Last Chance to Buy Virgin Atlantic Points With up to a 70% Bonus

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This Virgin Atlantic buy miles promotion has ended. However, you can still purchase Flying Club points.

For the last few weeks, Virgin Atlantic has offered Flying Club members the ability to buy Virgin points with up to a 70% bonus. When maximized, you can buy Virgin points at just US 1.48¢ per point — or even cheaper if you're based in Europe. If you haven't taken advantage of this promotion yet, here's your last chance. This promotion ends at midnight Greenwich Mean Time on March 31, 2023.

Virgin Club has also increased the number of points you can purchase with this promotion, raising the total amount from 100,000 to 200,000 points.

A Note on Buying Points and Miles

At AwardWallet, our primary goal is to show people how to get the best value for their hard-earned points and miles. Likewise, we evangelize the power of using the right card for every purchase. This maximizes your earning potential and builds your stash of points organically through everyday purchases. This means we're not typically proponents of buying points or miles — we prefer to earn them for free!

However, like any good rule, there are exceptions. If you're just short of your next award redemption, buying the last few points could be cheaper than paying cash for the flight. Moreover, if you (or an employer) plan to pay cash for an expensive ticket, buying enough points for an equivalent reward redemption could mean saving a lot. In any case, before you buy points, be sure you're comfortable with the comparable value you're receiving.

Buy Virgin Atlantic Points Key Terms

• Offer available through midnight GMT on March 31, 2023.
• Virgin Atlantic members can typically buy up to 100,000 points per year. However, during this promotion, the limit has been increased. Members can buy up to 200,000 points before the 70% bonus.
• Virgin Atlantic sells Virgin Points in increments of 1,000.
• For the first 14 days after purchasing, members may request a refund provided they haven't redeemed any of the purchased points. After the initial 14 days (or after redeeming any of the purchased points), the transaction is non-refundable.
• All transactions in which you buy Virgin Points incur a $22 transaction fee.
• Virgin Atlantic deposits purchased points within 24 hours of completing the purchase.
• You can find all the terms and conditions here.

Data points from AwardWallet users show that points purchases arrive within a day, so transfers meet the terms and conditions but aren't instant.

For this promotion, Virgin Atlantic offers tiered bonuses based on the number of points purchased:

• Less than 5,000 points: No bonus
• 5,000–24,000 points: 20% bonus
• 25,000–69,000 points: 30% bonus
• 70,000–124,000 points: 50% bonus
• 125,000–200,000 points: 70% bonus

For this promotion, the best value is found in the top tier — starting at 125,000 points. If members buy the maximum of 200,000 points, they will net 340,000 Virgin Points for $5,000. Factoring in the $22 transaction fee, the total of $5,022 equates to a value of 1.48¢ per point.

Also, note that Virgin Atlantic will base your pricing on where your account is registered. Pricing for UK-based customers tends to be much cheaper (even after factoring in the exchange rate) than those paying in other currencies.

3,015 Great British Pounds is only ~$3,615, but buying in U.S. Dollars costs $5,022 for the same amount of points. This is a difference of $1,407 for the same number of points! That also means you'll pay just 1.06 US cents per point if your account is registered in the UK.

Why can't I buy Virgin Points?

One quirk members have run into in the past is that they could not purchase Virgin Points without any prior account history. That means that if you haven't earned or redeemed a single point, you could run into this notice:

Well, shoot. That's annoying!

Thankfully, there's a quick fix for this. Simply make a small points transfer to your Flying Club account. Virgin is a transfer partner of five of the major transferrable points currency. So, that means you can a minimum transfer from the following currencies and gain the ability to buy Virgin points:

• American Express Membership Rewards: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
• Bilt Rewards: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
• Capital One Rewards: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
• Citi ThankYou Points: 1:1 transfer rate; most transfers process immediately
• Marriott Bonvoy: 3:1 transfer rate plus a 5,000-point bonus for each 20,000 points received; most transfers take one or two days

Situations Where Buying Virgin Points Makes Sense

Before 2021, we could have filled this section with plenty of fun business-class sweet spots, often featuring Delta flights. Unfortunately, in early 2021, Virgin Atlantic quietly quashed many of our favorite Delta premium-class partner redemptions.

