A hugely generous Virgin Atlantic status match for British Airways elites

A little predictably, given that a large number of British Airways elites are soon to be a lot less “important” than they have been in previous years, Virgin Atlantic has published the most generous status match that I’ve ever seen it offer, and if you’re a British Airways Club member, this is something you need to know about.

The Virgin Atlantic status match for British Airways flyers

This latest limited-time promotion is running until 23 February and in it, Virgin Atlantic is offering to more than just match British Airways Executive club statuses. It’s offering to match them to a higher level (where possible).

This is how that would work:

• British Airways Bronze members get matched to Virgin Atlantic Silver.
• British Airways Silver members get matched to Virgin Atlantic Gold.
• British Airways Gold members get matched to Virgin Atlantic Gold (because Virgin Atlantic Flying Club doesn’t have a higher tier to offer).

And the best news of all?

If you’ve had a status match to Virgin Atlantic in the past, you can still participate this time around!

To be eligible for one of these status matches, you will need:

• Proof of your British Airways elite status
• A Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account
• A confirmed Virgin Atlantic flight for future travel, either purchased with money (“revenue flight”) or redeemed using Flying Club miles (“redemption flight”) booked on Virgin Atlantic or one of Virgin Atlantic’s codeshare partners.
• Tom match to Virgin Atlantic Gold, the booking must be for Premium or Upper Class (Economy Class bookings are not eligible for Gold status), but bookings in any cabin are eligible for the Virgin Atlantic Silver status match.

Importantly, regardless of when Virgin Atlantic confirms a flyer’s status match, their status will not be boosted until 72 hours before their next Premium Economy or Business Class Virgin Atlantic flight and that status will be then valid for 12 months.

Gold members will need to earn 1000 tier points in their membership period to retain Gold status, while Silver members will need to earn 400 tier points in their membership period to retain Silver status.

Link to the status match page.

What Virgin Atlantic elite status offers

Key Silver tier benefits include:

• 30% bonus Virgin Points on flight bookings.
• 1 extra piece of checked baggage permitted on all flights (includes SkyTeam partners).
• Access to Premium (Premium Economy) check-in desks.
• Access to advanced seat assignment in Economy cabins 7 days prior to departure (for all passengers on the elite member’s booking).
• Priority boarding
• Earn 3 Virgin Points/£1 spent on Virgin Atlantic Holidays bookings
• Receive 2,000 bonus Virgin Points when you re-qualify for Silver status
• SkyTeam Elite status.

Key Gold tier benefits include:

• 60% bonus Virgin Points on flight bookings.
• Access to Upper Class (Business Class) check-in desks.
• Access to Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses and the London Heathrow Revivals lounge.
• Access to advanced seat assignment in Economy cabins (includes Air France/KLM & Delta) at the time of booking (for the elite member and other passengers traveling on the same booking).
• Access to advanced preferred seat selection at the time of booking (for the elite member only).
• An extra luggage allowance, no matter which cabin has been booked.
• Gift Virgin Atlantic Silver status to another member
• Earn 4 Virgin Points/£1 spent on Virgin Atlantic Holidays bookings
• Receive 2,000 bonus Virgin Points on your birthday
• A voucher worth 150,000 Virgin Points when you renew Gold status
• SkyTeam Elite Plus status.

Link to all Virgin Flying Club benefits.

SkyTeam elite status benefits

SkyTeam Elite:

• Access to preferred seating
• Priority check-in
• Priority baggage drop
• Priority boarding
• Extra baggage allowance.

SkyTeam Elite Plus:

Elite Plus member get all of the benefits of the Elite level and the following:

• Access to Business Class lounges worldwide, whatever the class of travel, for members in possession of a boarding pass, accompanied by a guest.
• Priority security (where available)
• Priority immigration (where available)
• Priority baggage handling on arrival, whatever the class of travel.
• Guaranteed full-fare Y-class reservation on sold-out long-haul flights, at least 24 hours prior to departure.

Link to SkyTeam benefits page

Quick thoughts

Whichever way you look at it, this is an excellent status match offer if you’re in a position to make the most of it – one way bookings count, award bookings count, and partner bookings (made through Virgin Atlantic) count and that’s very impressive.

Historically, a Virgin Atlantic status match wasn’t the most useful of things (as I have found out), but now that the airline is part of SkyTeam, now that even BA Silver elites can get matched to the SkyTeam Elite Plus level, and now that British Airways elite status is considerably harder to earn than it has been for years, Flying Club status is now considerably more valuable.

Personally, I’ve matched to Virgin Atlantic Gold in the past, so it’s especially nice to discover that I can participate in the match all over again and, hopefully, make more use of Virgin Gold status than I did last time out.

Bottom line

If you have British Airways elite status (even lowly Bronze status) now may be the time to consider a status match to Virgin Atlantic.

With BA Bronze elites being given Virgin Atlantic Silver status, BA Silver elites being bumped up to Virgin Gold status, and with all British Airways elites welcome, this is an incredibly generous promotion that Virgin is running, it’s just a shame that it will expire in two weeks’ time.

[HT: Head for Points]