Deal has ended, view more Virgin Atlantic deals by clicking here.
The Offer
- Receive a 30% bonus when you transfer your American Express membership rewards points to Virgin Atlantic. For example, transfer 1,000 American Express membership rewards and receive 1,300 Virgin Atlantic miles.
The Fine Print
- Valid until 12/31/21
Our Verdict
This is the standard transfer bonus we see from American Express to Virgin Atlantic, although haven’t seen it in some time. You can view a full list of the previous and current transfer bonuses by clicking here. My recommendation is to only transfer if you have a redemption in mind for the short to medium term due to airline programs constantly devaluing their programs.
Only idiots will transfer ANY points to this british bull dog airline
lol shut up
I have a different view on speculative transfers. I realize airlines may devalue in the future. But that is a “might” and the time horizon is unknown. OTOH the Amex transfer to Virgin WILL devalue by 30% in one month.
So, if this is a program you value and utilize, why not take the 30% knowing it is unlikely Virgin will devalue by more than that within a reasonable time horizon. When you do need Virgin Atlantic miles, how likely is it there will be a 30% transfer bonus when you need it?
Also, carrying a lot of MR points comes with risk if you play on the fringes like I do. Always better to diversify IMO.
Just offering a different POV.
What is Virgina Atlantic good for? How are their partner awards? Any sweetspots?
You can book ANA business class to japan, but I don’t know if Japan is letting tourists in yet.
well if japan was open I would say they are great! ana is an amazing transfer(73000 for round trip business and 92 for first) but beyond that, if you travel intercontinental us aka lax to JFK delta one is only 22,500 one way with sale only 17500 which normally would cost 600+ cash fair. those are just two redemptions I have found value from. happy searching!
Thank you, max. But how is the availability on ANA and Delta with virgin miles?
I flew first IAH to NRT a few years ago by transfer to Virgin. The availability is decent if you book far enough in advance. You have to use the United website to search for First/Business Saver Awards for ANA. As far as I know there is no good way to do this on ANA’s site. Then you call Virgin to make the reservation. If you don’t have Virgin points, they will put a hold on your reservation for a certain for a few days to give you time to transfer in the points. Takes a little effort, but totally worth it for ANA first/business.
Thank you, Steve. What about flights from NRT? Like IAH-NRT-HKG? Is the pricing for anything beyond Japan good as well?
I use VA to book delta flights. I’m able to get flights from MSP to HNL for 45000 points rather than the 1000 cash price
If you play around with the dates I have seen flights from MSP to Dublin, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Rome for 15,000 miles each way and with reasonable taxes and fees. Also there is a Delta One Flight ( I think it is the older product though) from JFK to FRA for 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles and 6 dollars in fees, one way. Of course with all the covid variant talk Europe might be closed up for a while.
What’s going to happen in one month with Amex to Virgin Atlantic that will devalue it that much?
I think he meant that this transfer bonus offer will be over after one month and by that time if you need Virgin Atlantic miles then “the Amex transfer to Virgin WILL devalue by 30%”.