Last Updated on 7 August 2026 by Dan Wilderness
Hello everyone! Is the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club worth your time and money in 2026? As someone who has used the scheme to fly to the US and Hong Kong since 2006, I have used Virgin Points to upgrade to Upper Class and Premium Economy. Here is my complete, tested review of how to maximise your miles, the exact value of a Virgin Point, and whether chasing Tier Status is actually worth it.
Often airline mileage scheme can feel hard to get value out of, but in using Flying Club alongside the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card I’ve been able to make a few practical redemptions of my points with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, using my miles to upgrade to Upper Class (Virgin’s Business Class cabin) and Premium Economy (you can read our review of if Premium Economy is worth it here).
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Quick Verdict on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
We think Virgin Atlantic flying club is generally the better of the loyalty schemes vs. BA Executive Club in the UK, however with the trade-off that Virgin fly to fewer destinations.
Flying Club works on a demand led system which doesn’t always work in your favour, but does offer the ability to generate some excellent mileage redemption opportunities , especially at non-peak times.
How Much Are Virgin Points Worth?
On average, Virgin Points are worth between 0.5p and 2p each, with the best value (2.0p per point) achieved when booking Upper Class reward seats.
- Standard Value: 0.5p per point (Economy redemptions)
- Minimum Target Value: 1.0p+ per point (Premium upgrades)
- Sweet Spot: 2.0p per point (Upper Class reward seats)
What we conclude from this is that the best value is usually seen when redeeming from a flight in Upper Class – however these come with the disadvantage of tending to need a high number of miles in order to be able to take advantage of the redemption.
We talk more about how to maximise the benefit of Virgin Flying Club later in this review.
How I tested Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
I’ve travelled a lot with Virgin Atlantic for trips to the States and to Hong Kong since about 2006. I’ve flown in each of Virgin’s cabins and used their lounge facilities as part of making my judgement.
I have successfully made a number of redemptions with Virgin Flying Club both for a reward flight and to upgrade an already booked flight, collecting miles with a combination of flying, using the Virgin Atlantic Rewards Credit Card and the Virgin Red app.
How does Virgin Atlantic Flying Club work?
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is essentially a classic Air Miles scheme, where you’ll get a certain amount of Virgin Points (formerly Flying Club miles) each time you travel.
One of the nice things about the scheme is the fact you’re earning Virgin Points rather than Air Miles which gives you options.
I’ve usually used mine as classic air miles and treated myself to an upgraded flight on a holiday, but you can also use them for other products in the Virgin group via the Virgin Red app, such as a Virgin Trains journey or something from Virgin Experience Days.
What are Virgin Points?
The Virgin Brand has made changes in the last couple of years as part of a plan to try and improve the overall brand value to switch up all Virgin focused loyalty schemes into awarding “Virgin Points” which can be spent on a cross basis with various Virgin Brands like Virgin Experience Days or Virgin Wines as well as Virgin Atlantic.
This provides a bit more flexibility and value to the miles – although frequent flyers are still likely to spend them with Virgin Atlantic.
Personally if I’m using any other Virgin brands, I like collecting the miles towards the flights, but knowing you can redeem on smaller items is very welcome.
Earning Miles with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
The amount of miles you earn on a Virgin Atlantic flight depend on a variety of factors – where you’re going, what class you’re flying in and what Virgin Atlantic Flying Club tier you’re in. (More on the latter of those later – but basically, being in a higher Flying Club Tier provides an earning boost).
