Virgin Points: Significant (and positive) changes happening right now

Virgin is making sweeping changes to its scheme

Virgin has long played second fiddle to BA when it comes to points collection. The VA Flying Club had its quirks, and until a few years ago, the option to earn via credit card was limited. Even when Virgin launched a decent credit card, the perks were less valuable than BA’s. That’s all about to change.

What’s changing

A lot. Virgin’s two branded credit cards (the free one, and the £180/year one) will offer better perks, and the way that you can book seats using points is also completely changing.

Changes to the credit card rewards vouchers

• “Rewards Vouchers” will be issued after £10k (paid card) or £20k (free card) of spend.
• These vouchers can be used as either a “companion voucher” (similar to the BA Companion Voucher) or an “upgrade voucher”
• The companion voucher works in the same way as BA: book a flight using points, and as long as you cover the taxes & fees you can get a second seat for free.
• The companion voucher is “single flyer friendly” – you can use it to get a return flight for the points of a one way flight for one person, instead of having two people travel for half the price.
• The upgrade voucher allows you to upgrade two passengers on one flight, or one passenger on both an outbound and inbound flight.

There are some caveats to the vouchers. Namely that they have a maximum points value (75,000 for red tier, and 150,000 for silver and gold). That means that you could end up having to use extra points for upgrades or companion seats. How much this impacts a typical booking is yet to be seen.

Changes to the way you book seats with points

Virgin is moving to more dynamic pricing for their seats and – like Qatar – giving you the option of booking lots more seats. Unlike Qatar, Virgin promises that you can book any seat on any flight using points.

• “You can use your Virgin Points for every seat onboard” – VA’s words
• New “Saver” seats, reducing the points needed for flights to as low as 6,000 (one-way). This not the same as BA “reward flight saver”
• You can now use points to upgrade to ANY available seat in the cabin above you, including from premium economy to Upper Class.

What’s being removed?

Previously if you were a silver or gold and you had the VA credit card you would get a free clubhouse pass, giving you access to VA’s own lounges.

What’s not changing

Virgin still has some archaic rules around their household accounts. Whereas with BA anyone can create a connection between you and a partner, and pool your points, with Virgin the household account has to be set up by a member who is silver or higher.

When do these changes take place?

From the 30th October 2024. Any vouchers issued prior to this date will automatically convert to the new style voucher.

What does this mean for point collectors?

This really depends on how you collect your points, and where you want to travel to.

Virgin will always be at a disadvantage to BA, simply because you can fly to a lot more places with BA (and Qatar, Iberia, Aer Lingus). It’s a currency that has a lot more opportunity attached. .

If you’re collecting points via the BA Amex cards then you’re tied in to Avios. If, like me, you also collect Amex Membership Reward points then these changes do – in theory – make it more attractive for me to transfer to Virgin instead of BA.

Would I pay for a Virgin credit card? Most likely not. I already have a BA Premium Plus, Barclaycard Avios Plus AND an Amex Platinum. I can see people who are starting out on their points journey taking a good look at Virgin. It could work really well for a couple: one focuses on Avios via Amex/Barclaycard, and the other focuses on Virgin.

It also depends on what part of the country you’re in. Virgin has a decent set of direct flights from MAN, going to NYC and Orlando daily, Atlanta four times per week and then seasonal flights to Las Vegas and Barbados. For the South most of VA’s flights depart from Heathrow, having abandoned Gatwick in 2020. For points collectors in Glasgow, or Newcastle, it’s more viable to collect Avios and then connect in London.