Amex Adds Virgin Atlantic to Membership Rewards Gateway Program

Australians can now transfer American Express Membership Rewards Gateway points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. This is good news for Amex Explorer and Essential Rewards cardholders, who now have direct access to a SkyTeam frequent flyer program!

The different Amex Membership Rewards programs in Australia

American Express (Amex) offers several different versions of its Membership Rewards program in Australia, with each offering slightly different benefits.

For example, Amex Platinum cardholders earn Membership Rewards Ascent Premium points. These are the only type of Membership Rewards points that you can transfer to Qantas Frequent Flyer (in addition to the other 13 airline and hotel partner loyalty programs).

There are also Membership Rewards Ascent and Gateway points. The Amex Platinum Edge card earns Membership Rewards Ascent points, while the Amex Explorer and new Amex Essential Rewards cards earn Gateway points.

Until recently, the main difference was that you couldn’t transfer Membership Rewards Gateway points to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program. But this changed last month. You can now transfer points in both the Ascent and Gateway programs to the same impressive line-up of 11 airline and two hotel partner programs, including Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Why Virgin Atlantic Flying Club?

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a handy program because you can redeem its “Virgin Points” to fly on any airline in the SkyTeam alliance. Reward flight pricing is very reasonable.

Multiple SkyTeam airlines fly to Australia including Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air, China Airlines, China Eastern, Xiamen Air, Vietnam Airlines and Delta. Since most Australians aren’t members of any SkyTeam loyalty programs, the Business Class award availability to and from Australia on these airlines is generally pretty good.

You can also use Virgin Atlantic points to fly with partners such as Hawaiian Airlines, Air New Zealand, ANA and South African Airways at very reasonable redemption rates.

To learn more about Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, don’t miss the upcoming AFF webinar on Wednesday, 12 June!

Transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic

You can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at a 2:1 rate.

With the American Express Explorer card, you earn 2 Amex Membership Rewards points per $1 spent. That’s effectively 1 Virgin Atlantic point per dollar spent, if you choose to transfer your points to Flying Club.

The American Express Essential Rewards card earns 1 Amex point per $1 spent on general purchases, but there are lots of ways to earn bonus points. For example, you would earn:

• 5 points per $1 spent on eligible eats & drinks purchases in Australia,
• 3 points per $1 spent on selected streaming subscriptions, and
• 2 points per $1 spent at selected major retailers in Australia.

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.