Virgin Atlantic and Bank of America are back with their standard biggest signup bonus. The most recent links for this offer don’t work any longer.
They used to offer the card as an American Express (one of those oddball American Express cards not issued by American Express). Now it’s a MasterCard.
It’s advertised as a signup bonus of up to 65,000 miles but I wouldn’t think about it that way.
Reach rewards faster with up to 65,000 Flying Club bonus miles in the first year with the Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard® credit card from Bank of America.
The offer is:
So adding two authorized users and spending $2500 on the card gets you 50,000 points. There’s a $90 annual fee, and it applies even in the first year. Definitely worth it, in my view, for 50,000 points.
I do not think it’s worthwhile to put the spend on the card required for the additional miles. So think of this as a 50,000 point singup offer.
There are some unique benefits of MasterCard and this card is being issued as a World Elite MasterCard. Those have much better travel benefits than simple World MasterCards do.
One of those benefits is free status with Avis, National, and Sixt car rental programs.
One of the popular uses for Virgin miles in the past was converting to Hilton at one-to-two, 50,000 Virgin miles would yield 100,000 Hilton points. But the ratio nhas been devalued to 1-to-1.5. And Hilton devalued. 75,000 Hilton HHonors points doesn’t especially appeal to me, but some folks will find that useful.
Still, Virgin miles are fairly easy to acquire. Points transfer into Virgin from both American Express Membership Rewards and from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
I’m not a fan of Virgin Atlantic miles, although I have a ton. This offer is strong enough that it has tempted me many times. But I’ve never redeeemed the points. That’s why I put together a list of the great ways to redeem Virgin Atlantic’s miles.
Of course where paid travel would entail a fuel surcharge, Virgin adds that to the cost of an award ticket.
They’ve reduced fuel surcharges on economy awards but those aren’t the awards I’m looking for.
What’s more, departures in a premium cabin originating in the U.K. entail a substantial tax — on top of the surcharges. So Virgin award tickets often aren’t cheap.
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