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Now through August 31, 2023, Virgin members can book one of four Virgin Red cruises in the Mediterranean for just 80,000 Virgin points. This new round of all-inclusive cruises depart from Athens or Barcelona. This is a return of a promotion we saw last year and earlier this year — which offered additional Virgin Red cruise options but required more points.
Don't have Virgin points already? Don't worry. Virgin points are some of the easiest points to accumulate in the points and miles world. Let's show you how to take advantage of this promotion.
Virgin Red Rewards Program
Virgin Red is the joint rewards program for all Virgin products and services — flights, trains, hotels, shopping, etc. The program started in February 2021 in the U.K. and expanded to include the U.S. in December 2021.
Travelers have plenty of ways to collect Virgin Red points. You can earn 2,000 bonus points on stays at any Virgin Hotel (located in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Nashville, and New Orleans, plus Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland). Just like other airline shopping portals, members can earn points on their purchases through the Virgin Shops Away shopping portal.
But, the easiest way for most readers to accumulate Virgin points is to transfer points from one of the following rewards programs:
Most of these partnerships are with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, instead of Virgin Red directly. To use Flying Club points to book Virgin Red cruises, you'll first need to link your Flying Club account to Virgin Red.
Virgin Red Cruises Promotion
Now through August 31, 2023, you can book one of four Virgin Red cruises. Cruises are available on the Virgin Resilient Lady from Athens, Greece or Virgin Valiant Lady from Barcelona, Spain. The cost is just 80,000 Virgin Red points for two passengers.
Note that there is no deadline for booking these cruises, only that your cruise must depart before August 31, 2023. However, the cruises are based on availability, so there's a chance the cruise you want could be sold out if you wait until the last minute.
All cruises are adult-only and all-inclusive (including taxes, fees, surcharges, tips…everything except for alcoholic beverages).
To redeem this offer, sign into Virgin Red and browse to this landing page. As long as you have enough points to cover the purchase, you will receive an access code that you can use the book your cruise directly with Virgin Voyages. At this time, it is unknown whether you will be refunded the points if the cruise you want is no longer available.
Here are the cruises available, all of which have a departure date before August 31, 2023:
7-Night Mediterranean cruise departing from Athens
- Greek Island Glow: Piraeus, Santorini, Rhodes, Bodrum, and Mykonos. Departure dates are June 4, 18, and 25; July 9, 16, and 30; and August 6, 20 and 27.
- Adriatic Sea & Gems: Piraeus, Split, Dubrovnik, Kotor, and Corfu. Departure dates are June 11; July 2 and 23; and August 13.
7-Night Mediterranean cruise for 2 departing from Barcelona
- The Irresistible Med: Barcelona, Toulon, Marina di Carrara, Ajaccio, and Ibiza. Departure dates are June 4 and 18; July 2, 16, and 30; and August 13 and 27.
- French Daze & Iberia Nights: Barcelona, Marseille, Cannes, Palma de Mallorca, and Ibiza. Departure dates are June 11 and 25; July 9 and 23; and August 6 and 20.
Terms and conditions
- These promotions are exclusive to Virgin Red members.
- Flights and transfers are not included. It's a good idea to get confirmation of your cruise before booking your flights.
- All sailors (passengers) should check the Virgin Voyages’ Voyage Well initiatives and conditions of travel to ensure they agree with the COVID-19 sailing protocols around testing and vaccines. Sailors are responsible for meeting the entry requirements for each port visited on the cruise, including any additional or differing COVID-19 requirements.
- As these are adult-only cruises, all passengers must be at least 18 years old.
- You'll be booking into a The Sea Terrace cabin (or Limited View Sea Terrace, depending on availability)
- The price is per cabin (one or two persons). There is no single sailor supplement available.
Dropping the Price from 80K to 62K
You'll notice that the headline mentions 62,000 points, yet the prices we've highlighted show 80,000 points. If you act soon, you could drop the effective cost to 62,000 points. That's thanks to current transfer bonuses from American Express (through June 14, 2023) and Chase (through June 15, 2023). Both offer a 30% transfer bonus, meaning transferring 62,000 points from either program (or a combination of the two) would give you 80,600 Virgin Points — enough for the cruise packages.
Our Take
This promotion is certainly better than last year's offers. The cheapest rate for a limited sea view cabin on Greek Island Glow or Adriatic Sea & Greek Gems cruise departing on July 2 or 9 is currently on sale for $3,086 — marked down from $4,256. By booking this Virgin Red cruise with 80,000 Virgin points, you'll get a redemption rate of 3.9 cents per point. That's a solid redemption rate and much better than the 2.26 cents per point redemption rate from last year's promotion.
On the other hand, the cheapest cruise (the Adriatic Sea & Greek Gems cruise departing on June 11) is currently on sale for $2,378. That drops the redemption rate to 2.97 cents per point for the 80,000 Virgin points required for this sailing. That's still a respectable redemption rate.
The bottom line is that everyone values their points differently, and not everyone likes cruises. If you've been building up your Virgin Red points, you might want to take advantage of this deal. Otherwise, shop around for a better cruise deal.
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Is this a current deal/article? All of the comments are from March of this year indicating the deal has sold out. Wondering if it was reprised.
This is an evergreen post that we update with the latest offerings. We just updated this post on May 26, 2023.
It seems this deal is no longer available
Thanks for flagging this Jordan. Indeed, it looks like the promotion must have sold out.
Booked ❣️
what is the cancelation policy– how many days before your cruise can you get your points refunded if you decide that you no longer want to go on the cruise?
Seems that Virgin Voyages’ cancellation policy would take effect. They allow free cancellations within 7 days of booking or more than 120 days of sailing. So, it seems this would be effectively noncancellable.
Does “within 7 days of booking” take precedence? Like, can I book and decide within 7 days if I want to go and then cancel if not?
Yes, but I’m unsure how this would work with points bookings. Presumably you’d get your Virgin points back. But that’s not confirmed on the website.
We are booked on the May 14th French Daze and Ibiza Nights cruise. We have paid in full. Can we change to using Virgin Red Points?
Good question. I’m assuming that you won’t be able to change your existing booking to points. But if your booking is fully refundable, you could cancel and refund it and rebook with points. Just note that can be risky.