Don't despair, though. There are still several situations where Virgin points can offer outsized value. But, as noted in the above-linked devaluation post, with Delta, you may just have to fly economy instead.

Seattle (SEA) to Tokyo (HND) in Delta Economy

• Mileage Rate: 27,500 points each way + $5.60 taxes/fees
• Typical Cash Price: $737
• Redemption Rate: 2.66 cents per point
• Cost of buying 27,500 Virgin Points at 1.48¢ per point: $407

Fly from Miami to Paris in Air France Business Class

• Mileage Rate: 48,500 points each way + $252 each way
• Typical Cash Price: $2,934
• Redemption Rate: 5.3 cents per point
• Cost of buying 48,500 Virgin Points at 1.48¢ per point: $718

Fly New York to Tokyo in ANA First Class

• Mileage Rate: 85,000 Virgin points each way
• Typical Cash Price: $21,931 round-trip
• Redemption Rate: 12.9 cents per point
• Cost of buying 170,000 Virgin Points at 1.48¢ per point: $2,516

This has often been touted as the greatest sweet spot in all of award travel. Period. Unfortunately, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has recently devalued their ANA first class award flights. It still stands as a good deal, but with a devaluation of up to 42% in some cases, the label as the greatest sweet spot in all of award travel has definitely taken quite a hit.

One of the highlights of ANA's first class is the Suntory Hibiki 21 whiskey served on the London, Frankfurt, and JFK routes. For 170,000 points, Flying Club members can book themselves from the East Coast to Japan in ANA first class. Round-trip. That's still one heck of a deal.

Plus, Virgin Atlantic recently modified its ANA partner awards page to reflect that members can now also book one-way awards on ANA for half the round-trip price. That means first-class awards from the US east coast to Japan for only 85,000 points!

Suntory Hibiki 21

To book ANA awards with Virgin Atlantic's Virgin Points, follow these steps:

1. Search United.com for ANA award availability.
2. Once you've found availability, note the dates and flight numbers.
3. Call Virgin Atlantic (800-365-9500) and feed them the dates and flight numbers.
4. Once the agent has confirmed award space, transfer points to your Flying Club account. (This excludes Marriott since Bonvoy-Virgin transfers typically take a few days).
5. Pay for the award ticket plus the taxes and fees.

Maximize Your Purchase

If you decided to buy Virgin Points or use the Virgin Atlantic Points Booster, you want to use the right credit card to increase your earnings. Unfortunately, this won't count as an airfare or travel purchase on your credit card. That's because the sale is process by Points.com. Thus, you should use one of these credit cards:

• Any credit card where you're working on a sign-up bonus. These are the best welcome offers available right now.
• Any credit card with perks you can unlock from spending, such as hotel free night awards, hotel elite status, or airline elite status.
• Your best credit card for everyday spending, such as the Citi^® Double Cash Card or Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

Related: Which Credit Card Should You Use to Buy Points and Miles?

Bottom Line

Virgin Atlantic is offering up to a 70% bonus when you buy points through March 31, 2023. If maximized, you can get Virgin points for as little as 1.48¢ each — or cheaper if you buy using GBP.

Virgin Atlantic offers many excellent sweet spots. And when Virgin Atlantic joined SkyTeam on March 2, 2023, it added more than a dozen new partners. For several of these partner flight options, buying points for 1.48¢ mean realizing a significant discount compared to paying cash rates.

If you see yourself booking a high-value Virgin Atlantic award soon, you may want to consider buying now to lock in this price.

Would you buy Virgin Atlantic Virgin Points for 1.48¢ each?