Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Richard Branson’s Necker Island is available to rent in-whole for a party of up to 30 people for an astronomical sum. Or, one can book an individual room on Necker Island for two people for about $30,000 for a week. Food, activities, and gratuities are included. Also included is boat transport from nearby Beef Island Airport (EIS). Transportation to Beef Island Airport from and to your own home is not included. If you don’t have $30,000 sitting around waiting for an opportunity like this, another option is to use your spare 1.2 million Virgin Atlantic miles.
How to book a Necker Island award
Booking a week on Necker Island is very different from booking an award flight. There are a number of separate steps…
Check for availability
To find out which weeks are available for redemption, email enquiries@virginlimitededition.com to ask. You should get a reply with all currently available dates.
Hold the room
Once you’ve picked out the week you’d like to go, reply to the above email to request that they hold your room. They’ll put the room on hold for up to a week.
Call Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to redeem miles
The Flying Club US number is: 1 800 365 9500. When I called I spoke with a very nice Englishwoman. She put me on hold frequently since she had never handled a request for Necker Island before. That did not surprise me! I imagined everyone in the office gathering to observe and offer advice while drinking tea and eating crumpets.
In the end, the call center agent found the proper procedure: she forward the request to the Flying Club Support team and told me that they would exchange the miles for an invoice and a letter authorizing… sorry, authorising, my week long stay. I was offered the option to receive the letter via email or parcel post. I chose email.
Wait for emails from Flying Club Support
Two emails with the subject heading “FLYING CLUB” arrived the next day from Flying Club Support (customer.services@fly.virgin.com). The first was an invoice and the second was a congratulations email authorizing my stay.
Forward the second email to Necker Island
I forwarded the authorization email to the person who had responded to my first request about availability, but you can also forward the email to: enquiries@virginlimitededition.com.
The day after forwarding the email, I received final confirmation via email.
Done and booked!
The entire process was quite easy. And, thanks to Award Wallet, I can view my biggest mileage redemption ever in a nice little chart that shows my mileage balances at different time points:
See also
- Considering the 1.2 million mile Necker Island challenge… Who’s with me?
- Necker Island, here we come!
- 1,200,000 miles for Necker Island: Not easy. Not free.
[…] If you already have enough miles or transferable points and want to do this, please see my step-by-step guide: How to book a free week on Necker Island. […]
[…] for availability by sending an email to: enquiries@virginlimitededition.com. Then, read my post: How to book a free week on Necker Island. All of the details you need to know are […]
[…] You may already have seen Frequent Miler’s (insane) plan to use over a million Virgin Atlantic miles to book one week on Richard Branson’s private island, Necker Island. It looks like he’s finally gotten all the points he needs, and has booked his week-long stay on Necker Island. […]
Have a fabulous time!
I guess it is less egregious than TPG supposedly spending $32k on The Etihad Residence. I think I’m in the wrong line of business, anyone have a Blogging for Dummies guide?
Oh my gosh how exciting!!!!
I can’t wait to read more about this.
And this is why you are my MS hero! Congrats, you and Pam should have a blast!
You know, I can do this any time with Delta. It is not that ALL that hard to find a 1.something million point round trip ticket. 🙂
Can not wait to see the posts on this. Well done Greg. Well done!
Haha that’s hilarious. 😀
So I wonder what happens if you can make the trip. Like illness, etc. I assume there are some sort of cancellation terms. I would imagine travel insurance might be good on a trip like this but I doubt any would refund the miles to you. It might be a good opportunity to network with the limited others on the island I would think.
This has been very entertaining. Hope the weather cooperates.
Congratulations! This year and next should be good weather in that region during hurricane season. El Nino seems to be strong and certainly meant less hurricanes in the Caribbean this past fall. I believe this effect may carry over some for next year. Seems their “Celebration Weeks” are only during hurricane season which is the lowest season. Fear not, we’re in the good part of the cycle for a couple years. However, I would purchase trip insurance. What is the stipulations for points being put back into your account? How long before the trip can you cancel the points portion and get a refund? I purchase trip insurance for every trip even when using points and it has come if very handy a number of times.
That is incredible. Enjoy.
Man, they don’t even offer you late checkout? LOL