The Virgin Miles you’ll earn will depend on your cabin flown and ticket type against a base earnings rate:
| Cabin | Fare Type | Typical Booking Classes | Base Points Earned |
|---|---|---|---|
| Economy | Light | T | 25% of base miles |
| Economy | Classic (restricted) | O, N, X, Q, E | 50% of base miles |
| Economy | Classic (standard) | L, U, M | 100% of base miles |
| Economy | Classic (flexible) | Y, B, R | 150% of base miles |
| Economy | Delight | V | 150% of base miles |
| Premium (Premium Economy) | Standard | H, K | 100% of base miles |
| Premium (Premium Economy) | Flexible | W, S | 200% of base miles |
| Upper Class | Standard | I, Z | 200% of base miles |
| Upper Class | Flexible | J, C, D | 400% of base miles |
| Status | Bonus on Virgin Atlantic & SkyTeam flights |
|---|---|
| Silver | +30% Virgin Points |
| Gold | +60% Virgin Points |
In order to see the specific number of miles you’ll earn on your flight, Virgin have created a very handy points earning calculator on their website where you can input a specific flight.
How many Virgin Points do I need for a reward flight?
Virgin have now changed their system to a dynamic pricing model.
What this means in practice is that the amount of miles you’ll need to book a seat is now specific to demand on that particular flight.
The advantage of dynamic pricing is that you can now pay in points for any seat, meaning you can nearly always find availability at a range of prices. This solves (potentially at a price) the historic problem in airline reward seat programmes of finding availability to actually cash in your seats.
There are also a limited number of seats under a “Saver” category that are particularly cheap for use a reward redemption for, and generally these represent good value.
However, this means that it’s harder to predict how many specific miles you’ll need to make a booking, and you’ll have to look at the individual flight to work it out.
It’s a fair system, but a hard one to save to a specific target number for.
I found that I got the best value going one of two routes – either booking a flight immediately before I wanted to fly, or else booking well in advance. I also found huge variability in prices, particularly in the Upper Class Cabin where peak season redemptions can now be incredibly expensive.
You can find exactly how much a specific flight will cost on the Reward Seat Checker Page here.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Tiers
On top of earning Virgin Points for each flight, you’ll also earn Tier points as well.
This is Virgin Atlantic‘s way of rewarding those who are flying frequently to keep them using the brand – realistically you need to be flying multiple times a year to move up the ranks. If you are in this position (such as if you’re flying for business travel) then you’ll secure some extra benefits.
How many Virgin Flying Club Tier points will I earn per flight?
You’ll earn additional tier points the higher the class you’re flying in, but it depends on the class of ticket. We’ve enclosed a table below showing the differences.
The ticket type is a way of segregating different fare values – you’ll need to look at your specific booking to identify this. If you’ve already made a booking you should be able to find the ticket type code on your e-ticket.
If you haven’t made a booking yet you can see the ticket type by starting a booking search on the Virgin Atlantic website or app, selecting a flight and then selecting details.
I’ve got an example of how this page looks when booking a flight in the Virgin Atlantic App below.
| Cabin | Ticket type | Tier Points earned (one way) |
|---|---|---|
| Economy Light | (T) | 25 |
| Economy Classic | (A, E, Q, X, N, O) | 25 |
| Economy Classic | (L, U, M, Y, B, R) | 50 |
| Economy Delight | (V) | 50 |
| Premium | (H, K, P) | 50 |
| Premium | (W, S) | 100 |
| Upper Class | (G, Z) | 100 |
| Upper Class | (J, C, D, I) | 200 |
What are the Virgin Flying Club Tiers and Benefits?
There’s a full table on the Virgin Website summarising the tier differences, but we’ve called out the key benefits of each level below for each.
Virgin Flying Club Red
Any member joining Virgin Flying Club will be in the Red Tier – this is just standard membership.
If you earn 400 Flying Club Tier Points in a year you’ll be upgraded to:
Virgin Flying Club Silver
This has a few nice perks. The biggest benefit by far is the fact you’ll earn Virgin Points at an increased earnings rate of +30%.
You can also use the Premium Economy check in desks as a Silver Flying Club member, and get priority boarding.
The serious benefits come at the next level, but you have to fly a lot to get there – earning 1000 Flying Club Tier Points.
Virgin Flying Club Gold
At this point you’re getting a really nice increased Virgin Points earnings rate of an additional +60% uplift.
