We’re so used to airline loyalty programs offering special perks for those who fly (or spend) with the airline a certain amount every year. However, airlines rarely reward those who consistently fly the airline over the years, but not enough to qualify for elite status.
Along those lines, Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club loyalty program has just introduced what I’d consider to be an innovative reward, which we haven’t seen before from any airline.
In this post:
Virgin Atlantic’s innovative “High Five” loyalty perk
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has unveiled “High Five,” a perk that recognizes those Flying Club members who come back to the airline over time, regardless of their elite status or spending.
Launching in January 2026, High Five will reward Flying Club members who have flown with the airline across any five distinct years, consecutive or not, in order to recognize loyalty that lasts over the years. With High Five, Flying Club members will receive 12,000 bonus Virgin points that they can use toward their next flight. On top of that, non-elite members will also earn 10% bonus points on all future flights.
This offer will be backdated to January 1, 2021, so many members will receive this bonus when the program launches in 2026. This will be a one-time offer, and any flight associated with a Flying Club account will count toward this, whether it’s a revenue ticket or an award ticket. Virgin Atlantic notes that 12,000 points is enough for a roundtrip economy reward from London to New York (or course before taxes and carrier imposed surcharges).
Here’s how Anthony Woodman, Virgin Atlantic’s VP of Flying Club & CRM, describes this:
“High Five is our newest way of saying thank you to those customers who choose us whenever they can, no matter how frequently. For our leisure travellers in particular, we know that this will ensure that they feel the love from Virgin Atlantic. After all, loyalty flies many different ways – and at Flying Club we believe it should be for everyone.”
What a fantastic reward for loyalty over the years!
It’s always nice to see airlines and hotels take an innovative and less transactional approach to loyalty, since it’s pretty rare. To most airlines, your value is simply what you’ve spent with the company in the past year. And if your friends or family are traveling, that’s too bad, they don’t get anything special.
So along those lines, I love perks like this, which will delight members who might not be the highest value customers, but who still consistently choose Virgin Atlantic over competitors (this is especially something that’s worth recognizing when you have the number two spot at an airport, as Virgin Atlantic does at Heathrow).
Virgin Atlantic has had quite a few loyalty innovations over the years. For example, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club was one of the first programs to start counting award flights toward elite status, another nice recognition of overall loyalty to an airline.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has launched “High Five,” whereby members can earn 12,000 bonus points if they’ve flown Virgin Atlantic at least once in five different calendar years. On top of that, non-elite members will earn 10% bonus points on all future flights.
It’s fantastic to see an airline rewarding long term business in this way, so kudos to Virgin Atlantic!
What do you make of this Virgin Atlantic High Five offer?
Dang that would be nice if AS did the same thing!
Since 2009 I've flown AS most years to PVR Mexico using their credit card companion pass. Sadly the Canadian Alaska w
Card was cancelled so that great annual trip is now cancelled.
Because of CX JAL and other partners all my long haul annual Cape Town, Australia and Asia trips have been using purchased AS points. That recently dried up as...
Dang that would be nice if AS did the same thing!
Since 2009 I've flown AS most years to PVR Mexico using their credit card companion pass. Sadly the Canadian Alaska w
Card was cancelled so that great annual trip is now cancelled.
Because of CX JAL and other partners all my long haul annual Cape Town, Australia and Asia trips have been using purchased AS points. That recently dried up as almost all Business Awards on AS PARTNERS have gone unavailable or market price.
We're now on a BA flight to LIS using AS POINTS with massive YQ. This will be our first test to see if award travel gets loyalty points with AS.
We've done some Condor trips with cash and every once in a while have risen to VIP. but then lose it with only points awards.
Hopefully AS will add up the loyalty this year and we'll get a similar upgrade through all spring travel is on JAL and Garuda with only one leg on AS.
"though all spring travel"
I just snagged an upper class BOS/LHR for 36k points and return in premium ecomedy for 13.5k points (Economy is 15k points?!?). Granted I spent $900 in fees, but look how few points I used, lol.
Those 12,000 won’t go too far with the new insane dynamic pricing of rewards
? Saver economy fairs are wide open -- 12k covers the 9k category quite nicely. And honestly, it's not far from the 16.k saver awards. I would consider this a very kind gift from VS.
If you're having trouble with availability, https://vseats.io/ is a great tool since it's faster than flicking through Virgin's reward seat finder.
Was talking about Upper Class - sorry, wasn't clear.
You don’t want to high five a virgin - their hand might be sticky