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Buy Virgin Atlantic Miles
Virgin Atlantic is a running a fantastic, up to 70% bonus, on their miles when you purchase them. Let’s dig into the deal, whether it’s right for you, some attractive redemptions, and how pricing could vary depending on how many miles you buy. Through 08/04/24, you can buy up to 200k Virgin Atlantic Miles with up to a 70% bonus.
As I always say…don’t buy miles speculatively. Make sure you’ve crunched the numbers and optimally have a redemption in mind.
Terms:
- Up to 70% bonus until 7/7/24
- after that 60% bonus until 8/4/24
- Offer is tiered – see below
- Max of 200k miles
Why would you buy miles?
Personally I think using Virgin Miles on partners like ANA are by far the best usage. I’ve redeemed on Virgin itself, but the taxes and fees are terribly hard to swallow. For instance, I paid nearly $600 in surcharges for fly their new A350 from NYC to London. Here’s a few redemption options that could be attractive depending on your situation.
ANA award chart:
These numbers are roundtrip. Roundtrip in business to east or west coast runs you 95k and 90k, respectively. ANA is in the process of solely operating it’s newest business class cabin on the route, The Room. It looks absolutely epic.
UK account holder ( see below for more information )
- 1.3 cents a point
US Account holders
- 1.8 cents a point
KLM/AF
Also…you can use miles on KLM and Air France.
Delta
You can use Virgin miles to fly Delta for cheaper than you could on Delta. Keep an eye out of their newest Delta One suite, but often you can find it for just 50k points from the States to Europe.
Note that surcharges are now quite high on Delta flights booked using Virgin Miles
Virgin itself
While you’ll pay hefty taxes and fees. It is quite a cool way to fly, and rates can be quite attractive. You’ll often see 47.5k redemption levels between the East Coast and London and plenty of award space. The biggest downside is that these flights have a massive surcharge attached to them in either direction.
How many miles can I buy?
Max is 200k + a 70% bonus.
Is this the best pricing?
I believe 70% is the biggest bonus we’ve ever seen…we have seen 50% in the past as an FYI.
Overall
It’s a very good deal, but only purchase if you have a booking you know you want to make, and keep in mind that Virgin Atlantic adds a lot of surcharges to their own awards.
Buy Virgin Atlantic Miles
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.