Virgin Atlantic Credit Card: 7 Reasons To Apply

The Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard® is an excellent credit card that a lot of people don’t have, even though it has a great bonus and some useful perks. In this post I wanted to look at seven reasons you should consider getting this card, assuming you don’t have it already.

Easy 60K Virgin Atlantic Bonus Miles

The Virgin Atlantic Mastercard is offering a bonus of 60,000 Flying Club bonus miles after spending $2,000 within the first 90 days. That is a great bonus in and of itself. 60,000 Flying Club miles is enough for a one-way Delta business class ticket from the US to Asia, so that’s a spectacular value.

5,000 Bonus Miles For Adding Authorized Users

In addition to the 60,000 bonus miles, you can receive 2,500 bonus miles for each of the first two authorized users you add to your card. So that’s an easy extra 5,000 miles, as there’s no cost to add authorized users.

1.5x Miles Per Dollar Spent

The Virgin Atlantic Credit Card offers 1.5x miles per dollar spent (and 3x miles on Virgin Atlantic purchases). While this probably isn’t the card I’d generally use for everyday spending, that’s one of the best returns on spending on an airline credit card.

1.5x miles per dollar spent is good for an airline credit card

15,000 Anniversary Bonus Miles

The reason it could make sense to spend money on this card is because you receive up to 15,000 bonus miles on your account anniversary every year:

• Receive 7,500 bonus miles if you spend a total of $15,000
• Receive an additional 7,500 bonus miles if you spend a total of $25,000

In other words, if you spent $25,000 on the card in a year, you’d receive a total of 52,500 Flying Club miles (1.5x miles for $25,000, plus the 15,000 bonus miles). That’s over two miles per dollar spent, which is a good return.

In the right increments you can earn over 2x miles per dollar spent

Earn Virgin Atlantic Elite Status

While this won’t be for everyone, if you’re someone who is going for status with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, then having this card can help you:

• You receive 25 Tier Points for every $2,500 you spend on the card
• You can earn a maximum of 50 Tier Points every month, and a maximum of 600 Tier Points per year

Virgin Atlantic Silver status requires 400 Tier Points, while Virgin Atlantic Gold status requires 1,000 Tier Points. So you could potentially earn Silver status through spending, plus get over halfway to Gold status.

Access Virgin Atlantic Clubhouses with Gold status

Earn An Annual Upgrade Or Companion Ticket

If you spend at least $25,000 on your card per anniversary year (which can make a lot of sense, given that you’d earning an average of over two miles per dollar spent), you can receive your choice of two benefits:

• A one cabin upgrade, where the primary cardmember can upgrade from economy to premium economy
• A companion award fare, where a companion can travel with you on an award ticket, and you just have to pay the taxes, fees, and carrier imposed surcharges for them; for non-elite members this is only valid for economy, for Silver members it’s valid for economy or premium economy, and for Gold members it’s valid for economy, premium economy, or business class

A companion ticket could prove incredibly valuable

World Elite Mastercard Benefits

The Virgin Atlantic Credit Card is a World Elite Mastercard, meaning that it comes with quite a few benefits you may not be familiar with. For example, Mastercard World Elite cardholders receive:

• A $10 Lyft credit after every five rides taken in a calendar month
• $5 off every Postmates order of $25 or more

Bottom Line

The Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard is currently offering a great welcome bonus of up to 80,000 Flying Club miles (factoring in the potential anniversary bonus and authorized user bonus). This is a card that a lot of people haven’t had before, and I think it’s seriously worth considering.

You can read a full review of the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card here.