You can currently purchase points at the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club with a bonus of 70% if you purchase at least 125,000 points (i.e. 212,500 points including the bonus). This promotion is valid until December 31, 2025. While there are many good uses for Flying Club points within the SkyTeam alliance, many of them are only in theory, as availability for many sweet spots is terrible. However, there’s good availability for some nice sweet spots with Virgin Atlantic itself.
Sadly, Virign Atlantic only lets you purchase points if you’ve already had an activity on your account in the past. In other words, it is not possible to simply create a new account and directly purchase points.
Virgin Atlantic charges £15 (~€17) per 1,000 points. Thanks to the bonus, you’re now paying £15 for each 1,700 points, bringing the cost per mile down to €10.06 per 1,000 points.
Here are a few interesting redemptions that you could make with those purchased points, flying with Virgin Atlantic or other SkyTeam partners:
- Business class: Nantes – Amsterdam for 9,000 points + €74 o/w = €162 (e.g. July 16)
- Business class: Riyadh – London for 23,000 points + SAR 795 (~€182) o/w = €414 (e.g. March 12)
- Business class: Lagos – London for 41,000 points + US$306 (~€263) o/w = €676 (e.g. June 25)
- Premium economy: Miami – London for 19,500 points + US$234 (~€201) o/w = €398 (e.g. July 7)
- Premium economy: Atlanta – London for 34,000 points + US$234 (~€201) o/w = €544 (e.g. July 14)
- Economy, incl. luggage: Paris – Boston for 12,000 points + €256 o/w = €377 (e.g. June 9)
We’ve mostly listed flights to London and not from London. This is no coincidence. Fees are higher from London. This means that if you wish to fly in the opposite direction, this is usually possible, but roughly €300 more expensive than what’s in our list.
Editor’s Note: It’s a shame that this promo is only available for people who’ve already earned miles at Virgin’s Flying Club before. For those who have, feel free to check the award flight prices for your preferred routes and dates. This might actually save you quite a bit of money.
Conclusion
Virgin Atlantic points are worth quite a bit and can open the doors to cheap business class tickets. The only downside of this deal is that a minimum purchase volume of 125,000 points (plus the bonus) is quite a lot of points, especially considering the mostly low redemption prices. If you’re planning a trip with the entire family, that’s fine. But otherwise, you’ll need some time to spend the points, and Virgin could devalue them anytime.