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Virgin Atlantic’s has brought back the best points sale that we see it run, and that means that for the next few weeks, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members can buy points from 0.89 pence each (UK accounts) or from 1.48 cents each (US accounts).
Given, however, that Virgin Atlantic says that it will be moving to dynamic award pricing from the end of this month, anyone who doesn’t have immediate plans to use whatever points they purchase in this sale should wait until we see what fresh hell the airline inflicts on its loyalty program before contemplating a purchase.
The sale
There are 5 tiers to the latest Virgin Atlantic points sale and this is what they look like:
- Buy 1,000 – 4,000 points and get no bonus
- Buy 5,000 – 24,000 points and get a 20% bonus
- Buy 25,000 – 69,000 points and get a 40% bonus
- Buy 70,000 – 99,000 points and get a 60% bonus
- Buy 100,000 – 200,000 points and get a 70% bonus
This is a slightly improved set of tiers compared to the last Virgin Atlantic points sale (the last sale required a purchase of at least 125,000 points to access the 70% bonus).
Key terms
- Up to 70% bonus points applicable to Buy Points purchases made between 8 October and 23:59 GMT 6 November 2024 will be eligible to receive bonus points.
- The bonus points will be credited at the point of purchase and will appear on the members account within 24 hours.
- A member can purchase a total of 100,000 points each calendar year, in increments of 1,000 points. Between 8th October and 23:59 GMT 6th November 2024, the limit has been increased to 200,000.
- Members will have the right to cancel any purchases of points for up to 14 days after the date of purchase provided that none of the purchased points have been redeemed. If any of the purchased points have been redeemed, the member will not be entitled to a refund for any of the purchased points including those that have not been redeemed.
- Once the 14 day cooling off period has expired any points purchased and received by members are non-refundable and non-transferable, except as expressly permitted under the terms and conditions of Flying Club.
- Every purchase comes with a one-off £15/$22 transaction fee. Members can purchase points in increments of 1,000. It costs £15/$25 for every 1,000 base points purchased. For example, if a member buys 1,000 base points they will pay £30/$47, if they buy 5,000 base points they will pay £90/$147 and if they buy 10,000 base points they will pay £165/$272.
- You won’t be able to buy, gift (or transfer) points if your points balance is zero.
Full terms and conditions can be found via this link.
The numbers
UK-based accounts
As far as UK Virgin Atlantic Flying Club accounts go this is what you’ll need to know:
Because Virgin Atlantic adds a £15 ‘handling fee’ to every transaction the cost per point will vary depending on the bonus on offer and the number of points that you’re buying, but the key thing here is that the cost/point when you buy 100,000 points is almost exactly the same as the cost/point when you buy the full 200,000 points so there’s no need to buy the maximum number of points on offer to get a great deal.
If you were to buy the maximum number of points this sale allows you to buy it would cost £3,015 and you would net 340,000 points:
340,000 points at a cost of £3,015 comes out to a cost/point of ~0.89 pence
US-based accounts
Based on what we have seen historically (my UK account doesn’t show US pricing), Flying Club members whose accounts are registered to a US address should be able to buy points from 1.48 cents each.
As you can see, buying Virgin points from a UK-based account is considerably cheaper than buying them from a US-based account (that’s why I keep my account based in the UK), but even at 1.48 cents/point, this sale still has the best pricing that we’ve seen Virgin Atlantic offer to its US members.
Is it worth buying points in this sale?
If you don’t have a plan for how to use the points you shouldn’t be buying points at all and as mentioned earlier, with Virgin Atlantic making wholesale changes to how it prices award redemptions from 30 October, buying points for which you have no immediate use is a very bad idea.
Related: A big Virgin Atlantic Flying Club devaluation may be on the way, but should you care?
Also, and this really shouldn’t need saying but I’ll say it anyway, please don’t buy any points before checking that the awards that you’d like to book are actually available. Virgin points are best used for a few niche redemptions so if your Plan A turns out not to be an option, you may struggle to use the points you buy effectively and economically.
Personally, I don’t like using Virgin Atlantic points for travel on Virgin Atlantic because of the high surcharges that the airline chooses to add to award bookings, but I love using them for premium cabin awards on ANA.
