What’s the Value of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points?

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points can be earned by flying with the airline or transferring points from credit card programs like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Yet before you consider earning or transferring these points, you probably want to know how much they're worth.

Based on our analysis, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points are worth about 1.4 cents each. This is a median value, drawn from real-world data collected for 80 Virgin Atlantic economy flights.

» Learn more: The guide to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

What does this value mean?

Our value of 1.4 cents per Flying Club point is a median value you can use to determine the relative value of your own redemptions. It is effectively what you can expect to get from your Flying Club points if you use them for a random redemption.

This means it's possible to get more value by looking for sweet spots, using more advanced award techniques or booking in business class. However, if you're not careful, it's also possible to redeem your points for less than this value.

How to convert Virgin Atlantic points to dollars

With our calculator, you can figure out how much your points are worth in dollars based on this value. This can help determine the value of a point-based promotion or if a given award redemption is better than paying cash.

How do I maximize the value of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points?

Based on our analysis, Virgin Atlantic points can be worth a lot or very little, depending on how you use them.

For all four booking windows we looked at, there were redemptions available for more than 3 cents per point; however, on the lowest end, some redemptions were worth less than 1 cent per point.

Here's what we found when looking at Virgin Atlantic point valuations across different booking windows.

• 1.3 cents each when booking 15 days before departure, with a range of 0.4 to 3.4 cents per mile.

• 1.7 cents each when booking 60 days before departure, with a range of 0.7 to 3.6 cents each.

• 1.2 cents each when booking 90 days before departure, with a range of 0.8 to 3.3 cents each.

• 1.6 cents each when booking 180 days before departure, with a range of 0.9 to 3.5 cents each.

How flexible are Flying Club points?

Virgin boasts a solid roster of partner airlines, including Delta, Air France-KLM and Singapore Airlines. You can use Flying Club points to book flights with these partners, which expands the global footprint of your points.

In fact, using Flying Club points to book Delta tickets is often a better deal than using Delta miles. So even U.S.-based travelers should prefer earning Virgin Atlantic points over Delta miles under some circumstances.

» Learn more: The beginner's guide to points and miles

How did we determine the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points value?

We analyzed the cash and points prices of 80 Virgin Atlantic flights across a range of international routes. A regular economy fare class was used for all pricing data to be able to compare the valuations of similar Main Cabin-type fares that are bookable with points or miles on other airlines.

Departure dates were selected at 15, 60, 90 and 180 days from the day of the analysis. Return dates were chosen eight days after the departure date. This process allowed us to analyze a wide combination of days of the week and not bias the data towards expensive (i.e. weekend) or cheaper (i.e. midweek) flights. We used the median value of the dataset as the average.

This method differs from many others in that it looks at real-world redemptions rather than hypothetical, maximized redemptions. The advantage of this approach is that it provides an actual, real-world indication of how much these points are worth on average. That said, it doesn’t take into account the high-value redemptions that points enthusiasts seek.

Wondering what you can do with those points? Learn which credit card is best for international award travel.