The real benefit of being here though is the access to both the excellent Virgin lounges (known as clubhouses) and arrival lounges where available. The departure lounge at Heathrow in particular is excellent, with great facilities and a fun design.
(If you don’t have Virgin Airport Lounge access included, you may be interested in our article on if UK Airport Lounge access is worth it).
This benefit also applies when you fly with Delta owing to the tie-up between the two airlines. You can also take an extra piece of hold and hand luggage, regardless of which class you’re flying in.
Does Virgin Atlantic Tier Status Expire?
Yes, your Virgin Atlantic Tier Points will expire after 12 months and if you haven’t maintained the required amount of Tier Points your status will drop to the next level down.
Is Virgin Atlantic Tier Status worth it?
Silver status is a nice boost for a extra +30% miles uplift, however we wouldn’t say this is actively worth chasing.
If you’re getting close to Flying Club Gold and see yourself flying soon, there is a clear argument that the combination of +60% boost and the lounge access really does add value.
If you’ll make at least 2 flights in the following year, we’d suggest it may be worth upgrading or taking a bonus flight to secure Gold status – it can be worth it for the lounge access alone if flying from destinations with established Virgin brand lounges.
How much are Virgin Points worth?
This is a very difficult question to answer as it depends how you spend your Virgin Points.
The versatility of the scheme is great in terms of how many ways you can spend the points, but different redemption can have different benefits from a range of approximately 0.5p per point to as much as 2p per point.
The better value redemptions do tend to be on the premium end of flights – the 2p per point value is achieved on using your Virgin Points to buy a long-haul flight in Upper Class, however you’ll need a lot of miles in order to get there!
The lower end 0.5p is found when redeeming a shorter-distance economy flight – as you’ll still pay fees and taxes, you’re not actually saving that much by cashing in your miles.
How much is 50,000 Virgin Points Worth?
Based on the above logic 50,000 Virgin Points will be worth about £500 (1p per mile), however it’s possible to expand the value to £1,000 (2p per mile) with a targeted Upper Class Reward redemption on a saver fare (albeit you may need more miles than the 50,000 to do this).
We’ve addressed this value specifically as it’s quite a common signup bonus of the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card with a boosted rate.
What is the best way to use Virgin Points for Flights?
In terms of the best overall use of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club cash-in’s, it’s to keep you eyes out for the occasional “miles sales” which Virgin runs. When these occur (usually once or twice a year at best) they often feature around 33% of miles redemption. So if you can wait for this, it can be worth doing so to grab a bargain.
You can also look out for the “Saver” tag when booking rewards seats, which highlights some of the best deals available for using your miles.
We’ve written up some examples below of the lowest rates I could find flying off-season under saver rates, as an example of what some of the best value I think that can be achieved looks like, and highlight some of the different points requirements between cabins.
| Route (Return from London) | Economy (Points + Taxes) | Upper Class (Points + Taxes) |
| New York (JFK) | ~20,000 + £280 | ~95,000 + £990 |
| Orlando (MCO) | ~25,000 + £280 | ~115,000 + £990 |
| Los Angeles (LAX) | ~30,000 + £300 | ~135,000 + £1,000 |
| Caribbean (Antigua) | ~22,000 + £280 | ~110,000 + £990 |
Beyond this, There are a few rules which generally apply to using any air miles scheme but also apply to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – the best approach tends to be value maximisation rather than cost minimisation.
What this means is that generally speaking you get better value on a point-per-pound basis on upgrading yourself or booking into a premium cabin that would normally cost a lot more.
Cashing your Virgin Points in on an economy seat will save you the most money, but doesn’t offer as much redemption value.
What is good value use of Virgin Points for Flights?
We would say that if you compare your mile usage to the cash cost, redeeming at anything above a value of 1.5p per mile is worth it – above 2p per mile is possible with searching.
How Many Virgin Points Do I Need for a Flight?
