Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - Flying club points with creditcards

Just a bit of advise needed,

I have the white VA card, and have just signed up for the gold AMEX card for the 20,000 bonus points and 2 free airport lounge accesses.

Is this gold card better / same / worse than the black VA cards?
Is it worth paying £100 approx for the 18,000 bonus points?

Or would the avios BA card also be worth a look at as they have a BOGOF once a year with a minimum spend?

as far as I recall with the un airline branded AMEX Gold card you can move your points into a number of airline programmes so you might want to earn miles there and only move them to BA/VS or wherever when you actually need to use them.

If you jst want 18k VS miles then yes the £100 fee for the black card would be worth it as buying that many miles would be at least twice that (and as long as you meet the other card conditions too)

For pure points earning with spend (especially spend with VS) nothing beats the VS (MBNA) Black card. It is also even better for points earning now that it has a Visa card for use at places that don't take Amex, linked to the same account.

When you are talking about bonus points however, the proper Amex card takes some beating. I went down the route last year of getting a gold card, then once my bonus points were in place, I went for the Plat card, which I have now retained for another year.

All the points earned have now been transferred to VS and I am waiting for my 40% bonus to post. ^

All in all, you have to work out what is best for you given the current offers available. I dropped lucky. The plat card is quite expensive but, when you fatcir in the free SPG night that was offered, 2 x Priority Passes, the bonus on VS transfer and other benefits, then I think it is worth it. YMMV :cool:

Nick

Thanks for the advice,

Today I got an invite from the platinum card with 40,000 bonus miles, and only £150 fee for the first year, so I might take this up soon.

How often do amex offer a bonus on transferring points?

Thanks for the advice,

Today I got an invite from the platinum card with 40,000 bonus miles, and only £150 fee for the first year, so I might take this up soon.

How often do amex offer a bonus on transferring points?

Take it up, thats a great offer for the Plat. I personally would bite at that^

As for >VS MR Bonuses, as far as I can tell they tend to come along more frequently than with other airlines. Hopefully within a year, another promo should come along, giving you more time to earn MR points until then.

I do think the VS Black card is still a good deal, worth taking out for the sign up 18k but cancel before the year end, perhaps should you cancel mid year a pro rata refund is issued for the card fee as per is the case with AMEX.

ATM I have the gold AMEX which gives me double points on supermarkets and travel, 2 lounge accesses free, I intend to cancel this before the year is up.

But in terms of accumulating miles, the black card seems better than the platinum as it is 2 for £1 on everything, plus I get the 2 PE upgrades every year.

SO would you suggest getting both for the miles, then which two would you cancel out of gold, platinum and black?

plus I get the 2 PE upgrades every year.


Only if you 'buy' your Y ticket with FC miles. You can't use the upgrade vouchers on paid in £ fares.