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Guide on redeeming Virgin Voyages and maximising your benefits
(Thanks to @Luca for providing me with the photos!)
The Virgin Group welcomed a new member to its family, Virgin Voyages, which in my opinion is a game-changer to collectors of Virgin points. For as low as 80,000 points you can treat yourself (and one companion) to a 7-day all-inclusive cruise in the Mediterranean or the Caribbean, which is probably more fun and valuable than ten hours in the sky.
I have finally decided to jump onboard, and booked myself a Mediterranean (departing from Barcelona) trip this August. I did my fair share of research and hopefully this post will help you understand the booking process and maximise your benefits.
The redemption is still live on Virgin Red but is “ending soon”. Coincidentally, Virgin has a points sale and you can buy just over 80,000 points for £945, which is enough to cover the cost.
[Redeem your voyage]
Once you’ve made the redemption on Virgin Red, an access key (code) should arrive at your mailbox within three days. With the access key you can pick your voyage on Virgin Voyages’ website and book. Virgin Voyages is still quite new to the market so availability tends to be pretty good. I strongly encourage you to redeem an access key as soon as possible and then you can chill and plan.
Due to airfare and other factors I opted for the Barcelona route. The Greek one is considerably more expensive, and is possibly more interesting due to it being a new route. With your access key you can book any of the three Sea Terrace cabins:
Value-wise you are getting ~5p per Virgin point which is incredible!
[Link Accounts]
Once you’ve booked you’ll be given a referral link, and if your family and friends book with it your accounts will be linked. You’ll both receive some “celebration perks” on board, which is anecdotally a bottle of bubbly.
You can also ask their customer service to link existing bookings. Note that it only works on the same cruise. If you are travelling on the August 13th Mediterranean route, feel free to use my referral link.
[Solo Sailor Promotion]
If you are travelling solo there’s a special promotion if you book by June 30th, which entitles you to a whopping $600 bonus credit!
It is an all-inclusive cruise but you can pay extra for things such as cocktails, specialty coffee and specialty menu. According to my friends though you don’t have to as the inclusive meals and drinks are already very good.
According to its terms and conditions free access key bookings are excluded from this offer. However a friend of mine was told by customer service that his redemption booking is eligible for the bonus credit. Well you never know…
[Sailing Club]
Most importantly, don’t forget to join the Sailing Club before your trip. If you qualify as a Sea Rover you are entitled to the following perks:
- Priority boarding
- $100 bonus credit
- $10 daily specialty coffee credit
- Free premium wifi
- Free laundry and pressing service
- $100 bonus credit if you top up $300
Becoming a Sea Rover is easier than you think through their status match initiative. If you already have Virgin Atlantic’s Gold status you can submit your application right away. Otherwise you need to status match to MSC Cruises first.
1. Make sure you have a qualifying membership from an airline or a hotel program. I used my Hilton Diamond card but there are many other options including Hyatt, Accor, Marriott and IHG.
2. Submit your application to MSC. I tried MSC’s UK site first but it wouldn’t let me enter the correct postcode, so eventually I had to use their US site instead.
3. Wait for the approval email to arrive in a couple of days. With the provided membership number you can log on and obtain a snapshot of your Diamond membership card.
4. Submit a status match request on Virgin Voyages’ website with your booking reference and MSC membership.
You’ll soon be notified of the outcome. My request passed very quickly and I could immediately see the perks added to my booking.
I hope you find this post useful, and I’ll report back once I’ve completed my trip!
Virgin Australia’s status match: benefits with United, Etihad, Singapore and more!
Virgin Australia launched a status match program last year, which might entitle you to special benefits with them and partner airlines for up to 15 months!
- Elite members from select airlines can apply for a status match
- If granted, you commence a three-month Gold trial
- Fly one qualifying sector and earn 80 tier credits to extend your Gold status for one year
In general, S* Gold, Skyteam Elite Plus and Oneworld Sapphire / Emerald qualify, excluding Virgin Australia’s partners. Some minimum requirements include:
- British Airways Silver
- Lufthansa Senator
- Air France Gold
- Finnair Gold
- Delta Gold
- American Airlines Platinum
- Emirates Gold
The list is very extensive so you have high chances of being eligible. There is no direct link to apply – you need to click Member Support and submit a feedback form to apply.
Even if you don’t fly Virgin Australia, the Gold card is still useful with a bunch of other airlines.
| Priority Check-in | Priority Boarding | Additional Baggage Allowance | Fast Track | Lounge Access | |
| Hainan / Tianjin / Capital / Hong Kong Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Singapore Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| United Airlines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Air Canada | ✓ | ||||
| Virgin Atlantic | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Etihad | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Qatar Airways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| South African Airways | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Details of the lounge access policy is here, but in general you need to be on a flight operated by the partner carrier and can bring one guest.
