refund of £105 which means your total outlay would be £35.

2-4-1 Vouchers on the Virgin Atlantic credit cards

The Virgin Atlantic Credit Card Voucher (earnt at 20K spend on the FREE Virgin Credit Card & 10K spend on the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard) in effect ‘doubles the value of your Virgin Points.’ Why? You have 3 choices once you reach the required spending amount…

1) A 2-4-1 voucher for CASH & point bookings (taxes and fees will be due on both tickets.) With Upper Class bookings if you are a ‘red’ member the voucher gets you 50% off the 2nd ticket rather than 100%.

2) An upgrade voucher for CASH & point bookings. This means you can upgrade any Economy ticket paid in cash or miles (except Economy Light) to Premium OR any Premium ticket paid in cash or miles to Upper-Class! Remember there needs to be reward availability in the class you are looking to upgrade to. You can either upgrade a return flight for one person or two one-way flights for two people.

3) A voucher for Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse lounge access (a waste of a voucher bearing in mind what the other 2 choices are!)

Different earn rates

Different cards earn different rates on different things! For example, the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earns 3 points per £1 on Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Holidays spend rather than 1.5 points. The Gold Card earns 2 points per £1 on airline purchases rather than 1 point. Make sure you know how much you are likely to spend and on what to get an accurate idea of your earnings!

Virgin Point Value Examples

Below I’ve included some examples to help you work out what your Virgin Points may be worth to you.

It’s worth noting that Virgin Point tickets have cancellation flexibility which cash tickets do not generally have. Unlike Avios, you will also earn Tier Points on reward bookings but not any Virgin Points.

Remember…you shouldn’t value Virgin Points by Virgin Atlantic Fares but rather the airline/travel class/price you would take if you didn’t have them.

You are likely to get a better return on your Virgin Point booking in peak periods (e.g. summer holidays) as Virgin Point fares are fixed off-peak/peak and don’t fluctuate like cash.

All the examples use London Heathrow as the starting airport unless otherwise stated.

Normally fly short-haul.

Virgin Atlantic is a long-haul airline which means any short-haul redemptions you make within Europe are going to be with one of their partners, Air France or KLM. You’d also need to change planes if you are flying outside of the partner’s Paris or Amsterdam hubs. Unlike BA Virgin Atlantic doesn’t cap the ‘taxes & fees’ on short-haul flights but let us do some comparisons…

An Economy return to Amsterdam in September with KLM is £128 & £109 with EasyJet. With Virgin Points, it costs 9,000 points + £71.67. If we take £71.67 from £128 we are left with £56.33. Divide this by 9,000 (the points cost) means you’d be getting approximately 0.00625 (0.625p) a point. Not great! If we repeat this by taking £71.67 from £109 (EasyJet) = £37.33 then divide that by the Virgin Points cost of 9,000 = 0.00414 (roughly.) Here you’d be getting an even worse 0.414p (just over a third of penny!) value per point.

A Business Class return to Paris in August with Air France is £249 & £388.47 with BA. With Virgin Points, it costs 18,000 points + £95.47. If we take £95.47 from £249 we are left with £153.53. Divide this by 18,000 (the points cost) means you’d be getting approximately 0.00853 (0.85p) a point. Slightly better! If we repeat this by taking £95.47 from £388.47 (BA) = £293 then divide that by the Virgin Points cost of 18,000 = 0.0162 (roughly.) Here you’d be getting a much healthier 1.62p value per point!

When a change of planes is required (outside of the destinations above) your pence per point value is likely to decrease further, for example…

(As typically you wouldn’t change planes by choice if you were flying short-haul we’ve compared the pricing to direct flight with BA)

An Economy return to Venice in August with BA is £243.92 & £119.02 with EasyJet. With Virgin Points, it costs 17,000 points + £85.07. If we take £85.07 from £243.92 we are left with £158.85. Divide this by 17,000 (the points cost) means you’d be getting approximately 0.00934 (0.934p) a point. Not too bad! If we repeat this by taking £85.07 from £119.02 (EasyJet) = £33.95 then divide that by the Virgin Points cost of 17,000 = 0.00199 (roughly.) Here you’d be getting a rather awful 0.19p value per point!

