Virgin travel points

Verylucky2022

Hello, I recently returned from a family trip to Orlando and would love to be able to do it again. Currently we use an Amex Platinum rewards card for most of our spending and pay it off in full every month (usually £1500 to £2000) we have had it a few years and normally get about £300 back every year. I have just looked into a Virgin credit card that gives points towards flights. Doesn’t anyone have any experience of these? With the welcome bonus and what we would spend in a year we would likely earn about 70000 points in the first year. The fee is £160 a year compared to our Amex’s £25. Has anyone redeemed the points and do they definitely never expire say if we were to wait maybe 3-5 years to make the trip? Any advice is welcome thanks!

Worried_fool

I suggest you look at the various cards that AmEx offer… there are cards that reward you with Avios points (great for flights on BA), while other cards give Membership Reward points that can be exchanged for miles with a wide range of airline frequent flyer schemes.

lr1277

One advantage of the Virgin card is that it is accepted in many more places than Amex, so you might be able to put more spend on it. One disadvantage is the maximim number of points you get each month is limited by your credit limit. You cannot get more points than your credit limit, unlike Amex.

I can’t answer your question but suggest you look at the articles and forum posts on the site: Headforpoints

The site covers many reward schemes in great detail and there is input from seasoned travellers and points collectors.

sausage_time

For a broader introduction to cashback and reward cards see this MSE article:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/best-credit-card-rewards/

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6665878/virgin-travel-points

My issue with VS is the limited places they fly to, as time goes on they seem to go to less and less places we want, though I see they have now reinstated a seasonal flight to Cancun.

As with all lines when you use your points to book flights you still have to pay a certain cash amount to it for taxes etc. For Economy flights sometimes there will be little difference between the fees and the cash price, as you go up the tiers the cash element increases however the value of the points tends to be better on cash savings. Looking at a random date the economy ticket was only getting you 0.4p per point and there were worse rates by changing it by 1 day.

Virgin's system has become much more complex in recent years with a vast difference in points required depending on the date you chose, in the month of May an upper class ticket ranges from 29,000 points up to 350,000 points one way. If you can be highly flexible in your dates then some good deals can be had

Scheme rules change over time, right now points dont expire but that isnt to say in 3 years time they won't change it again. BAs for example dont expire as long as there is some form of activity every 2 years and obviously if you are using a credit card associated with them then you should have activity every couple of months.

I always check with hope but end up using Avios more regularly as their short haul flights can be as little as £1 in fees and taxes and have many more options as where to fly.