Virgin Atlantic offers an interesting scheme called Miles Booster that allows customers to purchase Virgin Flying Club miles at a reduced price. They have also brought back their semi-regular 30% Miles Booster bonus for April, making this a deal well worth a look.
Miles Booster can be used by anyone who has a future Virgin Atlantic flight booked or has flown with them in the last six months. This applies to both cash and miles reward flight bookings.
Don’t worry if you don’t have any Virgin travel plans though, there’s a separate bonus promotion that may also be of interest to you.
Apologies for the delay in covering this. I had pencilled it in several times in the last few weeks but ended up pushing it back for various reasons.
How does Virgin Miles Booster work?
Virgin is essentially allowing you to purchase Flying Club miles at 1p apiece. The total number of miles you can buy at this reduced rate depends on the distance of your forthcoming/past flight(s) with them.
Here’s how it works:
Virgin takes the actual flown distance (base miles) for your flight and will allow you to purchase up to double that amount – at 1p per mile – using Miles Booster.
Example 1 – New York = 6,916 miles
(Distances based on return flights)
Boost with the flown miles:
Get an extra 6,916 miles for £69.16
Or double the flown miles:
Get an extra 13,832 miles for £138.32
Example 2 – Barbados = 8,420 miles
Boost with the flown miles:
Get an extra 8,420 miles for £84.20
Or double the flown miles:
Get an extra 16,840 miles for £168.40
Get an extra 30% bonus miles
Between 4-30th April 2019, you’ll receive a 30% bonus when using Miles Booster.
Until midnight 30th April 2019, you’ll receive a bonus 30% miles on top of your boost.
Is this a good deal?
I don’t normally recommend purchasing miles directly from airlines unless there’s an excellent promotion or you have a specific use in mind for them that adds up cost-wise.
That’s usually my policy with British Airways offers and normally applies to Virgin’s miles purchasing scheme too.
Taking the earlier Barbados example, you can ordinarily purchase 16,840 miles for £168.40. When you include the 30% bonus that becomes 21,892 miles for £168.40 – just 0.76p per mile!
How to use the Virgin Atlantic Miles Booster
Once you’ve booked your flight, you can choose to boost online through your Flying Club profile.
- You can also boost miles on flights you’ve already flown. This can only be done on the phone via the Virgin Atlantic Customer Service Centre team though.
- Miles Booster can only be used on Virgin Atlantic flights on either a one-way or a return ticket.
- Virgin ‘Miles Booster’ miles will be in your account around 72 hours after the first leg of your flight. Alternatively, they’ll appear within 72 hours of purchase if you are doing so retrospectively.
There’s no limit to the number of miles that a member can earn via purchase(s) of Miles Booster.
You can view full T&Cs on this page here.
Up to 40% off when you buy Virgin miles
If you haven’t flown with Virgin in the last six months and don’t have any imminent plans to do so, there’s a different Virgin bonus also running at the moment that may be of interest.
Get up to 40% bonus miles when you buy Virgin miles before 30th April 2019.
The bonuses are tiered as follows:
1000 – 9000 miles = 15% bonus
10,000 – 29,000 miles = 20% bonus
30,000 – 69,000 miles = 30% bonus
70,000 – 100,000 miles = 40% bonus
Virgin Atlantic limit you to purchasing or being gifted a maximum of 100,000 Flying Club miles per calendar year. Miles earned via Miles Booster do NOT count towards that cap.
The link to buy Virgin miles is here
Verdict
Miles Booster is one of those useful tricks worth being aware of. The ability to purchase miles at just 1p per mile ‘year-round’ is a solid offer.
Add in the 30% bonus and you’re looking at some tempting pricing and an excellent way of topping up your Virgin account. Remembering that a return off-peak trip to New York costs just 20,000 miles – being able to purchase 21,000 miles for roughly £170 is a great deal.
The Miles Booster page on the Virgin website is here and the Buy Points page can be found here.
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