90,000 Mile Signup Bonus for Virgin Atlantic MasterCard is Back

by Gary Leff

I receive compensation for content and many links on this blog. Citibank is an advertising partner of this site, as is American Express, Chase, Barclays and Capital One. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners. I do not write about all credit cards that are available -- instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Terms apply to the offers and benefits listed on this page.

Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard

I’ve had the Bank of America-issued Virgin Atlantic MasterCard several times over the years. The card is back with a signup bonus of up to 90,000 miles.

  • 20,000 miles after first purchase
  • 50,000 miles after $12,000 spend within 6 months
  • 7500 miles if you spend $15,000 in the first year
  • 7500 more if you spend $25,000 in the first year
  • 5000 miles for adding 2 authorized users on the account


Copyright: boarding1now / 123RF Stock Photo

The card earns triple miles on Virgin Atlantic spend and 1.5 points per dollar on all other spend.

Every $2500 spent on this $90 annual fee card earns 25 elite tier points, up to 50 tier points per month, though I don’t much value Virgin Atlantic status at all.

To be clear, Virgin Atlantic miles aren’t worth as much as other miles. That was true even before they knifed the program in the back in October.

However they do have strategic uses and I believe the single best one is ANA first class roundtrip from the Central U.S. and East Coast for just 120,000 miles per person. (San Francisco and Los Angeles is just 110,000 miles roundtrip, while business class runs 90,000 or 95,000 miles depending on the city.)

Here’s the Virgin Atlantic award chart for travel on ANA:

  • While Virgin Atlantic does hit you with fuel surcharges when redeeming miles where paid tickets would incur fuel surcharges, Japan awards don’t.

  • Awards are round trip only. And travel beyond Japan would be a separate round trip award.

  • You cannot book these awards online.

  • Virgin Atlantic awards have a $50 per passenger change fee, and a cancel/redeposit fee of $50 as well. That’s low by US program standards, but there are no changes at all within 24 hours of departure (you can cancel for $50 but you won’t get your miles back, just the taxes paid).

  • You can put an award on hold for 24 hours.

American Express, Chase, Citibank, and Starwood points all transfer to Virgin Atlantic. Amex, Chase, and Citi genreally transfer instantly.

I believe that the ANA first class awards with Virgin Atlantic miles are too good to last over time, since the best deals — those orders of magnitude better than what most programs deliver — always go away eventually.

(HT: Nick Reyes)

Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Comments

  1. Hi Gary,

    You are forgetting about one very valuable use for the miles – nonstop Delta flights. I just booked 4 x 50,000 VS miles for BOS-CDG. Taxes and fees were just over $5 per ticket. Great value here if you can find availability.

Comments are closed.