If you are based in the UK, there’s a good chance that you’ll fly Virgin Atlantic some day, as well as some of the other partners. I value Priority Check-in and Lounge Access the most in terms of the aforementioned elite benefits.
80 tier credits are very easy to accrue, but you can’t possibly accomplish the one qualifying sector unless you travel to / within Australia. According to the program rules, your status will be re-evaluated at the end of the three months, which normally means you’d drop to a non-status member.
However, from the reports we’ve seen so far it seems that everyone has been downgraded to Silver instead post the Gold trial. It comes with two lounge passes for VA’s domestic lounges, and more importantly most of the partner benefits (barring lounge access) still apply for another year!
If you plan to fly Virgin Australia or their partner airline soon, it’s worthwhile signing up for the Gold trial beforehand.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic relaunches Shanghai with great reward availability
After being absent from China’s market for three years and having permanently discontinued Hong Kong, Virgin Atlantic is resuming its daily service between London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong on the first of May.
Reward availability was released this morning, and you can book literally any single day, although seats over China’s festive periods are selling fast.
Here is a reminder what a one-way ticket in Upper Class costs, and the respective fees from Shanghai / London:
- Economy: 12,500 points + 833 RMB / £208
- Premium Economy: 22,500 points+ 1,565 RMB / £360
- Upper Class: 57,500 points + 1,719 RMB / £411
You need to add another 10,000 points if flying at peak. Shanghai is operated by the older B787 aircrafts, although I think they are less bad compared to the A350 suite.
British Airways on the other hand, is also relaunching Shanghai on April 23rd and Beijing on June 3rd. However Avios seats have been available for quite a while now so it’s not as exciting.
BA’s new RFS pricing wants 200,000 Avios + £550 for a return trip to Shanghai, which is ridiculous. Unless you are looking to book first class with a companion voucher, Virgin Atlantic is the more favourable option by a large margin.
My review of Virgin Atlantic’s A350 Upper Class Suite
I made Los Angeles the first stop of my U.S. trip, as it’s one the few routes that feature Virgin A350’s new Upper Class Suite. In terms of similar suite products, I’ve tried Qatar Airways’ Qsuite and was truly impressed, but I’m not expecting Virgin to match that experience.
With the upgrade voucher I paid only 27,500 points for LHR-LAX, and there was a promotion going on to get half of the points back. It may come across as being cheap, if you dismiss the fact that taxes and charges amount to more than £600…
I’ve reviewed Heathrow’s Upper Class Wing and Clubhouse recently. I didn’t bother with the Upper Class Wing this time but spent considerable time at the Clubhouse. Menu of the day is surprisingly good including Chicken Katsu Curry, Kimchi Fried Rice and Thai Curry. I attempted to visit the Amex Centurion Lounge as well, but unfortunately it already suffers serious overcrowding issue.
Time to board the plane! If you’ve flown with them before you must be familiar with the club lighting.
I didn’t anticipate angled seats, but the upper class cabin is still configured the reverse herringbone style. As usual middle seats are ideal if you are travelling with a companion, but window seats offer better privacy.
I pre-selected 2A (window seat), but for operational reasons the seat is no longer available when I check in, and I’m assigned 8D (middle seat) instead.
I start to feel uncomfortable the moment sitting down. There’s nowhere to rest my head or neck, and the foot rest is much lower than the seat. At 6′ my legs are just about to reaching the foot rest, and I don’t know whether to put my legs down or on it.
There are five buttons to adjust the seat position. It’s a puzzle and I can’t find a comfortable position after all.
After converting into a bed, the lie-flat seat looks like this:
I’m finally starting to get comfortable, then another anti-pattern design hits me. As you can see from the picture, because of the installation of the IFE, I cannot lift my right leg at all. It may not be a problem when you are sleeping, but I like to roll around when lying down.
What’s more, I’m shocked to learn the “door” doesn’t pull out for more than 10 inches – it doesn’t go beyond what the picture shows. The partition between two middle seats is quite short too. To be honest I don’t think it has the qualification of being called a suite.
The amenity kit is made from recycled materials.
The IFE pops out, and I find its angle awkward as well. The system is very new but movie selection is quite limited.
Menu:
The menu fails to whet my appetite, nor does the food. The chicken parfait is fine.
I ordered a sandwich before landing, which is… a cold sandwich as you’ll find in Tesco.
The bar is replaced by The Loft on A350. I didn’t notice it when I got on the plane and didn’t look for it so have no idea how it actually looks like.
