Tomorrow Virgin American will run an 80% bonus on purchased miles.

They declare it ‘their biggest point bonus ever’ although they ran an 80% bonus about a year and a half ago, too.

The offer will run 9am to 5pm Eastern tomorrow, Tuesday October 21.

With this offer you’re paying about 2.9 cents per mile, which sounds high but Virgin America’s currency is somewhat deflated compared to most mileage programs.

Virgin America’s points are worth 2.2 cents apiece towards Virgin America travel, so it’s not a good deal to buy points and redeem them on Virgin America. But it can be a good deal to top off an account towards a specific award.

For instance, 30,000 miles is enough for a one-way San Francisco – London award in Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic, but that purchase will need to be paired with $600 in taxes and fees.

Still, less than $1500 all-in for a one-way Virgin Atlantic business class flight isn’t bad as far as those things go.

And it can also be useful for short haul Singapore Airlines awards, although note that Virgin America has access to limited Singapore partner inventory and not Singapore’s generous offerings for its own members.

Point purchases are processed by points.com, so to answer a common question about such transactions they do not post as travel or airfare to the credit card used for the purchase (and thus won’t earn applicable category bonuses).

(HT: Frequent Flyer Bonuses)

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