To cash in a flight with Virgin Points you’ll need a minimum of 10,000 miles (and pay taxes and fees), which will get you a one-way flight to Boston or New York on an off-peak saver fare (with dynamic pricing, you’ll need to be fortunate to grab one of those!)
However if you’ve got a smaller amount of miles there is a workaround – Virgin Miles can also be cashed in with Virgin’s partner airlines KLM and Air France with a European flight available from 4,000 miles, plus taxes and fees.
Where can I find deals or sales on Virgin Atlantic Flights?
If Virgin Atlantic have a sale on, you’ll find it at this link here.
You can also find Virgin’s best Upper Class flight deals here.
Other ways to earn Virgin Points
Whilst flying regularly is one of the fastest ways to earn Virgin Points, there are a number of other ways points can be accumulated and I think it’s worth highlighting some of them here.
Virgin Atlantic Reward Credit Cards
If you’re a regular flyer with Virgin it also might be worth considering the Virgin Atlantic Credit Cards, which earn Virgin Points at a good rate when spending (especially as you get double miles within the Virgin Group) and have the added bonus of at reward thresholds providing you with a voucher for a companion fare, upgrade voucher or clubhouse pass.
We like the Virgin Credit Cards and I’ve used the Reward+ credit card for a long term – as long as you’ll use the reward from them (and always pay off the credit card in full) the earning rate is very strong – see our full review in our article on the best rewards credit cards in the UK.
You can find detail on the Virgin Atlantic Credit Cards on the Virgin website here.
American Express Membership Rewards
They’re not quite as rewarding as the Virgin specific credit cards in exchange for flexibility, but those with an American Express Membership Rewards card such as the Gold card can also swap their membership points for Virgin Points to fly.
You can read more about those credit card on our best rewards credit cards in the UK article.
Virgin Holidays
Another strong reward earning option is to use the Virgin Group’s in-house travel agent Virgin Holidays, who have some excellent specialist packages in the locations Virgin Fly to.
You’ll earn an extra 2 miles per pound where travelling, and get double tier point bonuses where your holiday is booked as part of a package.
Virgin Holidays have also run promotions where the lead booker can get further bonus tier points!
Tesco Clubcard
You can exchange Tesco Clubcard points at a rate of 1 Clubcard Point for 2 Flying Club miles. This works out at a earning miles at an implied cost of 0.5p per mile, a pretty good deal when we consider miles to have a slightly higher value than this.
Tesco have also run promotions offering a bonus if you choose to auto-convert your Clubcard points to Virgin Miles – this provides a nice boost but locks you in to points.
Virgin Red
Virgin Red is essentially a joint loyalty hub between all of the Virgin Group, and so if you’re spending money with other Virgin parties like Virgin Wines, this can also provide a points boost.
We also detail later in this article that Virgin Red is the key to unlocking spending miles with other members of the Virgin Group, which can be helpful if you have smaller amounts of miles you need to use up. It’s free to use.
There’s a referral link for Virgin Red here (which can net us both 2,000 points with a qualifying earn)
Flying with SkyTeam Partners
Virgin Atlantic are also part of the SkyTeam airline alliance, which means you can both earn and spend miles with other airlines within the group if flying with them. It’s a good way of earning miles when you’d normally fly Virgin, but are taking a trip where that’s not an option.
Some of the other larger SkyTeam members include Air France, Delta, KLM and China Eastern.
You can read more about Virgin Atlantic’s membership of SkyTeam and see all partners on their website here.
Shops Away
Virgin Atlantic also have an online shopping portal called Shops Away that you can click through to after logging into your Flying Club account. Spending with an online shop after clicking through then rewards you with a number of Virgin Miles on the purchase.
We actually don’t recommend this route, because it’s effectively a cashback model which locks you in to only getting benefit in Virgin Miles. You’ll generally get a better earnings rate (and still be able to convert your cashback to Virgin Miles) by using one of the traditional cashback sites in the form of TopCashback or QuidCo. (Links are to our reviews of both).