I’m not a fan of Virgin’s old Upper Class, and the only motivation for me to fly with them again was to try out the new suite. Sadly it turned out to be a near-disaster and the Upper Class Suite feels worse than the older product. I’m not looking forward to flying Virgin again in the near future, but hopefully I’ll be able to redeem some Virgin points on ANA soon!
Good offer: Virgin Atlantic selling points at 89p
Virgin Atlantic is selling their points at a historically low price, which may be worth visiting. You need to be a Silver or Gold member to get the best deal though.
Until November 18, you get a staggered bonus when purchasing Virgin points:
- 5,000 – 24,000 points: 15% / 20% bonus
- 25,000 – 69,000 points: 20% / 30% bonus
- 70,000 – 119,000 points: 40% / 50% bonus
- 120,000 points or more: 60% / 70% bonus
The second number is for Silver and Gold members, whereas the first is for everyone else. They’ve also increased the cap, so you can buy up to 200K points every year.
Virgin charges a flat £15 rate for every 1,000 points, and there’s a £15 handling fee per transaction. On the very top end you’ll be paying £3,015 for 340K points, which amounts to 0.887 per point.
Barring the occasional Miles Booster promotions (which isn’t on this time), this is the cheapest you can get for Virgin point. If you earn in a non-Sterling currency, for example USD, the deal is even more attractive given the recent GBP slump.
Virgin Atlantic is set to join Skyteam in the upcoming months so their point will potentially be worth more. However I wouldn’t take a punt right now, and will only purchase any points if I know where to spend them.
Book Virgin Chauffeur service for 17,500 points
Like many other airlines that wanted to impress their premium passengers onboard and off the plane, Virgin Atlantic used to offer free chauffeur service to Upper Class customers. The service has died down over the years though, and they no longer offer it in-house, but have partnered with a third-party provider and it is not to free to anyone anymore.
However, it is still possible to book the chauffeur service with Virgin points. It has a very limited audience though: only Upper Class reward tickets (booking class G) are eligible, although upgrade from paid Premium tickets are booked in the same class so I believe they qualify too.
You can read about the benefit here.
- It’s available at UK and US airports
- You pay 17,500 points per way
- It covers a 75-mile radius from the airport
- In the US it’s possible to pay $3.5 per mile if your travel distance exceeds 75 miles
I live near Heathrow, so Uber or Bolt costs me only £30 therefore the benefit doesn’t really apply. However, if you live further away it might start to make sense.
As you can see, the 75-mile radius covers almost the entire Southeast, as well as many other counties around London (I never realised England was so small).
If you already have a Virgin ticket, you could make a dummy chauffeur booking online to see what kind of car and service to expect. If I remember correctly their partner is Tristar, which was acquired by Addison Lee in 2020.
17,500 points isn’t cheap, but if you travel from far and especially with many bags, it may be a great redemption choice.
My review of Virgin Atlantic 787-9 Upper Class
We wrote about Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Wing and Clubhouse at Heathrow, and let’s take a look at their Upper Class in-flight experience today. It’s been three years since I was last onboard a wide-body aircraft.
For boarding there are two priority lanes: one for Upper Class passengers only, and the other for Premium, Economy Delight plus elite members of Virgin Atlantic, Delta and Flying Blue. I’m one of the first to board so can’t verify, but the second priority lane probably has loads of people.
The first thing that comes to your sight is their bar, which is a major feature for Upper Class passengers when they fancy a chat and some drinks.
It’s obviously not Emirates First Class though, and evolves into a totally different design on the A350 aircraft.
The 787 aircraft has herringbone configuration in Upper Class with three seats per row.
The seats are stacked very tightly though, so there isn’t as much space for each seat as you may expect.
The main storage space is behind the seat. There are charging ports behind the IFE and remote control.
One major defect is the lack of view. Even if you are sat at a window seat, the window is actually behind you blocked by the back of your seat.
I’m unpleasantly surprised when seeing their new amenity kit…
I get that they are trying to be environmentally responsible, but I like to collect airline amenity bags, and personally I don’t like them cutting cost in premium cabins whatever the claimed cause is.
The IFE has a small screen and looks quite old:
Some of the latest releases include Dune, Eternals and Unchartered.
Another sign of cost-cutting: for a flight duration of 9 hours, only one meal is served.
You can pre-order between 72 hours and 24 hours before the departure, which I didn’t do. But the online menu had more content than onboard, so it might be a wise thing to do.
I ordered Asparagus for a starter (it turns out no quail eggs are available):
Thai curry prawns as main course:
And the chocolate dome for dessert:
There are Extra Bites to order too whenever you feel peckish. I ended up having both the pull pork burger and crab cake, which are actually tastier than the prawns. My suspicion is that the Extra Bites replaces a second meal so they don’t have to offer starter or dessert.
