For many years, Virgin Atlantic had a credit card that was issued by Bank of America, but then it abruptly disappeared.
Virgin later came out with a new credit card – the Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard – which is now issued by Synchrony. It had a lackluster welcome offer, but last week it was boosted to a slightly more interesting 60,000 points.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
60K Points ⓘ Non-Affiliate 60K after $3K spend in 90 days + 2.5k for adding an authorised user (up to 4)$99 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: The Tier Points and annual 3rd night free at Virgin Hotels might be useful for some, especially with the anniversary bonus...but it's more "meh" than "yeah" for most of us. Earning rate: 3X Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Hotels and Virgin Voyages ✦ 2X dining, at grocery stores, on select streaming services and for EV charging ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Mastercard Signature issued by Synchrony. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Spend $15k in a calendar year to choose one or $30k to choose two of: voucher for companion seat or cabin upgrade; one free night or suite upgrade at Virgin Hotels up to $300 Bar Tab credit or Blue Extras perks package on Virgin Voyages Noteworthy perks: 25 Tier Points for each $2,500 in eligible purchases (max 50 Tier Points per month) ✦ 3rd night free at participating Virgin Hotel once/year ✦ 5,000 point yearly anniversary bonus |
Quick Thoughts
For someone who flies Virgin Atlantic frequently, the Virgin Red Rewards card has some features that could make it worthwhile. You earn 3x on Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Hotels and Virgin Voyages, 2x on groceries, dining, streaming services and EV charging and 1x everywhere else.
For every $2,500 you spend, you earn 25 Tier Points towards Virgin status which is capped at 50 Tier Points per month. That means that spending $5,000 every month on the card would earn you 600 Tier Points over the course of the year; that’s enough for Silver status that requires 400 Tier Points, while also getting you 60% of the way to Gold status which requires 1,000 Tier Points.
The card also features a ‘book two nights, get third night free’ benefit at Virgin Hotels properties once per year and 2,500 bonus points when adding an authorized user (limit of four). When it comes time to renew, you’ll earn 5,000 points which helps offset some of the $99 annual fee.
For the right person, this card could make sense. However, it’s hard to get overly enthused about it if you’re not seeking Virgin Atlantic Flying Club status due to the plethora of higher transferable point options elsewhere. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red (in effect the same thing for the purposes of transferable points) are transfer partners of every single transferable currency – Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Capital One miles, Bilt Rewards and Wells Fargo. Most of those have at least one card where you can earn in excess of 60,000 points that transfer to Virgin, while retaining the flexibility to transfer to a different program if desired. Given Virgin’s propensity for no-notice devaluations, maintaining that flexibility is preferable to having points tied up with Virgin already.
Having said that, if you feel like you’re maxed out on cards from those other issuers and would like more Virgin points, earning 60,000 points through this welcome offer certainly isn’t an awful option. The fact that the card is issued by Synchrony could make it of interest for some too.
As a reminder, Virgin Atlantic moved to dynamic pricing last year. Economy flights from New York to London are now available from as low as 6,000 points, so the bonus from the welcome offer could – potentially – get you 10 one way flights or five round trips between the US and UK, albeit with higher-than-ideal taxes and fees.
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Does the book 2 nights and get third free apply to point bookings? Are any of the Virgin Safari Camps participating hotels? If so, you could book the Ulusaba 2 night rate of @ 300,000 pts and get 3 nights. That could be interesting. If paying cash a third night free would save you @ $1850.
Got 2 of them over the weekend, so very excited, as approvals elsewhere are few and far between
If the card gives you 60,000 points, how does that equate to 5 round trips from US-UK?
You can book tickets between New York and London from 6,000 points each way. That’s 12,000 points round trip, or 60,000 for five round trips.
But you put the wrong number in the article. The typo says 60,000 each way
Ah, I see – thanks for catching that. I’ve fixed to have it say 6,000 points now.
What makes Synchrony interesting? Simply that it’s a different issuer? Or is there an angle where you want to get into their ecosystem?
Just that it’s a different issuer.
Whoops — the card “card” displayed in this post is for the C1 Venture, not the VIrigin card!
Assume Stephen thought “this is a way better card if you want Virgin points” and accidentally included 🙂
Oops! Thanks for catching that – that’s what I get for working on this so late last night as I copied over the code for the card display and forgot to update which card should actually be displayed.