Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is potentially one of the lesser used programs that Membership Rewards members use, thanks to Virgin Atlantic’s limited routes out of Australia (Sydney to Hong Kong and then to London, daily) and the fact that Virgin charge fairly high taxes and fuel surcharges on their redemption tickets.
I’ve updated my thoughts since I got the redemption prices wrong when originally published:
The standard price of a return one-way redemption between Sydney and Hong Kong is 60,000 miles in Premium Economy, and 80,000 miles in Business Class. To the UK from Sydney it’s 140,000 miles in Premium Economy and 200,000 miles in Business Class. It’s not the best value compared to Amex’ other transfer partners, but the 25% bonus would help soften the cost if you can only find availability for the dates you want to travel with Virgin Atlantic, or really want to fly in their Upper Class cabin.
It’s pretty good value especially with the 25% transfer bonus, but I’ve often found it tough to find Virgin Atlantic award availability on the Sydney – Hong Kong – London route when I’ve looked in the past.
Given they also recently loosened their cancellation policies on award tickets, it’s worth considering if you’re looking to use points to head to Hong Kong or the UK.
I can’t find anything about this on the Amex Australia site yet, but the text of the email is below –
Dear Keith,
Make the smartest move ever to reach Flying Club rewards sooner.
Simply transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® points to Flying Club miles between 1 November and 30 November 2013 and receive 25% more miles as a bonus.
With a whole bundle of extra miles to spend, you’ll enjoy an even wider choice of fabulous rewards. Fly to Hong Kong from 40,000 miles^. You could also upgrade, choose a CombiFare or Miles Plus Money fare. You may even want to spend your miles with our hotel, airline and car hire partners.
And the offer terms are:
Membership Rewards points transfer requests to Virgin Atlantic that occur between 1–30 November 2013 will be eligible for the 25% bonus mile offer.
To be eligible to receive the bonus Flying Club miles, the Flying Club account must be active and not in default at the time of bonus fulfilment.
To redeem the offer you must transfer Membership Rewards to your linked Flying Club account between the offer period.
Minimum transfer is 2,000 Membership Rewards points.
Bonus miles will be posted to your Flying Club account within 14 days of the transfer.
Offer is not combinable to with any other offer and is valid for Flying Club members registered in Australia.
Have updated the article and conclusions accordingly.