Buy Miles
You can also Buy Miles on the Virgin Atlantic website, but the basic purchase rate is at 1.66p per mile, which is above what we think the core value of a Virgin Point is (and that’s before the transaction charge Virgin charge for a miles purchase which makes the maths worse).
We’d only recommend buying miles in cases you want to make a redemption, but need a tiny top up to hit what you need.
If you are going down this route, Virgin do offer occasional promotions offering bonus miles when purchasing them.
Virgin Atlantic Household Accounts
A relatively new feature Virgin Atlantic have introduced is the ability to pool your family points into a single household account. It’s something Avios have done for some time so it’s good to see Virgin catch up.
You can add up to 9 family members that live with you to a household account.
It’s a great feature to have – without the family account as miles are earned individually you can end up with small pockets of unused miles with different family members such as with someone who flies infrequently.
By using a household account, these miles can be pooled and applied most effectively. Just remember that anyone in your household account can spend the pooled miles, so make sure you’re agreed on how you’re using them!
How can I set up a Virgin Atlantic Household Account?
Someone with an existing Flying Club should go to this page here, and there’s a wizard to walk through setting up a family account and your family members.
Can I use Virgin Points for anything other than flights?
We had a question from a reader on if you could use your Virgin Points earned via Virgin Atlantic Flying Club on anything other than flights.
The answer is yes – but it takes a bit of extra effort.
To use Virgin points for other things, you’ll need to sign up for Virgin Red (which is the Virgin Group’s central loyalty hub) and link your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account number.
There’s a referral link for Virgin Red here (which can net us both 2,000 points with a qualifying earn)
Virgin Red essentially lets you spend points across the Virgin Group or with other third parties. The best value redemption are those within the Virgin Group as you’d expect, such as with Virgin Experience Days or Virgin Wines.
However, there are a number of other third party organisations you can also cash in Virgin Points, such as Greggs or various cinema chains.
Finally, points don’t expire so can be saved up over the long term for your next flight. (although the cost to redeem can always change).
Review of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Verdict: Virgin Atlantic‘s Flying Club is a good reward scheme that offers a generally good rate of return on flights taken, although this is partially as compensation for the more limited range of routes than Virgin’s competitors offer.
We like that the earnings rate is fair and reasonable and provides logical increases when upgrading cabins or with higher spends with Virgin.
Redemptions are at challenging but achievable levels for flyers, especially when combined with other earning sources such as credit cards and the flexibility of Virgin Points means that at least you can get some value out of the points if you don’t achieve enough to take a flight.
We’ve deducted half a star only for the complexities of the tier system. This isn’t a problem unique to Virgin Atlantic but you have to fly an awful lot to get into higher tiers, and the rewards aren’t that great until you hit the Gold level to get the clubhouse access.
We also note that when making a redemption you may pay fees, taxes and a “carrier surcharge”. We noted that Flyertalk and Reddit contributors had a view that su
rcharge seemed higher than some other carriers.
Overall though, we think Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is well worth signing up for!
Advantages
- Rewards are challenging but achievable, especially when cashed in for higher cabins
- Can use Virgin Points with a range of other partners via Virgin Red
- Ability to use with other partner companies around the Virgin Network
- Ability to pool points with family a plus
Disadvantages
- Tier System doesn’t significantly reward all except very frequent flyers who can hit Gold
- Destination list slightly limited vs. peers if you want to fly Virgin Atlantic themselves.
- Redemption availability can be expensive for premium cabins to popular destinations.
- Taxes and fees can still be high on a flight redemption.
FAQs about Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Yes absolutely, it’s completely free to join and you can earn Virgin Points as soon as you’re signed up.
You can sign up for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club right here at the Virgin Atlantic website.
Yes, unfortunately you do. So put aside any expectations of reward flights being entirely free! The exact taxes and charges you have to pay depends what airports you’re flying to and from.
This can often be bigger than you expect, as the UK charges quite a substantial amount in air taxes.
No, Virgin Points never expire!
