Virgin Atlantic credit card

[kevin harrison]

I have just had an offer from Virgin Atlantic advertising a Virgin Atlantic Credit Card, wondered what you all thought....

If you spend £7,500 in a year on the Virgin Atlantic Black Card each year and you get a complimentary round trip companion reward ticket the next time you book a qualifying flight with Virgin Atlantic.

You get 6000 miles the first time you spend on the card

Spend £5,000 on the Virgin Atlantic Black Card each year and you get a round trip Premium Economy reward upgrade flight the next time you book a qualifying reward flight in Economy.

My family spend about £120 a week on food, then add on petrol etc, buy it on this card, clear the debt at the end of the month with the money you would have used and after a year have a free flight.

What do you all think?

 

[Hilary]

I may be wide of the mark, but I think there's something about companion flights / upgrades that limits them to accompanying/upgrading full fare tickets. I always think you might end up paying as much for one full fare flight to get the free companion flight as you would if you could get a couple of cheaper flights - but I don't know if that's right.

I'm interested to hear what others think, as this is something that's tempted me, too. At the moment, DH and I use a NatWest and a Tesco VISA, earning AirMiles rewards on both of them. We've had some good deals with the Airmiles, and they don't limit us to Virgin flights (or even just flights), so I have yet to be convinced that the Virgin card would be better. However, we already have Virgin frequent flyer miles and it may be better for us to add to them.

 

[kevin harrison]

However, we already have Virgin frequent flyer miles and it may be better for us to add to them.

That's what I was thinking, I already have 26,000 miles and was hoping I can add to them with this card.

 

[AndRu]

From what I've read, any new miles on the new card will be added to your existing total. As soon as the new "Black" card comes I'm buying a PC for my Mum @ £550 and a new set of tyres for my car @ £350. That's 5,400 miles + the 10,000 they give you for using the card. This will take my totall well over the 40,000 mark as we've just bought my DW a car on the card! Seeing as we only need 10,000 points to virtually halve the cost of trans-atlantic flights I think this is a good thing!

 

[kevin harrison]

Just ordered. Time to get earning points..

 

[Pootle]

... I'm interested to hear what others think, as this is something that's tempted me, too...

There's a good discussion on the merits of this new cc here which I found interesting and has persuaded me I ought to give it a go

 

[kevin harrison]

The way I see it is, if you do all your buying on the card, then save that money and pay the bill straight away in full, what is there to lose??

 

[mikki.young]

The way I see it is, if you do all your buying on the card, then save that money and pay the bill straight away in full, what is there to lose??

The only downside I can see is that it is Amex and not everywhere accepts that and some places charge extra if you want to use it. I've already discovered that the points from the old card have saved me a lot of money on my flights and more points means more savings.

 

[Hilary]

The way I see it is, if you do all your buying on the card, then save that money and pay the bill straight away in full, what is there to lose??

Well, in our case, we'd lose the option of collecting Airmiles which we do on our current cards, so we'd effectively be putting all our eggs in one basket and collecting to use Virgin only.

With Airmiles we can use any them for any airline on offer (including Virgin) plus make savings on hotels, car hire and airport parking, etc. Maybe Virgin's cc reward system will eventually build in other options.

 

[Hilary]

There's a good discussion on the merits of this new cc here which I found interesting and has persuaded me I ought to give it a go

Thanks for the link, I'll check it out later

 

[Sarnia]

Well, in our case, we'd lose the option of collecting Airmiles which we do on our current cards, so we'd effectively be putting all our eggs in one basket and collecting to use Virgin only.

With Airmiles we can use any them for any airline on offer (including Virgin) plus make savings on hotels, car hire and airport parking, etc. Maybe Virgin's cc reward system will eventually build in other options.

The trouble with airmiles is that it takes forever to get enough airmiles for free flights. We had a Natwest Black card where you get enhanced airmile earning, and in a year or so we had enough airmiles to maybe get somewhere in Europe. By paying an £80 fee on the Virgin credit card to get 2 miles per £ spent we were able to get 2 premium economy flights to Orlando and 2 Upper Class back for free with a years spending (we put everything we pay on the card). As said above though the new Amex card will make it harder to earn miles, especially here where nowhere accepts it.

 

[yo-ho-yo-ho]

A number of points here.

If you pay the fee which is £115 - and you book Virginflights with the card you get 4 miles for every £1 you spend.

If choosing the Black, be aware of the interest rate typical rate of 37.1% APR

The White card is the better bet for me !!!

 

[kevin harrison]

It all depends if you intend to pay your bill in full each month. If you are deffo going to use the points and intend to clear the balance each month, it's a no-brainer.

 

[kevin harrison]

Anyone else took up the offer?

 

[Celestine]

Our white cards have arrived, but I hel doff activating them as I wanted to spend almost £1000 on tickets & they don't take amex. Will activate the cards tomorrow. We're saving for our 10th wedding anniversary next year & hope to get enough miles for a free UC flight each. Does anyone know if you're still charged the handling fee if using this to book on VH? I know you get double points, but could it be wiped out by the handling fee?