June 28, 2016

New Link for 90,000 Mile Signup Bonus on Bank of America Virgin Atlantic MasterCard

It seems this offer comes and goes quite a bit but I just got an email from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club advertising the 90,000 mile signup bonus on the Bank of America Virgin Atlantic MasterCard. The previous working link I was aware expired so here is the current, direct link to the offer.

As a refresher, you don’t receive all 90,000 miles in one shot. Instead it is broken down as follows:

20,000 Miles After 1st Purchase
50,000 Miles After Spending $12k in 6 Months
5,000 Miles for Adding 2 Authorized Users (or 2,500 Miles for adding 1 Authorized User)
7,500 Miles for Spending $15k total in 1st Year of Membership
7,500 Miles for Spending $25k total in 1st Year of Membership

Even though its advertised as a 90,000 mile offer, I think its better to view it as a 82,500 mile offer as it seems likely you can spend $15k on the card if you already spent $12k of that getting the bonus 50,000 miles. Additionally, you earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent on this card so if you do manage to spend $15k on this card, you will end up a total of ~105,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles. The annual fee of $90 is NOT waived for the first year. This offer expires on July 10th per the email I received.

April 23, 2016

Virgin Atlantic Award Flight Sale: 30% Off Award Flights

Through May 11th Virgin Atlantic is having a sale on award flights with 30% fewer miles required which leads to some good deals for travel to Europe. This sale is only valid on economy class flights but no roundtrip is required nor are there any blackout dates – if you find a flight with availability (and availability is generally pretty good especially from the East Coast), it will be discounted.

30% Off Sale – Roundtrip prices shown

As many of you know, Virgin Atlantic charges a hefty fuel surcharges and when combined with UK taxes on all flights (no matter whether its award or paid), these charges can seriously add up as seen above. The way to beat this to book just a one way flight to London with this sale and use other miles (or book a cash ticket) home. For example, a one way flight from NY to London is only 12,250 miles + $134 in fees. Using a fair value of a penny per Virgin mile, you are effectively paying ~$256 for a one way flight to Europe from the East Coast. For a summer flight to Europe, that’s pretty unbeatable especially if you fly home from another city in Europe using miles and avoiding the UK departure taxes.

Example of One Way Award Flight

In the past, Virgin Atlantic has offered other award sales such as this one but I can’t recall seeing one way flights price out at under 12,250 miles – which is less than a standard domestic one way flight. For going to Europe, especially over summer, I’d argue this will be a hard deal to beat.

January 21, 2016

90,000 Mile Signup Bonus on the Virgin Atlantic MasterCard is Back

Update: It appears this offer has been around for a while and per Gary in the comments, this application link doesn’t have an expiration date.

I posted about this offer last year but the 90,000 mile offer on the on Virgin Atlantic MasterCard has returned. This time the offer expires on February 10th. I’ll copy the key points of the offer below but please see this post from last year when I posted about this offer for a more detailed analysis.

Virgin Atlantic 90k

You don’t receive all 90,000 miles in one shot. Instead it is broken down as follows:

20,000 Miles After 1st Purchase
50,000 Miles After Spending $12k in 6 Months
5,000 Miles for Adding 2 Authorized Users (or 2,500 Miles for adding 1 Authorized User)
7,500 Miles for Spending $15k total in 1st Year of Membership
7,500 Miles for Spending $25k total in 1st Year of Membership

Even though its advertised as a 90,000 mile offer, I think its better to view it as a 82,500 mile offer as it seems likely you can spend $15k on the card if you already spent $12k of that getting the bonus 50,000 miles. Additionally, you earn 1.5 miles per dollar spent on this card so if you do manage to spend $15k on this card, you will end up a total of ~105,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles. The annual fee of $90 is NOT waived for the first year. This offer expires on February 10th.

Here is the link to the application.

I got this card last year and still haven’t spent most of the miles so I am passing this time. My guess is I’ll eventually transfer my Virgin miles into Hilton Hhonors points down the road.

September 9, 2015

Quick Deal: Save 20% on Virgin Atlantic Award Redemptions!

Virgin Atlantic is offering 20% off on all economy and premium economy award redemptions made from now until September 23, 2015. There is no restriction on the travel period as long as the award is booked by September 23, 2015. Unfortunately this promotion to use 20% fewer miles excludes Upper Class award bookings.

The good news about this sale is it brings the cost of a East Coast to London flight down to only 28,000 miles roundtrip for an economy booking. The bad news is the taxes and fees still add about $500 to this. If you value the miles at a penny each, this is like paying ~$780 for a roundtrip flight to London which is pretty good all things considered. The best deal might be a one way TO London which is only 14,000 miles + a manageable $134.60 in taxes/fees. The return is more costly due to the UK taxes.

Award Sale Prices

Here is a snapshot of the terms & conditions.

Not a bad deal though one with limited use. Anyone booking one of these?

June 3, 2015

Earn 25,000 Virgin Atlantic Miles for Opening a Bank of America Checking Account

Note: There is an identical offer as mentioned below for 25,000 Alaska Airlines miles

Similar to the current Alaska Airlines checking account offer, Bank of America is now offering 25,000 Virgin Atlantic miles for signing up for a checking account and having two direct deposits of $2,000 or more hit your account within 90 days. This offer is exclusive to Virgin Atlantic credit cardholders. If you have an open Virgin Atlantic credit card, you should be eligible for this offer, even though the terms indicate you must receive this communication (this is similar to the language on the BofA Alaska checking account offer). See a snapshot of the mailer below I received in the mail though it can also be found online.

Direct Link to Offer

Here are the key terms of the offer:

Open either a Interest Checking account or Core checking account
Setup two direct deposits of $2,000 or more within 90 days of the account opening
Must NOT have had a Bank of America checking account within the past 12 months
Offer expires July 31st

Bank of America currently has an identical offer for 25,000 Alaska miles which I find far suprerior. Alaska miles are worth a lot more, easier to use and you don’t have to worry about fuel surcharges. That all said, if you don’t have an Alaska credit card (which makes you eligible for that offer) but have a Virgin Atlantic credit card, this is an easy 25,000 miles for little work. You can have the monthly service fee of $12 waived for the Core account by maintaining a balance of $1,500 so fees aren’t an issue. For the direct deposits, you don’t need to have a paycheck of over $2,000 – Doctor of Credit maintains a great list of other ways to satisfy direct deposit requirements.

I’ll be passing on this offer as I’m taking advantage of the 25,000 Alaska Airlines checking account offer but if I wasn’t eligible/targeted for that offer, I’d consider grabbing this one.

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting

Virgin Atlantic