Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: How to earn and redeem points, elite status and more

Editor’s note: This is a recurring post, regularly updated with new information and offers.

You may have overlooked Virgin Atlantic when planning your travels. While booking cash and award flights with the U.K.-based carrier can be costly (especially with added surcharges), the airline’s loyalty program, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, offers attractive partner award charts and noteworthy Saver fares.

Since Flying Club partners with major credit card rewards programs, points and miles enthusiasts can snag a great deal. For example, you can find business-class lie-flat seats from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) for just 29,000 points one-way.

Despite the program’s recent switch to dynamic pricing for flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, Virgin points currently stand out for offering incredible value with many uses. Keep reading to find out more about Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, including how to earn, redeem and maximize your reward points.

Related: How I booked lie-flat business-class seats to London for just 21,000 points

How to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

There are several ways to earn Virgin points directly.

Fly with Virgin Atlantic

You can earn Virgin points by flying with the carrier. The number of points you earn is based on the flight distance, booking class and whether you hold Flying Club elite status. To calculate how many points you will earn on your flight, use the airline’s earning calculator.

Since Virgin Atlantic is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, you can also earn Virgin points when flying with one of the carrier’s partners, including Delta Air Lines, Air France and KLM. To find out the number of points you can earn on partner airlines, be sure to navigate to Virgin’s partner page and click on the airline you are flying. You will earn redeemable award points based on your cabin, booking class and distance flown.

Earn Virgin points through credit card rewards

Flying Club partners with every major credit card rewards program. Therefore, it’s easy to boost your Virgin points balance if you have a rewards credit card that earns points or miles within the following programs:

• American Express Membership Rewards (points transfer at a 1:1 ratio)
• Bilt Rewards (1:1)
• Capital One (1:1)
• Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1)
• Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1)
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1, with a 5,000-point bonus for transferring 60,000 points)
• Wells Fargo Rewards (1:1)

Note that Capital One miles transfer to Virgin Red, not directly to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. However, you can easily use your Virgin Red points with Flying Club.

Also, Flying Club often offers transfer bonuses.

Many of these programs offer cards that feature terrific welcome bonuses. Here’s just a sample of the travel rewards credit cards that earn these transferable rewards that can be converted to Virgin points:

• [applyLink pid=”7758″ overridetext=”The Business Platinum Card® from American Express”]
• [applyLink pid=”22504813″ overridetext=”The Platinum Card® from American Express”]
• [applyLink pid=”6344″ overridetext=”American Express® Gold Card”]
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• [applyLink pid=”221211974″ overridetext=”Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card”] (see [termsConditions pid=”221211974″ overridetext=”rates and fees”])
• [applyLink pid=”22125056″ overridetext=”Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card”] (see [termsConditions pid=”22125056″ overridetext=”rates and fees”])

Purchase Virgin points

Virgin Atlantic allows you to purchase up to 100,000 Virgin points per calendar year at a rate of 2.5 cents each in intervals of 1,000 points, plus a transaction fee of $25, regardless of the number of points purchased.

TPG values Virgin points at 1.4 cents per point, per our June 2025 valuations; since the cost of purchasing points is much higher, it’s not a good deal to purchase points at full price. However, Virgin sometimes runs bonus promotions on purchasing points. This can bring the price down to a more reasonable cost and may be worth it to top off your account or to book an award flight.

Virgin Atlantic Points Booster

If you’re on a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight — whether you paid cash or points for it — you can use Flying Club’s Points Booster to score extra points for cheap. You can usually pay 0.01 British pounds (about $0.01) per point for the bonus points.

You can even use the Points Booster for flights you have already taken up to six months ago.

Other Virgin Atlantic earning partners

There are several partners through which you can earn Virgin points by shopping or traveling:

• Hotels: You can earn Virgin points by booking stays with Virgin Hotels, Virgin Limited Edition, Marriott, Best Western, Hilton, Kaligo, IHG, Rocketmiles and Hyatt.
• Car rental partners: Virgin Atlantic partners with Avis, Alamo, Enterprise, National and Sixt.
• Virgin Trains Ticketing: Earn points for train trips across Great Britain.
• Heathrow Rewards: You can earn points for shopping or parking at Heathrow and transfer them to Flying Club.
• Shops Away: Earn Virgin points when you choose to shop at over 1,000 retailers through Virgin Atlantic’s shopping portal.

There are also ways to earn Virgin points through airport lounge purchases, completing online surveys and airport parking.

Related: The beginners guide to airline shopping portals

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club elite status

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers three elite status tiers: Red, Silver and Gold. When you fly with Virgin or its partners, you earn tier points, and the higher the status you have with the airline, the more perks you’ll receive.

You’ll receive the following benefits at each elite status tier:

Red (new member)

• Board first in economy
• Pool your Virgin points in a household account
• Dedicated phone support
• Free economy seat selection seven days before departure with Virgin Atlantic Holidays
• Discounted access to and earn points at No1 Lounges

Silver (400 tier points required)

You’ll receive the same benefits as Red tier members, as well as the following benefits:

• Premium check-in
• Priority boarding
• 30% more bonus points on flights
• Status extension for maternity, paternity and adoption
• Gift a companion and upgrade voucher to your loved ones
• Member benefits with Virgin Hotels
• One additional checked bag
• Advance seat assignment

Gold (1,000 tier points required)

You’ll receive the same benefits as Silver tier members, as well as the following:

• 60% more Virgin points on flights
• Upper Class check-in
• Additional checked and cabin luggage allowance
• Free standard seat selection in Economy Light and Classic
• Free seat selection in Economy Delight
• Preferred seat selection before your flight in Premium (member only)
• Upper Class check-in
• Lounge access for you plus one guest
• Access to Heathrow’s Revivals Lounge
• 2,000 bonus points on your birthday
• Earn a Flying Club reward voucher when you renew your Gold status
• The ability to gift Flying Club reward vouchers to family and friends
• The ability to gift Silver status to a friend
• Guaranteed economy seat on any flight
• Two reward vouchers when you reach 2,000 tier points in your membership year

How to redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

In October, Flying Club drastically changed its loyalty program and moved to dynamic pricing. Now, every seat on a Virgin Atlantic-operated flight is available to book with Virgin points. As with cash fares, seats booked with Virgin points are priced according to demand. However, the number of Virgin points required to book an award seat is not linked to the cash price; this has resulted in some excellent and some awful redemption rates.

