Virgin Atlantic Extends Flying Club Elite Statuses…Again

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Update: Vouchers have been extended too

Following two 6-month status extensions in 2020 and 3-month extensions in February and May 2021, Virgin Atlantic has decided that the continuing barriers to travel faced by a lot of its customers warrant a 5th round of elite status extensions.

Virgin Atlantic Status Extensions

Most of Virgin Atlantic’s routes are across the Atlantic and with the United States continuing to show little interest in lifting the ban on travelers originating in the UK and with a number of European countries starting to reimpose restrictions on travelers originating in the US, the airline has announced that all Silver and Gold Flying Club members will now have the expiry date of their membership year extended by a further 6 months.

So, if for example, a Flying Club member’s original membership year expiry date was 30 June 2021, the 3-month extension announced in February changed the expiration date to 30 September 2021, the 3-month extension announced in February changed it to 31 December 2021 and today’s further extension should see that expiry date delayed to 30 June 2022.

It’s worth noting that anyone who made the most of Virgin’s very generous status match promotion back in February should also be seeing their membership expiry date extended even though they were ignored when  the last extension was announced (in May) Back when I was first given Virgin Atlantic Gold status my membership year expired on 31 March 2022…

…but as of a few moments ago, my account now shows an expiry date of 30 September 2022:

As with the past Virgin Atlantic elite status extensions, new membership cards will not be sent out in the post but the extended membership will be viewable online in members’ accounts in the next 24 hours (if not already), and a digital membership card (complete with extended membership year) will be printable from the Virgin Atlantic website or downloadable to the Virgin Atlantic app.

Virgin Atlantic Vouchers

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members who have earned companion vouchers, upgrade vouchers, or Clubhouse access vouchers that were still valid as of 13 March 2020, will have the expiration day of those vouchers extended by a further 6 months (with this latest extension, these vouchers will have had their expiration date extended by 24 months).

To be clear, this refers to vouchers offered through the Virgin Atlantic Reward and Reward+ credit cards (issued in the UK) and the Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard (issued in the US) as well as companion vouchers, Clubhouse passes, and upgrades issued to Flying Club Gold members as part of their benefits package or for hitting select tier point targets.

Replacement vouchers will not be issued but the vouchers in Flying Club members’ account will be valid through the new expiration date.

Bottom Line

Virgin Atlantic has just announced that it will be extending Flying Club elite statuses, companion vouchers, upgrade vouchers, and Clubhouse access vouchers for a further 6 months. A lot of member accounts are already showing the extensions but it will probably take up to 24 hours for all accounts to be updated. If you can’t see an extension in your account just yet, hold tight and it should appear soon.