We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Monkey Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Capital One Transfer bonus: 30% to Virgin Red through 3/31/23
Capital One has brought back their 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Red. If you’re unfamiliar with Virgin Red it’s the umbrella rewards program of the Virgin group, so if you have Virgin Atlantic miles and link your account, you’ll have Virgin Red points. They’re essentially interchangeable, but Virgin Red has a ton more redemptions options since it’s open to cruises, hotels, and even safaris. We have added this to our current list of transfer bonuses. Let’s take a look!
Using Virgin Red to book Virgin Atlantic with miles
Virgin Red and Virgin Atlantic miles are one in the same after you link accounts, but all of the redemption pricing is still in Virgin Atlantic miles.
Virgin Atlantic is a very sleek, sexy, and stylish way to fly. The biggest problem? The surcharges are just outrageous. With that being said, Virgin committed in 2022 to release 2 award seats per flight. So… you can often find award space and if you’re booking last minute flights, it’s still a good deal when comparing to cash rates ( most of the time ).
I’ve flown the A350 many times and it’s a very solid product. My biggest gripe is the lack of storage in the seat, so personally I prefer other carriers, but I still fly it usually once or twice a year since we travel to London quite often. A new seat to keep an eye on is the A330-neo which offers their latest seat configuration and seems like a nice improvement. Avoid the old A330s tho…a quite inferior business class.
The A350-1000 on Virgin Atlantic
Let’s look at the Delta Suite 47k option.
I was fortunate enough to book this deal from London to Atlanta last year – it’s a bit of a unicorn booking so don’t count on finding it consistently.
Let’s talk about ANA First class starting at 85k ROUNDTRIP
This is no joke. Using Virgin Atlantic miles for ANA first class is one of the best redemptions in the sky. 110k from the West Coast, and 120k from Chicago and the East Coast. This amounts to just 85/95k Citi Thank You points. Unreal deal.
The best way to search is using United. Specify direct routing.There’s lots of avail from LAX to HND in business and first.
It’s a wonderfully reviewed product and I’m looking forward to flying it soon!
You can also use Virgin Red for cruises, hotels, and safaris
Personally, I think the real value is utilizing them for flights, specifically on partners, but even when paying the surcharges for Virgin Atlantic flights you’re getting pretty good value. One thing I would highlight, in 2023 we’ve seen Virgin Red promote their cruises. There are 7 and 8 nights cruises in the Caribbean or Mediterranean for 100k points for 2 people. That’s 77k Capital One Miles for a week long vacay – I’m sure you’re going to spend some money too on add-ons, etc – but a pretty good deal all around if you ask me.
Regarding the cruises the terms say: “As for digs, you’ll be kicking back in The Sea Terrace (or Limited View Sea Terrace, depending on availability).”
I did some perusing and this is the price for a sea terrace for 8 nights in the caribbean, what you could presumably book with Virgin Red
Overall
A lot of people have added the Capital One Venture X or Capital One Venture Rewards to their wallet over the past couple years when bonuses have ranged between 75k and 100k. There are a lot of interesting redemptions options on Virgin Red that could turn your miles into a very luxurious trip.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
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.
- 3x on dining
- including eligible delivery services for takeout
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/Chase Travel
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 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 Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Primary rental car coverage is my favorite
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.