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Virgin Atlantic is the second-biggest long-haul carrier in the U.K. after British Airways. The forty-year-old airline operates to multiple destinations in the U.S., Caribbean, Asia, and Africa from its bases in London, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Virgin is part-owned by Delta (49%) and joined the SkyTeam alliance in 2023.
Considering the wide use of Virgin points, you may wonder whether Virgin points expire. Here is all you need to know about how to keep your points active.
Do Virgin Points Expire?
The simple answer is that Virgin points do not expire. Per the Virgin Atlantic points page:
“Virgin Points never expire. Once you've earned your points, save them for as long as you like, so you can turn them into, well, anything you like. It's simple.”
Track your points and miles expiration for 630+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.
What are Virgin Points?
In short, Virgin points are the combined loyalty currency for the Virgin Group.
They can be earned and redeemed in a wide range of ways, particularly in the U.S. and U.K. Being based in the U.K., it has a more extensive network of partnerships in the British Isles than elsewhere. Interestingly, you can earn points for everything from switching your home energy supplier to catching a show in London's West End.
At the same time, you can also redeem them for a wide range of activities, including redeeming them for flights with Virgin Atlantic.
How to Earn Virgin Points
Fortunately, if you are into Virgin points, there are plenty of ways to earn them. You can earn Virgin points through any of the following methods:
- Fly on Virgin Atlantic or on an airline partner and earn points for your flight
- Earn points for spending on Virgin Atlantic® World Elite MasterCard®
- Stay with one of Virgin Atlantic’s hotel partners
- Rent a car with one of Virgin Atlantic’s car rental partners
- Earn points by shopping through the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal
- Purchase Virgin points
- Boost your points when you fly Virgin Atlantic
- Earn points for shopping online with US retailers, including Macy's, Walgreens, and Kohl’s.
- Hotel stays booked through booking.com earn Virgin Points in the U.S. & U.K.
- Earn Virgin Points when you shop online in the U.K. with a range of retailers from M&S to Harrods to Wickes and Screwfix.
- Earn points from many Virgin family partners in the U.K. — including mobile phones, train tickets, and much more.
- Earn points with Virgin's diverse U.S. partners — including hotels, Unite, and Voyages.
Virgin Atlantic Transfer Partners
If you need to boost your Virgin Points balance, you can transfer points from multiple credit card currencies to Virgin points. In fact, you can transfer points from the following currencies to Virgin Points:
Use AwardWallet to Track Your Virgin Points Expiration
Even though Virgin points do not expire, it still pays to keep track of your points balance. That way, you can have all your point balances in one place, allowing you to better plan and strategize your travel reward goals. The easiest way to keep track of your Virgin points is to use AwardWallet.
To add your Virgin Atlantic account, log into your AwardWallet account and then use this link to link your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account to AwardWallet.
Related: How to Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet
Our Take
The fact that Virgin points do not expire is welcome news. And while the airline has moved to a dynamic pricing model, there is still some great value to be had with the program. The value of the program is boosted by the fact that the airline has a minimum award seat guarantee on every flight, and if you can snag a saver award, some great deals on flights between the East Coast and the U.K.
With points that do not expire, you can focus on earning and redeeming your Virgin points.
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The Virgin site says this https://www.virginatlantic.com/bb/en/flying-club/news.html
Exciting changes to your miles
As of 24th September 2020, Flying Club miles will never expire. They’ll also have a new name – Virgin Points. This change means that you can build up your Virgin Points balance for as long as you want, and enjoy rewards at your leisure – whenever you’re ready.
Cheers
BW
Hi. I’m sure this is true but just incase can anyone confirm for me that virgin points wil no longer expire after 36month?
I replied above.
Excellent news!!! As a long time virgin Atlantic flying club member, I was afraid of losing my miles, Virgin flights are usually very expensive but I had manage to take advantage of some off season. flights however, I have been unable to travel with them since 2018, other low cost airlines like Norwegian had had cheaper flights options.
This is a great change – I managed to lose thousands of Flying Club Miles when mine expired. They were hard for me to earn in any great number and I didn’t have enough to use for a flight.
Kudos to Virgin Atlantic! I agree this should be the industry standard, and, in fact, it seems we are moving in that direction. Of the major airlines I do business with, only American Airlines still has a points expiration policy in place. In my opinion, that puts American at a competitive disadvantage, especially given that the expiration period is only 18 months. Hopefully all airlines will get on board with Virgin’s move and make it so our miles/points don’t expire.
This should be the standard nowadays. American, IAG and many of the legacy-airlins should follow.
Unfortunately Virgin does price out as segment by segment 🙁 Only direct flights are worthwhile.
This move certainly aligns with the Skymiles program.
It will be wise to focus on this program when the “situation” stabilizes a bit later on.