Where Can I Fly To For 15000 Virgin Points?

If you are looking to sign up for the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Credit Card you might be wondering what the sign-up bonus of 15000 Virgin points is worth? (You just need to make a transaction within 90 days on the card.) Or where you can fly to for 15000 Virgin points? Read on to find out!

Am I eligible for the 15000 Virgin points sign-up bonus?

The website asks you to confirm “I am not an existing Virgin Atlantic Credit Card customer and I have not closed another credit card issued by Virgin Money in the last 6 months.” So if you don’t currently hold a Virgin Atlantic Credit Card or haven’t held one in the past 6 months you should be good to go!

Virgin Points

Virgin Points are the ‘currency’ of Virgin Red which is the loyalty scheme for Virgin Group companies in the UK. As well as being able to earn/spend points on flights you can also earn/spend points on a variety of Virgin Group companies and other partners. Although Virgin Atlantic is a long-haul airline you can also redeem your points on their partners Air France & KLM for short-haul (and long-haul trips.) Virgin has other Airline partners too but these will be most of interest to UK residents. 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.

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 Credit 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.

So Let’s See Where 15000 Virgin Points Could Get You…

Short-haul

One return economy seat on Air France or KLM for destinations under 600 miles e.g. London – Paris for 8000 points (off-peak, 9000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due). You could also fly Business Class one-way for 8000 points (off-peak, 9000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due).

Up to one return economy seat on Air France or KLM for destinations under 1249 miles e.g. London – Rome for 15000 points (off-peak, 17000 points peak)(taxes & fees will be due).

One single economy seat on Air France or KLM for destinations under 1749 miles e.g. London – Athens for 9000 points (off-peak, 11000 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.

Long-haul

Unfortunately, the sign-up bonus doesn’t give you enough for a return long-haul flight with Virgin or its partners but you can get…

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 single economy seat to Israel for 9,000 Virgin Points (off-peak, 11,000 peak)(‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak economy seat to India & Pakistan for 10,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

A single off-peak economy seat to USA – Northeast (Boston, Newark, New York JFK, Washington DC) for 10,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak economy seat to the Caribbean for 10,000 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

A single off-peak economy seat to USA – Midwest & South (Atlanta, Miami, Orlando) for 12,500 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak economy seat to Nigeria, China and Hong Kong for 12,500 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

A single off-peak economy seat to South Africa for 12,500 Virgin Points (‘taxes and fees’ will be due too)

Up to one off-peak economy seat to USA – West (Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle) for 15,000 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 single 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) – 9,000 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) – 12,000 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) – 12,000 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) – 15,000 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) – 12,000 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) – 15,000 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 can I earn more Virgin Points on my 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 15000 Virgin Points to get an off-peak economy return to most locations.

What value should I be aiming to get on a Virgin Point redemption?

The best use of Virgin points is typically long-haul flights in Premium Economy or Upper Class as Virgin relies on partners for short-haul flights and has no cap on ‘taxes and fees’. With Virgin points, I aim for at least 1p worth of value per point but depending on how you earn your points/how you normally fly you may have a different valuation. If you mainly fly short-haul I would say collecting Avios is better due to the cap on fees with Reward Flight Saver. If you fly long-haul it really depends on the routing/airline you prefer as the most part the cost is very similar!

Where would you fly to for 15000 Virgin Points?