ANA now has a very popular Business Class product (the Room) and even though I have yet to try out it out, I’m pretty sure that it’s the best Business Class seat in the world. Yes, it’s probably better than the Qatar Airways Qsuite.
So how do you use Virgin Atlantic points to book such a great product? It’s easy.
As things stand (this may or may not change at the end of this month), the Virgin Atlantic ANA award chart is a region-based chart and looks like this:
The points costs shown are for round-trip travel – divide by two for one-way pricing (open-jaw itineraries are permitted too).
These are the highlights in this award chart:
- Europe to Tokyo: 95,000 points/170,000 points (Business Class/First Class)
- New York to Tokyo: 95,000 points/170,000 points
- Los Angeles to Tokyo: 90,000 points/145,000 points
The current Virgin Atlantic sale allows you to buy enough points for any of these awards and this is how much they will cost, assuming you buy points in this sale at 0.89 pence each (UK) or $0.0148 (USA).
Business Class Fares (UK pricing/USA pricing)
- Europe to Tokyo: ~£846/$1,406 + taxes & fees
- New York to Tokyo: ~£846/$1,406 + taxes & fees
- Los Angeles to Tokyo: £801/$1,332 + taxes & fees
First Class Fares (UK pricing/USA pricing)
- Europe to Tokyo: £1,513/$2,515 + taxes & fees
- New York to Tokyo: £1,513/$2,516 + taxes & fees
- Los Angeles to Tokyo: £1,291/$2,146 + taxes & fees
If you’re buying Virgin Atlantic points in GBP, these Business Class fares are staggeringly good (even though the surcharges have increased in the past 18 months), and even if you’re forced to suffer the higher USD pricing, it’s hard to think of many better Business Class deals in the miles and points world.
When you consider that it costs 135,000 – 155,000 Flying Club points to fly round trip between the West Coast and Europe in Business Class on Virgin Atlantic or Delta, these ANA awards look amazing.
Sadly, however, it’s not all good news.
Firstly, ANA Premium Cabin awards have gradually become a lot harder to find (especially if you can’t be flexible with dates or if you want more than one seat), so don’t buy any points before you’re sure that the awards you’d like to book are actually available.
Secondly, there’s a downside to Virgin using a region-based award chart for ANA redemptions.
Per Virgin Atlantic:
What this means is that indirect routings now cost a lot more because two awards are required.
Take New York – Japan – South Korea in Business Class as an example. To book this with Virgin Flying Club points will take two award bookings:
First, you have to book the New York – Japan segments for 95,000 points and then you have to book the Japan – South Korea segments for a further 35,000 points.
The total round-trip cost is 130,000 points and that’s not such a great deal anymore. The best deals to be had are on non-stop routings.
Searching for & booking ANA awards
You can’t book or search for ANA awards via Virgin Atlantic’s website, so you have to look to other Star Alliance airline sites for help, but don’t buy any points until you’ve checked that awards are actually available for the dates you can fly.
I find ANA’s website a bit clunky, so my go-to sites are Aeroplan and United.com which are both easy to use and quite reliable when it comes to showing true award availability.
Once you’ve found an award you’d like to book you’ll have to call up your local Virgin Atlantic reservations line where the agents should be able to book your chosen itinerary.
Don’t forget
Virgin Atlantic sells its points through Points.com so there’s no scope to earn a travel/flight/airline bonus by using a credit card that offers bonus points for shopping in one of those categories.
What this means is that this is a good opportunity to use a credit card on which you’re working towards a welcome bonus or to use the excellent Chase Freedom Unlimited® card which will earn you 1.5% cash back (or 1.5 points/dollar).
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic is now selling points with bonuses as high as 70%. This allows UK-based Flying Club accounts to buy points from 0.89 pence each and US-based Flying Club accounts to buy points from 1.48 cents each.
Personally, I’d hold off buying any points until we know a lot more about what Virgin Atlantic plans to do to its award pricing, but if you can see that award seats are available now, the economics of an award booking make sense, and and you plan to book in the next few days, buying points in this sale to book those awards should be relatively risk free.