When searching for award redemptions, look for Saver seats marked with a red tag. These award seats are now the cheapest options, though they will not be offered on every flight.

You can use Virgin’s handy Reward Seat Checker to find the lowest-priced seats.

If you’re lucky enough to snag this redemption, you’ll be booking the lowest award rate for business-class flights to Europe of all the major airline loyalty programs.

Unfortunately, the downside of dynamic pricing is that the points required can be astronomical if you want to travel on peak dates like school holidays and during peak periods, with some routes requiring 150,000 points for a single flight in economy or 350,000 points in business class.

At these rates, check the price of cash fares, as you may find a better deal than redeeming your Virgin or credit card points.

A major downside when booking with Virgin is the carrier-imposed surcharges that the airline will tack onto your ticket. However, during the loyalty program’s overhaul, these fees were significantly reduced, so now they are more reasonable. Additionally, when departing the U.K., you must pay the U.K. Air Passenger Duty, which can add hundreds of dollars to your redemption in premium classes.

Related: Flexibility is key: Why I (mostly) like the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club changes

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club airline partners

Aside from Saver fares, which are strictly limited in capacity and may not be available on peak travel dates, the real magic of using Virgin points lies in partner award redemptions. Since the carrier joined the SkyTeam alliance, you can redeem Virgin points on all SkyTeam airlines.

Redemptions on SkyTeam airlines are distance-based, excluding flights operated by Air France, KLM and Delta. You will need the following Virgin points each way per person (though note that some airlines do not offer premium economy):

As for Air France-, KLM- and Delta-operated flights, be sure to check the award charts for these carriers on Virgin Atlantic’s website.

You’ll notice that partner redemption charts do not include first-class fares. This means you can’t redeem your Virgin points for SkyTeam airlines that offer first class, including Garuda Indonesia, Korean Air, Saudia and Xiamen Airlines.

Air France also offers first class but restricts redemptions to elite members of its own Flying Blue program.

In addition to redeeming your Virgin points with the SkyTeam airlines, you can also book award flights with the following airlines using Virgin points:

• Air New Zealand
• All Nippon Airways
• El Al
• Hawaiian Airlines
• ITA Airways
• LATAM
• Singapore Airlines
• South African Airways
• Virgin Australia

You can also earn Virgin points — but not redeem them — with partner IndiGo.

Each non-SkyTeam partner has a different award chart. Some are distance-based and others are zone-based, so each airline can have different terms and conditions.

Best ways to redeem Virgin points for maximum value

With so many different airline partners, here are some of our favorite ways to redeem your Virgin points.

Saver fares on Virgin Atlantic

On dates with low demand, the new Saver fares for flights from JFK to LHR now start at 6,000 Virgin points in economy, 10,500 Virgin points in premium economy and just 29,000 Virgin points in business class.

Carrier-imposed surcharges for Saver fares have also been reduced, starting at approximately $45 in economy, $78 in Premium and $227 in Upper Class on a flight from New York City to London. Minor additional government taxes and airport fees are also payable, which differ from route to route. Remember that the taxes for flights departing London will be more expensive than those to London because of the U.K. Air Passenger Duty.

These are the lowest redemption rates to fly to London of any major airline loyalty program.

All Nippon Airways

Consider Virgin Atlantic’s incredible redemption rates for ANA-operated flights if you want to travel between the U.S. and Japan. This route is one of the best award travel sweet spots, though availability is difficult to find.

Take a look at Virgin Atlantic’s award chart for ANA flights. These prices are for one-way travel, so you must double the price for a round-trip redemption.

Related: Feels like first class: Flying ANA The Room business class from LA-Tokyo

If you were to book a round-trip, first-class seat to Japan from the U.S. West Coast in one of ANA’s fancy suite seats, you’d spend just 145,000 points for a seat costing $20,000 or more. A business-class seat is also an excellent deal at just 105,000 points.

Air France-KLM

Virgin Atlantic has several award charts for both KLM and Air France. It divides the world into 10 zones and calculates your award price based on your origin and destination zones. Here are some notable price highlights from the U.S. on off-peak dates:

• One-way economy flight to Europe from the West Coast for 15,000 points
• One-way economy flight to the Middle East from the East Coast for 25,000 points
• One-way business-class flight to Europe from the East Coast for 48,500 points
• One-way business-class flight to North Africa from the East Coast for 66,500 points

Bottom line

Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club program is intricate — some of its luster has disappeared due to devaluations and diminishing availability from its partners. The new dynamic pricing model favors those who are flexible and can travel during off-peak periods, but those who want to travel over major holidays and peak summer months may likely now need to look to other programs for decent award redemptions.

However, the program is still highly valuable for international travel, particularly for those flying ANA, Air France or KLM in premium cabins when availability allows. Additionally, because the program has so many transfer partners, it’s easy to earn points. Therefore, you should not overlook this loyalty program.