a row of seats in an airplane

Update: Only four days remain to lock in Virgin Points purchases at their lowest ever price. Should you? Read up to make up your mind!

There’s the obvious stuff with Virgin Points, like upgrades, saving on Upper Class flights and booking incredible trips on Virgin Atlantic’s airline partners like ANA to Japan, but there’s the lesser known stuff too.

Buying Virgin Points gained considerable intrigue this year with the launch of the Virgin Red loyalty program, which adds serious options to how you can earn and spend Virgin Points, beyond just flying. Virgin Red greatly expands on what can be done with points, from buying sausage rolls to unlocking priceless experiences at Branson’s many Virgin Limited properties.

In celebration of it all, and because it seems like people might actually get to travel again, Virgin Atlantic is having a best ever sale on points, with a 70% bonus for UK and US travelers.

Points purchases work out much cheaper for UK accounts than US accounts, but even then US accounts might be tempted by the rates on offer – and potential wins to places around the globe!

a interior of a plane with rows of seats

Buy Virgin Atlantic Points With Huge Bonus

For purchases made by August 14th, 2021, Virgin Atlantic is offering a 70% bonus to UK accounts when you buy Virgin Points and a 70% bonus for US accounts.

What’s the price to buy points in this monster Virgin Atlantic sale? Well, the bonuses are tiered, so the more points you buy, the lower the price becomes. In short, Virgin Flying Club accounts in the UK can buy points at a price as low as 0.88p per point, and US accounts can get as low as 1.6c per point.

For the UK, the incentive bonuses for buying points break down as follows…

  • 5,000 – 24,000 = 15% bonus
  • 25,000 – 69,000 = 20% bonus
  • 70,000 – 99,000 = 40% bonus
  • 100,000- 150,000 = 70% bonus

And for the USA you can buy Virgin Points with the following bonuses…

  • 5,000 – 24,000 = 20% bonus
  • 25,000 – 69,000 = 30% bonus
  • 70,000 – 99,000 = 50% bonus
  • 100,000- 150,000 = 70% bonus
a bed in an airplane

Purchasing Virgin points in the UK, this sale offers the potential to pay just 0.88p per point, which is about 1.25 US cents. This translates to being able to buy 100,000 points and receiving a 60,000 point bonus for £1515 all in.

For US accounts, you’d be able to purchase points for 1.6 cents per point, which is significantly lower than the typical 2.7 cents per point charged for US Virgin Points purchases. Maxed out, this would give you 255,000 Virgin Points for $4,075.00

What You Can Do With Virgin Points

I use Virgin Points to upgrade flights from the UK to the USA from Premium Economy to Upper Class. It’s one of the best values in travel, and at around 20,000 points and circa £120 each way, it’s a phenomenal value to experience A350 Upper Class.

I also use Virgin Points to stalk ANA Business and First Class availability from US and UK gateways to Tokyo. There’s no better way to book these flights (other than with ANA miles) than with Virgin Atlantic Points. You just find seats, call Virgin and voila.

a seat in an airplane
ANA business class. Yes, it looks like First Class, and feels like it too…

I was able to find two first class seats to Tokyo this year, which retail for over $9,000 in either currency (USD or GBP) — which I was able to book for 120,000 points and £240 round trip. Business is just 95,000 and the same taxes. Acquiring Virgin Points at under 1p per point in the UK makes these extreme bargains, lower than most business class sales.

With the introduction of Virgin Red, Virgin Points now go beyond Virgin Atlantic, and can be used for everything from hotels to cruises, wine, suites for concerts and just about anything really. You can learn more about the program here, which aims to make Virgin Red a huge currency across all Virgin brands.

Buying Virgin Points: Making Up Your Mind

Buying points rarely makes sense for a hoarder. Points very rarely “gain” value and far more frequently, they lose or change value over time. If these will collect dust, it’s more than likely better to pass.

If you have travel plans in the next 355 days and could benefit from an upgrade, an incredible experience to Japan, or topping up for an Upper Class or Premium Economy Virgin Atlantic flight, this is a phenomenal value, and the lowest bonus Virgin offers. It’s a great time to buy.

In other words, if you were tempted before, this is the time to be more tempted, since prices are as low as they go – or bonuses are as high as they go – however you choose to look at the glass! You can buy Virgin Points with the bonuses here.

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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8 Comments

  1. Gilbert, your comment, ‘call Virgin,’ ain’t easy these days. I gave up after an hour on hold a couple of days ago. The second time I’ve tried.
    I did their bonus the last time it was offered. I am looking forward to becoming a vaunted gold member as they now attribute status to even miles travellers.

  2. I purchased two premium economy seats on Iberia to Barcelona, with my American Express platinum card. The trip there will be with American airlines. The trip back will be with Iberia. How do I upgrade to business? I’m new at this with about 170000 points. Please help, thank you.

  3. Thanks for reminding me Gilbert, I’ll get on to it tomorrow! What did you mean by the comment “If you have travel plans in the next 355 days”? I didn’t think they expired.

    1. Hey Andy, correct they – don’t! I was just saying it’s always good to have near term goals for points, since they rarely gain value over time.

      1. Great, and I get that. Just took a look in Virgin Flying Club and it looks like the max. bonus is 60%, maybe that’s changed from 70% recently.

        1. It’s an odd one because I believe the effective bonus is 70%, and it’s been marketed that way in US, but UK they keep flip flopping.

  4. But in order to get the 70% bonus, one has to spend $2700. In order to get that ANA first award, better to spend $2160 for 120K miles as that ticket is worth about $20K.

    Also, when I first went on the site, it stated 60%. But when I got to points.com page, it changed to 70%. The brackets are too high to get 70%.

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