One notorious design of their Upper Class seat: when turning into a bed it doesn’t naturally slide down like every other airline’s business class seat, but leans forward and then slides back instead. It’s slightly inconvenient as you can’t stay in the seat while the conversion happens.
The bed is long enough but the foot rest is a bit confined. The A350 Upper Class has a more conventional design, but from what I’ve heard the head space is smaller.
I’ve flown the 787 Upper Class a couple of times previously so nothings feels really refreshing of this flight. A friend of mine also did his A350 recently and I’ll see if I can get a report from him.
My review of Virgin Atlantic Upper Wing & Clubhouse at London Heathrow T3
I have been to most of the lounges at Heathrow. Amongst the remaining ones (that are still open) Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouse definitely tops my list. I didn’t fly with them that much, and never from Heathrow with a qualifying ticket so had no chance of trying the Clubhouse out.
This June I bought a ticket in Premium to the States, and used my credit card voucher to upgrade to Upper Class. In fact I status matched to Virgin Gold last December so should gain access to the lounge anyway.
In short, the following passengers can access the LHR T3 Clubhouse:
- Virgin Atlantic Upper Class / Delta One passengers
- Virgin Atlantic Gold / Virgin Australia Gold or above, when flying with Virgin Atlantic
- Delta Platinum and Diamond / Flying Blue Platinum, when flying with Virgin Atlantic or Delta
What I find really confusing is, Delta and Flying Blue elite members can use the lounge when flying with Delta, but Virgin Atlantic Gold members can’t. It must be a mix-up?
The entry rules were once very generous to VS Gold, as they could use the Clubhouse no matter which airline they were flying with (even BA). Sadly due to the overcrowding issue introduced by Delta passengers, it’s no longer the case.
Similar to BA’s First Wing at T5, Virgin Atlantic has an Upper Wing at T3 as well. If I interpret it correctly, only Upper Class and Delta One passengers are welcomed here so elite members aren’t allowed. It even has a dedicated driveway, and they verify your name at the entrance.
Don’t quote me on this, but I think it’s outside the Heathrow £5 drop-off charge zone.
The inside is much smaller than First Wing though, with only a couple of desks.
Thanks to its exclusiveness the check-in is really fast. When ready you can proceed to the security checkpoint.
Unfortunately Upper Wing doesn’t have its own security check facility, and it’s simply a reserved corner of the T3 screening facilities. After it’s done, you’ll merge with the general public and find your way to the Clubhouse.
The experience is a bit underwhelmed and not comparable to BA’s First Wing, as the latter has their own security checkpoint and you arrive into Galleries First within seconds. If you are travelling peak times (for example half-term) it might save you significant time, but otherwise I’m not sure if it’s necessary.
The Clubhouse is nicknamed Lounge H. When you enter the area of airline lounges, Qantas and Cathay Pacific are on the left, whereas BA, AA and the Clubhouse are on your right.
It’s above American’s Admirals Club.
Today happens to be the Platinum Jubilee and they’ve added some special celebratory decorations.
I was a bit shocked by how busy the lounge is…
You should notice the very long bar right away, which is deemed as the best at Heathrow.
There are many different kinds of seats in the lounge.
Going past the dining area (I forgot to take photos there) and you’ll reach the quieter business zone.
You can watch TV here.
Behind the bar there are some window seats shielded by a glass wall. They are probably the best spot in this lounge for good privacy and runway view.
The lounge is very purple-y, just like Virgin’s planes. There is also a mini-gym with three Peloton bikes, although I don’t think it’s a good idea to exhaust yourself before boarding a flight.
This is the other side of the lounge, with a couple of hanging pods.
A very Instagram-able spot:
This is the very quiet relaxation area.
On the first floor there’s a small entertainment room with a pool table.
Further up there’s a nice terrace if you want to enjoy the sun.
Bathroom:
Dining is mainly table service. You can either order from the waiter or scan the QR code.
I had a big breakfast here.
There’s also a deli counter where you can grab some stuff yourself.
What do I think? Well, don’t get me wrong – Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouse at Heathrow T3 is still a pretty decent lounge, but it’s not at the same level as it was years ago. Before its partnership with Delta and Flying Blue the Clubhouse was a quiet paradise reserved for its own passengers and members only, and now it simply doesn’t feel exclusive at all anymore. In fact I find it even busier than BA’s Galleries First Lounge.
Virgin’s cost cutting measures in the past years are also to blame. The Clubhouse used to offer a hot tub, free haircut and massage services, yet now there’s nothing left besides food. Unfortunately it can no longer differentiate itself from the other lounges at Heathrow. In fact I probably prefer the Amex Centurion Lounge or Cathay Pacific Business Lounge unless I really crave an a-la-carte menu.