A Business Class return to Oslo in June with BA is £308.22. With Virgin Points, it costs 34,000 points + £83.97. If we take £83.97 from £308.22 we are left with £224.25. Divide this by 34,000 (the points cost) means you’d be getting approximately 0.00659 (0.659p) a point. Not great!

Whilst we haven’t compared to Avios costs here using Virgin Points is generally more expensive as the ‘taxes & fees’ aren’t capped like they are with British Airways’ Reward Flight Saver. Outside of very short routes, their points pricing can be a lot more expensive too, particularly in Business Class. The current BA cap on ‘taxes & fees’ for return flights in Europe is £35 for economy and £50 for business class when taking the ‘standard’ option. You can view the standard points cost for Avios here – https://pointsuncovered.com/avios/how-many-avios-does-a-flight-cost-in-2021/

Normally fly long-haul in economy.

The point cost for Virgin Atlantic flights is lower than BA so it can make sense to use points for economy flights. For example, a return to New York in February with Virgin Atlantic is £1,188.67 and £492.67 with Finnair. Virgin Point cost is 20,000 + £261. If we take £261 from £1,188.67 (Virgin Atlantic) = £927.67 then divide that by the Virgin Point cost of 20,000 = 0.0463 (roughly). That means here you will only be getting a huge 4.63p value per point… very high! If we repeat this by taking £261 from £492.67 (Finnair) = £231.67 then divide that by the Virgin Point cost of 20,000 = 0.0115 (roughly.) Here you’d still be getting a respectable 1.15p value per point.

Normally fly long-haul in business (upper class).

This is typically where a lot of people will find themselves redeeming their Virgin Points (and the 2-4-1 voucher section below.) This is because long-haul business class is seen as the sweet spot for redemptions. Nobody wants to be cramped for 8 hours + right? A return business class flight to Barbados in February with Virgin Atlantic is £4,026.37. Virgin Point cost is 84,000 + £562. If we take the £562 from £4,026.37 = £3,464.37 then divide that by the Virgin Point cost of 84,000 = 0.0412 (roughly.) This gives a very healthy return of 4.12p per point.

You earn a 2-4-1 voucher.

Remember when booking with a Virgin Atlantic Credit Card Voucher (2-4-1) you are basically doubling the value of your Virgin Points. It can make a bad deal less ‘bad’ but the best value from these comes on long-haul Upper Class (business class) tickets. Don’t forget if you are a red member you only get 50% off the second ticket. For example, a return ticket for 2 people in upper class from London – Las Vegas in December with Virgin Atlantic is £5,277.34. Virgin Atlantic cost is 135,000 + £666.37 per ticket. As we have a 2-4-1 voucher (but only a red member) we will need 1.5x the 135,000 Virgin Points but still need to pay x2 of the ‘taxes and fees.’ If we take £666.37 X 2 (1,332.74) from 5,277.34 = 3,944.60 then divide that by the Virgin Points (x by 1.5) cost of 202,500 (with 2-4-1 voucher) = 0.0194 (roughly.) This means you’d be getting a very respectable 1.94p per point.

Last-minute travel.

If you need/want to travel last-minute for a holiday, work or personal reasons Virgin Points can be very valuable. For example, a return ticket for 1 person in economy from London – New York in a few days time costs £1,538.62, Virgin Points cost is 20000 + £ 261.00. If we take £261 from the £1,538.62 = £1,277.62 then divide that by the Virgin Point cost of 20000 = 0.0638 (roughly.) That means in this situation we will get a HUGE 6.38p worth of value per point. Remember it’s possible to do better (or worse) than this depending on when and where you are travelling to.

Remember if you are making an aspirational booking (one you would never normally pay for) don’t worry about the pence per point so much! Just enjoy your upper-class (business class) flights knowing you paid very little compared to the cash fare!

Prices can change fluctuate from day to day so make sure you do up-to-date calculations on any route you are thinking of taking.

Virgin Point Value Conclusion

As you can see Virgin point value is purely a personal one! Whilst they have a minimum-floor value of around 0.5p when used for non-flight redemptions such as Greggs, wine & other offers on the Virgin Red app. It is quite easy to get over 1p of value per point depending on how you use them. What is your Virgin Point Value?

If you are looking to kick-start your Virgin Points with a huge 169,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast track yourself to a rather cool 169,000 Virgin points – https://pointsuncovered.com/virgin-atlantic/fast-track-yourself-to-169000-virgin-points/