Virgin Atlantic is known for its stylish cabins and exceptional service. Their award program – Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – has a variety of sweet spots, especially when it comes to travel to the UK. They’re also part of SkyTeam Alliance, which opens up further award flight opportunities. Let’s go over everything you need to know.

How to earn Virgin Atlantic points

Virgin Atlantic points are easy to earn thanks to their partnership with all four major banks. Points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000.

You can transfer points from:

• American Express Membership Rewards®
• Chase Ultimate Rewards®
• Citi ThankYou® Points
• Capital One Miles

To make it even better, there are often transfer bonuses from the banks to Virgin Atlantic. Transfer bonuses are an excellent way to boost your points stash for free. For example, if there is a 30% transfer bonus from Chase to Virgin Atlantic, every 1,000 Chase points would become 1,300 Virgin Atlantic points.

You can find the current transfer bonuses here.

How to book flights on Virgin Atlantic

Before transferring points from the bank to Virgin Atlantic, you need to find available flights. Start your search on the Virgin Atlantic website. You will search similarly to a cash search, but be sure to toggle the “Search for Reward Flights” button near the top left.

Economy flights from the East Coast start at 6,000 points. Economy flights from the West Coast start at 9,000 points.

Upper Class flights from the East Coast start at 29,000 points. Upper Class flights from the West Coast start at 45,000 points.

Once you find the flights you want and see how many points are needed, you can transfer points from the bank to Virgin Atlantic. Transfers are usually instant. You may need to log out and log back into your account.

It’s important to note that taxes tend to be higher on Virgin Atlantic than on some other airlines. However, it’s still a great deal overall. Taxes are the highest if you fly home from the UK, so my suggestion to to fly into LHR or MAN, then take a cheap intra-Europe cash flight (as low as $20 per person!) to a different airport to fly home from.

When searching for award flights, flexibility with your dates can be the key to finding the best flights. Virgin Atlantic has a Reward Seat Checker, which can be very helpful when trying to find flight options.

Here’s what it looks like:

You can search by departing airport for all flights into London Heathrow. Searches are for a month at a time. This is the easiest way to find the lowest prices.

Virgin Atlantic’s airline partners

Virgin Atlantic is part of SkyTeam alliance, which means you can sometimes find great deals for partner airlines. Two of my favorite partners are Air France/KLM and Delta. We have found excellent deals booked through Virgin Atlantic but flying on Delta. This is how we booked flights to Cabo last year for just 17,000 miles per person roundtrip.

Other alliance partners include:

• Aerolíneas Argentinas
• Aeromexico
• Air Europa
• China Airlines
• China Eastern
• Garuda Indonesia
• ITA Airways
• Kenya Airways
• Korean Air
• Middle East Airlines
• SAS
• Saudia
• TAROM
• Vietnam Airlines
• Xiamen Airlines

Wrapping Up

Virgin Atlantic may not be the first program you think of when redeeming miles. However, with its partnership with the major banks, frequent transfer bonuses, and excellent airline partners, it’s a program worth considering, especially if your goal is a Europe trip!