Virgin Atlantic Rewards Card

Pat38493

Some friends were raving about this card saying that they put all their spending through it and get free flights and holidays etc.

Also it looks like you can use points to get flight upgrades to higher classes of seat.

Does anyone have experience that can back this up?  I was looking on the web site and it looks like it might be quite good if you can put more than £1K per month through it, but on the other hand, you are limited to wherever Virgin Atlantic has flights?

I was also interested in whether you could pay for a Virgin holiday or cruise holiday on it, but it looks like you need 6 figure sums of points for 1 ticket which would take a decade or more to build up.

I can see that Amex has a similar card but you can use it on more airlines and options.

My gut instinct is that it's better just to get a cashback card and look for holiday bargains but does anyone else have good experiences there?  I am just wondering if it's a cost effective option i.e. are the free tickets you can get worth more than the cashback you would get on a cashback card?

Voyager2002

I suggest that you explore the website Head for Points. As you have discovered, there are many rival schemes, some of which may be more useful than others.

Your question on whether it is cost-effective is difficult to answer: how much do you value a business class flight?

lr1277

You can get more points if you buy either a Virgin flight or a Virgin holiday with your Virgin credit card. By even more points, I mean if you buy the flight or holiday from Virgin, you will get points on the card for spending on the card and then points from Virgin for buying one of their products.

But having explored the flights and holiday part of the Virgin holiday offering, I find the choice of hotels limited to those I would not stay. I have not looked at a Virgin holiday with a flight and car hire.

Please do check out Head for Points. There are card reviews for both the standard card and the Plus card.

DullGreyGuy

Pat38493 said:

Some friends were raving about this card saying that they put all their spending through it and get free flights and holidays etc.

Also it looks like you can use points to get flight upgrades to higher classes of seat.

Does anyone have experience that can back this up?  I was looking on the web site and it looks like it might be quite good if you can put more than £1K per month through it, but on the other hand, you are limited to wherever Virgin Atlantic has flights?

I was also interested in whether you could pay for a Virgin holiday or cruise holiday on it, but it looks like you need 6 figure sums of points for 1 ticket which would take a decade or more to build up.

I can see that Amex has a similar card but you can use it on more airlines and options.

My gut instinct is that it's better just to get a cashback card and look for holiday bargains but does anyone else have good experiences there?  I am just wondering if it's a cost effective option i.e. are the free tickets you can get worth more than the cashback you would get on a cashback card?

It's not free, you have to pay the taxes etc. With VS then it's basically only worth it if you are going to be flying Premium Economy or Upper Class (business) as the taxes make up such a large proportion of economy tickets. That said, tickets bought with miles are highly flexible and so whilst you are paying almost the same on economy you are getting an added benefit, if you potentially need it. 

The advantage of airline specific options is that you also get a companion voucher if you spend over a certain amount in the year. The AmEx cards with MR points are good because they are flexible but you then dont get the extra promotion of what is either a 50% discount or buy one get one free. 

I have experience of both AmEx and VS (and Avios), have flown VS UC many times with it, particularly during Covid when there was a lot of availability of seats, and use AmEx for Business and First with other airlines. Personally prefer AmEx because of the flexibility even if you lose the voucher, we use BA a fair amount for Europe which is very cheap with their Reward Flights, but you do need to be putting a lot on the card to make it work and there are less options for bonuses these days.

Pre-covid I had client engagements where I could be having £10k of work expenses a month which would all go on the cards and so earn miles.