virgin atlantic a350 wing tip

The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is an increasingly valuable loyalty program, but thinkings that it’s for high flying frequent flyers is a mistake. Anyone, especially you, can earn 1,000s of miles every day, without even travelling, or often leaving the house. From buying groceries to helping friends out, there are at least 23 ways to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles, so let’s get you started – shall we?

And when you do, those points can add up to anything from flight upgrades on Virgin to nearly free flights on not only Virgin Atlantic, but countless partner airlines include Singapore, Air New Zealand, ANA and more…

Hot Tip: You’ll need an account with Virgin Atlantic to get started, so that you can make the most of these offers. Here’s a link to join the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

a seat on a planeGetting A New iPhone Or Mobile

Particularly now, with the unveiling of the iPhone 11 Pro, there’s a lot of excitement about new phones. You can earn up to 7,500 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles when you get a new contract or SIM from Carphone Warehouse, EE, Three, O2 or any of the other major UK carriers. It all starts at Shops Away, so login there and hunt for the best deal. You pay the same as you would anyway, you just earn miles for being savvy.

Ordering Takeout From UberEats

If you haven’t signed up for UberEats in the UK, you should. Not only does it deliver your food to your door, but you can get 640 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles when you sign up. That’s miles for being lazy, which is awesome. The 640 is a one time deal, but that can be just enough to top off for a great trip.

Flying On 11 Different Airlines

When you think of Virgin Atlantic, don’t forget about the 11 other airlines you can earn miles on when you fly. Just enter your Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer number when you book with Air New Zealand, ANA, Air China, Delta, Hawaiian and more. By banking all of those flights to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, you can really maximize your Virgin earning, even when you’re flying on others…

a pink room with monitors and windowsSwitching TV Or Internet Service

People switch TV and Internet service all the time, but they almost always forget to bag themselves a bunch of miles in the process. You can earn up to 6,000 miles from Sky, Virgin Media, O2 and more when you switch to a new broadband or entertainment package, which coupled with a new phone plan would get you nearly enough miles for an upgrade, just like that…

Fuelling Your Retail Addiction

Shopping in store can be fun, but with most shops offering one day delivery, it’s nicer to shop from home. When you do, by clicking through Virgin Shops Away, you can earn miles from Paul Smith, H&M, Nike, Gucci, Asos, John Jewis, Ted Baker and hundreds more. The more you spend, the more miles you earn. Details here.

Opening A Current or Checking Account

Let’s be real, everyone needs a current account to get through life. If you open a Santander 123 Current Account, you can earn thousands of miles just for doing so through Virgin. There’s other great banking offers too. Details here.

a seat in a planeUse Virgin Miles Booster To 3X Your Flight Miles

Virgin Atlantic Miles Booster is one of the best ways to boost your miles for flights you’ll take, or even those you’ve already taken. You can effectively pay 1p per mile, and sometimes there’s a bonus on top of that, which can allow you to earn more than 3x. If you boost a flight right now, a trip like New York could bring 29,000 extra miles for £207 all in, in addition to the miles you’d usually earn.

Buying Coffee And Everything Else

Virgin Atlantic offers a Mastercard in the US and UK which brings a generous welcome bonus, and great earning on literally everything you buy. Since it’s a Mastercard, it’s accepted anywhere credit cards are, and it means turning every latte, food shop, night out and purchase into bonus points. If you earn at least a point for every dollar/pound you spend in a year, that’s a lot of points…

Grocery Shopping At Tesco Or Waitrose

You may know that you can convert Tesco shopping vouchers in the UK into Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles, but few people realise that you can also earn miles when you shop in Waitrose too. You simply register the card you pay with at the store (Apple and Google Pay don’t count) – even if it’s a debit card – and you’ll earn Virgin Atlantic miles based on how much you spend.

virgin atlantic a350 wing tipUp To 10 Miles Per £/$ Booking Hotels At Hotels.com

If you’re not obsessed with earning hotel points, and prefer airline miles, you can earn up to 10 miles per pound/dollar spent booking your hotels at Hotels.com, which means a £1000 hotel spend would bring 10,000 Virgin Miles, on top of whatever you earn from actually flying, and everything else.

Doing Home Improvement At B&Q

BQ is the UK’s main home improvement store with everything from custom kitchens to nails and hammers. You can earn 2 Virgin Miles per £ spent when buying things from B&Q online, which depending on the size of the project, can be a fairly significant haul.

