Transfer Capital One Miles To Virgin Atlantic With 30% Bonus

Capital One has just launched its first transfer bonus in quite some time, and it’s an offer that I think many members will find to be worthwhile.

Capital One 30% Virgin Red transfer bonus

Through Tuesday, April 30, 2024, you can receive a 30% bonus when you transfer Capital One miles to Virgin Red. This offer is available directly on Capital One’s website, so be sure that you see the offer at the time that you initiate the transfer.

There are lots of great cards earning Capital One miles. Capital One miles ordinarily transfer to Virgin Red at a 1:1 ratio, so with this bonus, they’d transfer at a 1:1.3 ratio. You can expect that transfers will generally be instant.

Just to be clear, Virgin Red is the rewards currency for the overall Virgin brand, and it’s a separate program from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. So if you take advantage of this, be sure that you have a Virgin Red account number. The good news is that the Virgin Red points can then be transfered at no cost to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

So in the miles & points world, I’d very much look at this offer in the context of the value that Virgin Atlantic Flying Club can offer.

Should you transfer Capital One miles to Virgin Atlantic?

Virgin Atlantic is definitely a frequent flyer program with more niche redemption opportunities. In addition to being able to redeem Flying Club points for travel on Virgin Atlantic, there’s also good value to be had for redemptions on Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, and Delta.

Award redemption rates on Virgin Atlantic are very reasonable, and a one-way Upper Class transatlantic award will typically cost you 47,500-57,500 Flying Club points. The catch is that there are significant carrier imposed surcharges (plus the UK Air Passenger Duty), especially for travel in Upper Class. You can expect that a roundtrip itinerary from the US to UK will run you well over $1,000, in addition to all the points.

Beyond that, Virgin Atlantic has several airline partners, some of which are more lucrative than others. Probably the best use of Flying Club points is for travel in ANA first & business class. You can find the redemption rates below.

Paying 45,000-47,500 Flying Club points for a one-way business class ticket between the United States and Japan is a phenomenal value to start with. Then when you consider the 30% transfer bonus, that means you could be paying significantly fewer Capital One miles. First class can also be a good deal.

All Nippon Airways’ new first & business class are amazing products as well. The major catch is that availability can be really tough to come by.

Virgin Atlantic is also in SkyTeam now, so it’s possible to redeem these points for travel on all SkyTeam partner airlines, based on the below distance based award chart.

How to earn Capital One miles

The Capital One mileage program has become extremely useful in recent years, and is now on par with other major transferable points currencies (I value Capital One miles at 1.7 cents each). There are lots of great cards earning Capital One miles. In particular, the following four cards offer a minimum of 2x Capital One miles per dollar spent:

• The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees)
• The Capital One Venture X Business (review) (Rates & Fees)
• The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees)
• The Capital One Spark Miles for Business (review) (Rates & Fees)

Bottom line

Through April 30, 2024, you can receive a 30% bonus when you transfer Capital One miles to Virgin Red (and in turn, those points can be transfered to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club).

We don’t often see transfer bonuses from Capital One, so I’d consider this to be a great deal, given all the uses of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points. I think this could be worth a speculative transfer, if you have a general idea of your redemption patterns in mind.

Do you plan on transferring Capital One miles to Virgin Red with a 30% bonus?