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Update 8/4/25: This promotion was originally valid for stays through the end of September. It was then extended to include stays through the end of November. It’s been extended once again, so you now have until August 31 to book stays through December 19.
Note that the transfer bonus referred to in the original post has now ended.
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Virgin Red is currently offering a discount on redemptions for Finch Hattons, an all-inclusive safari camp in Kenya. Redemptions cost 125,000 Virgin Red points per night.
The Deal
- Book award stays at the Virgin Limited Edition property Finch Hattons in Kenya for 125,000 Virgin Red points per night.
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Book by July 31, 2025 for stays through November 30, 2025.
Quick Thoughts
There are a few things to unpack here. For starters, the 125,000 redemption covers the cost for two people to visit and includes the following:
- Stay in a luxury tent
- All meals
- All drinks (including alcohol)
- Twice-daily game drives
- Transfer to and from the Finch Hattons private airstrip
Redemptions normally cost 190,000 points per night and the cash rate appears to be ~$2,800 per night, so you’d be getting good value from your points, even if it is a large number of points to drop per night. Bear in mind though that you’re not only getting accommodation – all your food and drink is included, as are two game drives each day that you’re there.
You do have to get yourself to Finch Hattons though. The Virgin Limited Edition website recommends flying in to Wilson airport in Nairobi, then getting a scheduled or charter flight from there. One airline that flies that route is Safarilink; one way flights cost $265 each way, but booking round trip is a little cheaper as it’s a total of $425.
Chase is currently offering a 25% bonus when transferring points to Virgin Atlantic, so you’d only need to transfer 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points per night. We sometimes see new transfer bonuses mid-month from other transferable currencies, so perhaps we’ll see some kind of bonus to Virgin from Citi or Capital One before this Virgin Limited Edition award sale ends.
Something else to be aware of is that you’d be booking via Virgin Red rather than Virgin Atlantic. If you only have a Virgin Atlantic account, you’ll therefore need to create a Virgin Red account and link the two. You’ll then be able to use your Virgin Atlantic points for Virgin Red bookings.
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I’ve also booked this, which appears to be an outstanding deal. As others have noted, it is nonrefundable so you have to be sure of your plans. It does require some back and forth with Virgin to get everything confirmed.
Be sure to check flight options as you will need to fly into Finch Hatton’s airstrip. There are only three services and these are small planes that typically only hold four passengers.
“all inclusive” + “camp”
Hmm
The “camps” in Kenya tend to be quite luxurious and are often higher end than the lodges.
One thing to be aware of in Kenya is that even the midrange lodges are usually very nice and higher end than what you would expect in the US. You do not have to spend top dollar to get amazing game drives, gourmet food, and stellar service. Personally I would save the high end bookings for somewhere else.
We have booked this trip and are going in a couple of weeks. Thoughts so far – it was difficult to get the communications finalized. They kept confirming space without confirming our reservation. We had the points there for 5 nights (625K) – they needed this, Virgin account holder name and Virgin number – their email and phone number all in the same email with our dates sent to Laura Mbuthia @finchhattonsreservations@virginlimitededition.com. It took about 3 weeks to get everything finalized but we are getting packed – finishing up shots and will post lost of photos!
How did it go Mary? Excited to hear your experience with this! Hope you guys had a blast.
It was great! Finch Hattons was the highlight of our 3 week Africa trip. I posted lots of photos & videos on FB and IG – feel free to send friend request to view. A couple of takeaways – bring lots of cash for tips (the staff to guest ratio at FH was about 10:1. Most of the time we were there we felt like we were literally the only 2 people there. A family arrived on day 4 after spending 5 nights at Mahali Mzuri and they said it was nicer there but packed – every table full, safari vehicles went out full. I figure FH must be the ugly step sister because we had our own driver and empty 6pax vehicle the whole week. Massages, yoga – everything was done on my schedule – not theirs. Even our bush plane to and from nairobi was empty except for us. Definitely check out the photos/reels on my FB or on IG @mary3graves.
Thanks Mary- headed there in a few weeks. The plane booking service fine print had me worried that they reserved the right to cancel if less than four people have booked. I guess given your experience, that is not the case at all.
yes -and it may be b/c we paid extra for the baggage overage (heavy cameras/lenses) but they didn’t weigh any of our bags and we saw people getting out of one at Wilson that had big roller bags (we were told to bag softsided duffles).
May be timing or things changed. I was at Mahali Mzuri years ago, and it was pretty empty. We had our own vehicle for 2 pax.
No AC, no thanks
We are going in a couple of weeks – highs 75 lows 50 and dry. July is their winter.
Enjoy!! July is definitely a good time to go. It isn’t exactly winter because Kenya is right on the equator, but definitely a little cooler and a lot drier than other times of the year. We went to Kenya for 10 days about 25 years ago and the weather was marvelous. Pleasant temperatures and we hardly saw a mosquito the whole trip through four national parks.
Looks amazing!
Warning! I called them to book and they stated that bookings are nonrefundable!
Great find! How do we view availability without transferring points? And can we book this for 3 guests?
When I click Redeem, I get this message. “Oh no… It looks like this reward is just out of reach!
You don’t have enough points for this reward – keep saving your Virgin Points”
You’ll see at the bottom of the offer page, it says “Contact Virgin Limited Edition on +1 877 577 8777 or via email at enquiries@virginlimitededition.com to confirm availability and points price.”
Clicking Redeem (even with plenty of points) just brings me to a contact-us form. It’s just another option rather than emailing.