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Author - Sam The Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard® offers 3 points as rewards on purchases with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Hotels, and Virgin Voyages. In addition, you get 2 points at grocery stores, dining, popular streaming services, and EV charging stations. You will have access to benefits such as a third night free at Virgin hotels, plus Personal Perks if you spend a minimum of $15k per year. Personal Perks include a companion seat voucher, cabin upgrade, a free hotel night, priority room upgrade, up to $300 bar tab credit, and access to Virgin Voyages Blue Extras tier.
- Credit: Good credit needed
- Credit bureau: Synchrony Bank usually pulls your Transunion credit report
- Check application status: There is, unfortunately, no way to check your application status
- Reconsideration: If declined your application cannot be reconsidered
Get 5,000 points each year you renew your card.
Earn 25 Tier Points for $2,500 of qualifying spend. Up to 50 Tier Points per month.
No foreign transaction fee.
Book two nights at participating Virgin Hotels once per cardholder year, and get the third night free.
If you spend a total of $15,000 within a cardholder year, you can choose one Personal Perk.
If you spend a total of $30,000 within a cardholder year, you can choose two Personal Perks.
Personal Perks include:
A Virgin Atlantic Companion Seat or a Cabin Upgrade
1 Free Hotel Night Stay at a Virgin hotel
Priority Room Upgrade at a Virgin hotel
Up to a $300 bar tab credit on cruises
Access to the Virgin Voyages Blue Extras tier
The points can be used at approximately 1 – 1.3 cents per point to book award flights with one of the following Virgin Atlantic airline partners:
- Air France/KLM
- Delta Airlines
- Aero Mexico
- Air New Zealand
- China Eastern
- El AL
- IndiGo
- Kenya Airways
- Korean Air
- LATAM Airlines
- Middle East Airlines
- Saudia Airlines
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- Vietnam Airlines
- Westjet
- Aegean Airlines
- Aer Lingus
- Air India
- Airlink
- Air Malta
- Air Serbia
- Bulgaria Air
- British Airways
- Caribbean Airlines
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Hong Kong Airlines
- Icelandair
- ITA Airways
- TAP Air Portugal
- Tarom
- Turkish Airlines
- Vistara
- Worldwide by easyJet
You can book award flights using your Virgin Atlantic miles with Virgin Atlantic airline and the following of its partners here:
- Delta
- Air France / KLM
- South African Airlines
To book award flights with other Virgin Atlantic airline partners call 1-800-862-8621.
Virgin Atlantic has different award charts for its own flights and every airline partner.
As you already know, some frequent flyer programs are better fit to use on their own metal, while others are better for traveling on the partner airlines. Virgin Atlantic belongs to the latter group. Not that it doesn’t have good redemption values – it has great redemption values in Economy, but the draconian Virgin surcharges destroy that value and make Flying Club miles unusable on its own flights – at least if you have other choices.
However, used on some partner airlines, Virgin Atlantic offers terrific values (of course as long as you can find award space, which is true for all airlines, almost without exceptions).
Fly Delta One (Business Class) to Europe for 50,000 Virgin Atlantic points… if you’re lucky!
I try not to dwell much on availability in this guide because it’s a separate (and painful) topic, but I have to warn you that Delta One award space to Europe almost doesn’t exist. Having said that, if you can find it, you might even get one of these door suites, who knows! 🙂
This is Delta One award space to Amsterdam in March 2022 for two people. After that – nada!
I’m posting this screenshot just to prove that finding Delta One flights to Europe is not 100% impossible, so try it. This flight, for example, is on A-350 that features those famous suites with doors. Let’s hope things will get better, but who knows!
Europe is the only region not affected by the huge 2021 Virgin / Delta devaluation. All other regions aside from U.S. to Europe are off limits now (insanely overpriced!).
Fly to Japan on ANA in Business and First from 45,000 miles!
This is probably one of the best sweet spots in the history of frequent flyer programs. You can travel between the U.S. West Coast and Japan for 45,000 Virgin points in Business and 55,000 in First.
The rates from the East Coast aren’t much higher: 47,500 and 60,000 points respectively. The table below reflects the round-trip prices (one-way flights are allowed).
This is an incredible value, especially in First Class and it beats ANA’s own First Class prices.
