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Do you, or does someone you know, have Virgin Points they will never use? Whatever you do, do not let them expire! You will ALWAYS find someone willing to accept Virgin points from you, often with very outstretched arms. But can you transfer your points to someone else?
You can transfer your Virgin Points to someone else if you have Gold Elite status, and you are transferring Virgin Points to someone connected to your Household Account. You cannot however transfer or sell points from one Flying Club account to another.
The rules, introduced by Virgin Atlantic, in 2020 allow up to 9 people in the same household to link accounts and transfer points to one another with Gold Tier status.
Only one member of the household needs to have Gold Elite status to achieve this. Unfortunately, as many Virgin customers have not reached top Gold tier elite status – and are unlikely to have 9 other people living with them – the number of people who can really take advantage of the maximum benefit on offer is less than 1% of customers!
How to Transfer Virgin Points to Another Person with Gold Elite Status
It takes some effort to reach Gold Elite status. It requires a great deal of spend, as well as many long hours on the plane. It can be reached faster though if you regularly fly in the Upper-Class cabin.
With Gold Elite status you can combine and group your Flying Club account with up to 9 other people from the same household to ‘pool’ together your points, which can be spent by the Gold Tier member or by other members who have been authorized to do so by the Gold Tier member.
If at any point the Gold Elite member is not applicable to retain their Gold tier status in the next year, the Household account is automatically canceled.
Credit: The Virgin Atlantic Terms and Conditions – see section 2.19
You can make an application to Virgin directly for this benefit. There are though so many caveats, and applicable to so few people, it may be better to look for other ways to make use of your points.
What to Use Virgin Points on if I Can’t Transfer Them to Someone Else
If you are one of the 99% of Virgin customers who are unable to simply gift your Virgin Points to someone, let’s look at some ways to spend them.
Flights
The obvious choice is to redeem them for flights, but reward seat redemptions start from 18,000 points, as Virgin only fly long-haul. If you have 60,000 Virgin Points you could use these to fly return to New York in Economy, you will need to pay the £100 return taxes and fees, but this as this is around 30% of the full price fare, it can save you on average £200-£250.
If you don’t have enough Virgin Points for a flight, you could use them for an upgrade instead.
How Much are Upgrades on Virgin Using Points?
Upgrades are calculated based on the difference between a reward flight in one cabin compared to the price in the next cabin. As an Economy reward seat to New York is 60,000 points and a Premium Economy seat 90,000, it will cost you 30,000 points to upgrade – or 15,000 points each way.
Experiences
With the average Virgin Point being worth 0.5p each, you should quickly be able to work out how much value of points you will have for an experience, or to put towards an experience. This handy table below should help:
| Virgin Points | Cash Equivalent Value |
|---|---|
| 1,000 | £5.00 |
| 5,000 | £25.00 |
| 20,000 | £100.00 |
| 75,000 | £375.00 |
Virgin has around 2,800 experiences to choose from, so finding something to spend your points on shouldn’t be too hard. You can exchange every 2,000 Virgin Points you have for a £10 Experience Voucher. Just Log In to your Virgin Flying Club and look for the Experiences section within the Spend Your Points menu option
Wine
Virgin has partnered with a number of individual winemakers creating some of the most unique wines on the market. For every 10,000 Virgin Points you have, you can redeem these for £50 worth of Virgin Wine vouchers. Just Log In to your Virgin Flying Club and look for the Virgin Wine section within the Spend Your Points menu option
Transfer Virgin Points – The Insider’s Notes
Here is a summary round up
- You can transfer your points to someone else but only if you are a Gold Tier member, and the person you wish to transfer your points to lives in the same household
- You cannot sell your Virgin Points or transfer them to someone who is not part of the same household
- Instead of transferring your points, you could use them instead on:
- Virgin Flights
- Flight Upgrades
- Virgin Experiences
- Virgin Wines