UK-based Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam alliance last year. This opened up the opportunity to redeem “Virgin Points”, the currency of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program, for flights across the SkyTeam network!

That’s in addition to Virgin Atlantic’s other partner airlines including Hawaiian Airlines, All Nippon Airways, South African Airways and Virgin Australia. Of course you can also redeem on Virgin Atlantic’s own flights, but beware that Flying Club will switch to dynamic pricing for Virgin Atlantic operated flights on 30 October 2024.

If you already happen to be an active member of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program, this means your Virgin Points go even further. It’s also great news for Amex Membership Rewards members in Australia, who have the option to transfer their Amex points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and redeem for flights on SkyTeam airlines.

Even if you don’t have any Amex Membership Rewards points, there’s another way that Australians can easily access large quantities of Virgin Points – buying them!

Through buying Virgin Points during a promotion, and redeeming them for valuable reward flights, you could save a significant amount of money off the regular ticket price.

This guide explains how to buy Virgin Points and redeem them for award travel.

Before we get started, please note that Virgin Points, the currency of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, have nothing to do with Virgin Australia Velocity points! Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia are completely separate airlines, and Virgin Australia is not part of the SkyTeam alliance.

How to buy Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

If you’re a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club member and you’ve previously made at least one account transaction, you can buy Virgin Points on the Virgin Atlantic website.

The standard cost is GBP15 (~AU$29) per thousand points, plus a one-off transaction fee of GBP15 (~AU$29) for each purchase. However, you can get a better price when Virgin Atlantic is running a promotion. 😉

Purchased Virgin Points will normally credit to your Flying Club account within 24 hours, but this could take longer in some cases.

There is an annual purchase limit of 100,000 points, excluding bonus points, but this limit often increases during promotions to 200,000.

Special deals on buying Virgin Points

From time to time, Virgin Atlantic offers bonus points when you buy Virgin Points during special promotions!

For example, during the current offer running from 8 October until 6 November 2024, you could earn up to a 70% bonus on purchases. The bonus amount is tiered, depending on the amount that you buy:

• Buy 5,000-24,000 Virgin Points to receive a 20% bonus
• Buy 25,000-69,000 Virgin Points to receive a 40% bonus
• Buy 70,000-99,000 Virgin Points to receive a 60% bonus
• Buy 100,000-200,000 Virgin Points to receive a 70% bonus

If you were to buy the maximum 200,000 Virgin Points during this offer, you’d receive a total of 340,000 points (including 140,000 bonus points) at a cost of GBP3,015 (~AU$5,850).

This deal is similar to previous promotions we’ve seen in 2023 and 2024.

Purchase terms & conditions

Importantly for new Flying Club members, you must have previously earned or redeemed at least one Virgin Point before you can buy more points! You won’t be eligible to buy points if you’ve just joined the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program and have no existing points in your account.

Because of this limitation, if you think you might wish to buy Virgin Points in the future, it might be a good idea to join the program now (it’s free). Then, when an opportunity arises, try to earn at least one point so that you’re ready to buy points at a later time.

Ways for Australians to earn points with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club include:

• Transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards
• Credit an eligible Virgin Australia flight to Flying Club
• Credit a SkyTeam or another partner airline flight to Flying Club
• Book a hotel through Rocketmiles or Kaligo, crediting the points to Flying Club
• Transfer hotel loyalty points from Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, World of Hyatt, Best Western Rewards or Hilton Honors
• Rent a car from Avis, Hertz or Sixt
• Complete e-Rewards surveys
• Purchase access to a No1 Lounge in the UK

Interestingly, Virgin Atlantic offers a 14-day cooling-off period on points purchases. If you change your mind within 14 days after buying points from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, you can cancel the purchase for a refund – as long as none of the bought points have been redeemed.

Virgin Atlantic points do not expire. However, Flying Club could change the cost of reward flights at any time.

Redeeming Virgin Points for reward flights

You can redeem Virgin Atlantic points for flights across most of the SkyTeam alliance:

Virgin Atlantic recently activated redemptions on China Eastern. It also recently added SAS, a new SkyTeam alliance partner.

You can also redeem points for flights on the following other Virgin Atlantic partner airlines:

• Air New Zealand (note that Business availability is limited and Premium Economy awards are not offered)
• All Nippon Airways (Premium Economy not offered)
• Hawaiian Airlines
• LATAM Airlines
• Singapore Airlines (Premium Economy not offered and Business/First not available on long-haul routes)
• South African Airways
• Virgin Australia (Economy Class only)
• El Al

Reward flights must be booked at least 48 hours before departure, and are subject to availability.

Reward flight charts

Virgin Atlantic has individual, airline-specific award charts that govern the cost of reward flights on Virgin Atlantic, Delta, KLM and non-SkyTeam partner flights. You can find these on the partner airline page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

On 30 October 2024, Virgin Atlantic will switch to dynamic pricing for its own flights.

For flights on all other SkyTeam partner airlines, the following award chart is applicable:

When booking connecting or multi-stop itineraries, you’ll need to pay the sum of each of the individual flights! For example, if you booked a Vietnam Airlines Business Class itinerary from Sydney to Frankfurt via Hanoi, this would cost 160,000 Flying Club points (plus taxes). That’s the sum of the Sydney-Hanoi sector (75,000 points) and the Hanoi-Frankfurt sector (85,000 points).

Also note that Flying Club imposes relatively high carrier charges when redeeming on Virgin Atlantic and some other partner airlines. These, as well as any third-party taxes, need to be paid in addition to the points when booking reward flights.

Sweet spots

Here are some examples of Flying Club redemptions that may offer particularly good value to Australians looking to buy Virgin Points.

For each redemption example, we’ve calculated the approximate cost of buying the required points with a typical 70% bonus, including the transaction fee. We converted the GBP cost to AUD based on the exchange rate in March 2024:

Note that these amounts only cover the cost of acquiring points with a 70% bonus. They do not include the taxes and carrier charges payable when you redeem your points.

ITA Airways often has reasonable award availability on routes such as Los Angeles-Rome, as well as from Delhi-Rome and within Europe.

How to book Flying Club reward flights

You can book reward flights on the following Flying Club partner airlines online:

• Virgin Atlantic
• Air France
• Delta
• Garuda Indonesia
• ITA Airways
• KLM
• Korean Air
• LATAM Airlines
• Middle East Airlines
• SAS

If you wish to redeem Virgin Points for a booking on any of these airlines, simply head to the Virgin Atlantic website. When searching for flights on the home page, click on “Advanced search” to show more search options. Then, click on the option to show the price in Points.

To specify the class of travel you wish to book, select from the drop-down menu under “Show fares for”:

• Economy,
• Premium (for Premium Economy), or
• Upper Class (for Business Class).

If a reward flight is available, you can then click through to complete your booking…

By the way, if you wish to redeem points for a flight operated by Virgin Atlantic or Delta, the Virgin Atlantic reward seat checker is a very handy tool!

If you wish to book a reward flight on any other Flying Club partner airline, you’ll need to call Virgin Atlantic Flying Club on +44 344 209 2722 (UK number). Alternatively, see the Virgin Atlantic website for phone numbers for other countries.

Want to learn more about buying points for cheap premium cabin flights?

The Australian Frequent Flyer Training includes a comprehensive course on buying points for cheap premium travel. This course covers the most useful programs for Australians, including Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

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Learn all the tricks to travel better, for less, with our Frequent Flyer Training courses. The first two courses are free for all AFF members.

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Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.