It’s quite rare in the loyalty world where it’s pretty common to see a 12 month expiry period, and we salute Virgin for having a no expiry policy to help you actually get some loyalty value, especially over the long term.
Yes you can.
If you sign into to your Virgin Flying Club account and then search for a flight, you should see a Points Plus Money option appear where you can pay some points some cash. Just be aware that the redemption rates are not usually as good as a straight redemption.
You can by going into your Flying Club account and clicking buy miles. We’ve highlighted above we don’t see this as a good value way to earning miles, but can be useful if you need to top up to make a redemption.
Simply log into your Flying Club Account on the Virgin Atlantic website and both miles and tier status will appear on the main screen.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about the loyalty scheme or how to use any of the rewards, just drop us a note in the comments below!
And if you’re after a free flight upgrade without spending the miles, the link will take you to our article on the likelihood of free operational upgrades.
And that’s it!
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I have 2,125 virgin points from Tesco Clubcard. I am not flying at present, can I exchange these points for anything other than flights please?
Hello Mary, thank you for reading! It’s a good question and one I’ll work into this article as well.
You can indeed, but to do this you’ll need to sign up for Virgin Red (which is the Virgin Group’s central loyalty hub) and link your flying club account number. There’s a referral link here (which can net us both 2,000 points with a qualifying earn): [eafl id="9463" name="Virgin Red" text="affiliate link"]
Virgin Red basically lets you spend points across the Virgin Group or with other third parties. You have a relatively small amount of points for the bigger items but you can get multiple lunches or coffees at Greggs, Cinema tickets, or make donations to a number of charities.
Other options if you’re not looking to just “get rid” – redemption within the Virgin Group tend to understandably be the best value, so it may be worth considering transferring some more clubcard points and going for something like a Virgin Wines/Virgin Experience Days option.
Finally, points don’t expire so can be saved up for when you are flying (although the cost to redeem can always change).
Hope this helps!
I’ve had a virgin credit card for years and have always used it to collect virgin points to one day take my wife away to a romantic location. My wife however died two years ago yet I have continued to use this card to continually collect points.
Because I came into money through my circumstance I have used the card for all my purchases, but a couple of months ago found that I had been locked out of my fly club account. Upon investigating this I have been told that this is because of fraudulent activity and that virgin can revoke the reward points at any time. Obviously upset by this I challenged this decision and was willing to send any evidence required, but was received with an email stating that they will only respond to a representation legal team on this matter.
The thousands of points I’ve accumulated just gone and not even an apology or reason as to why, I honestly think is disgraceful for such a large company. So please beware that virgin offer these rewards and are happy to take them away at a moments notice.
I’m sure I’m not alone hear and would relish the opportunity for virgin to rectify their bias decision.
It is interesting that Virgin has launched a deal whereby members of other frequent flyer schemes can “convert” to Virgin’s Flying Club at a so called equivalent level. However, this is not very accurate. For example BA silver members get BA lounge access. Virgin converts these people to Flying Club silver which does not give lounge access. Of course, there are differences in how many tier points are needed to retain silver status with Virgin and BA. But for anybody thinking of converting, it is important to compare the benefits. Given Virgin silver does not give lounge access then BA silver members might find it better to stay with BA.
I cannot remember my Flying Club membership number. I thought I could book using money plus points but could not find that option. I have the password. Please can you supply me with the number and how to book using money plus points.
Susan Brattin
Hi Susan, thanks for reading! We’re a third party rather than have any connection with Virgin Atlantic, so I can’t directly give you the number but I can tell you how to find it and the money plus points option.
For your number, if you remember the e-mail you can log into Flying Club here with your password – that’ll take you to the main Virgin Flying Club page where your membership will appear.
Once you’re logged in, the ability to search on a Money Plus Points option will appear (it just doesn’t show if a Flying Club account isn’t logged in).
Hope that helps! Realising this article doesn’t cover Money Plus Points and it’s a good feature – I’m due to renew this shortly so I’ll add that in.