Convert Points You Already Have Into Virgin Atlantic Miles

There are at least 11 programs which allow you to convert your points from their systems into Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles. This includes credit cards like American Express, Citi Thank You Points, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy Points, IHG Rewards Points, Hilton Honors Points, Heathrow Rewards, Hyatt Points, E-Rewards and Tesco.

a pair of gold figurinesDrinking Wine And Ordering More Of It

Whoever said nothing good comes from drinking wine clearly didn’t get around much. You can earn 3,000 miles twhen you sign up for Virgin Wines, and you can also earn 4 miles per dollar/pound spent at Laithwaites Wines, Masters Of Malt, Cellars By Waitrose, The Drink Shop, Beer Hawk, Rude Wines and more. Miles for drinking wine? Life could be worse…

Moving Money Around With Shares Or ISA

You can earn up to 30,500 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles by moving your money around, which is nice for people who have money. If you move to Virgin Money, you can enjoy 8,000 miles when you move £8,000 into a Stocks and Shares ISA, and if you move funds over from a competitor, you can add an additional 22,000 miles onto that. Details here.

Buying Running Shoes And Other Fitness Gear

From Sweaty Betty and Lululemon to Asics, Runners World, Nike and more, you can earn up to 10 miles per £/$ when you first click over from Shops Away. You always get the same price, but instead of running for nothing, you’re running for miles, which feels nice. And leggings and other gym gear count too…

5,000 Miles For A Single Car Rental

You can earn Virgin Atlantic miles when you rent from Avis, Enterprise, Hertz and Sixt, but the best current offer is with Avis. You can earn 5,000 miles, plus the standard 500 miles per day on rentals for the next month, for rentals 5 days or more. This is a great way to turn work or pleasure into miles.

Sending Flowers On Special Occasions

Or really, any occasion. Sending flowers is a lovely thing to do for someone, but it can be equally nice for you if you be sure to first stop at Virgin Atlantic Shops Away, and click to the flower retailer from there. You can currently get up to 24 miles per pound/dollar or pound spent at a variety of florists, which means you could enjoy thousands of miles for being nice…

Bonus Points For Flight + Hotel Packages

You can earn an additional 2 Miles per pound spent as a bonus when you book a flight + hotel or flight + car package, which is handy since these also allow you to pay over time for the booking, rather than all at once. With flight + hotel deals between the US and UK in either direction from £389 or $500 per person, there are serious bargains to be had – and an additional 2x bonus points when you do.

a large white airplane on a runwayBuying Tunes On iTunes

Did you know you can earn 5 Miles per £ spent on iTunes in the UK, and there’s a similar offer for US iTunes purchases too? It’s true! Why not turn your good music taste into great taste in miles as well. It’s super easy to do, and not doing so would make you kinda foolish, since it’s basically free miles for stuff you want anyway…

Exchanging Money For Travel Abroad

If you are the kind of person that likes to take cash out at the airport, which isn’t something we’d recommend, at least you can earn 1 mile per currency when you do. A £1000 exchange would earn 1,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles via MoneyCorp. Full details here. And why you probably still shouldn’t here.

Loading Up At Duty Free Shopping

Heathrow Rewards is a really lucrative loyalty program, and for a limited time, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members can get 3,000 miles after they spend £150 in duty free, in addition to other points they’ll earn from Heathrow Rewards. Treat yourself to something nice, or get one of those tempting bottles of Dom Perignon and voila, more miles for you. Just enter VS2019 when you sign up.

Switching Your Car Insurance

Who knew something as boring and dull as car insurance could help fuel your miles obsession? You can earn 4,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles or more switching car insurance and other insurance products to Aviva, AA and others which takes one of the most boring things and makes it a lot more fun.

Actually Flying Virgin Atlantic

Yep, we ran out of brilliant ideas, so it was time to state the obvious. Virgin Atlantic offers one of the most generous mileage programs in terms of how many miles you’ll earn when you actually fly, so hopping on a plane and seeing the world is a brilliant way to earn Virgin Atlantic miles. When it comes time to spend them, here are a few great ideas for that part too…

 

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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6 Comments

  1. thank you sir, i’ve been too focused on Avios the last few years, it seems like Virgin miles are much easier. I wanted to switch for a while now – aiming for those ANA seats :0)

  2. Ana seats availability is so hard to find just recently booked on ANA thanks to G on his recent post on ANA availability and dates but virtually no availability Tokyo to London I had to open jaw and come back via New York.

    1. I think you need to do it online, following the link. I doubt the person at the counter knows what Virgin Atlantic is, let alone anything about a partnership involving it.

  3. Some great tips, and don’t forget you can also earn miles by doing surveys. If you are dedicated you can clock up to 2,000 per month

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