American Express Membership Rewards has brought back their campaign for U.S.-based members, offering a 30% bonus on Membership Rewards transfers to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has several sweet spots in terms of partner redemptions that members can take advantage of in conjunction with this Amex transfer promotion.
These transfer bonus campaigns are offered by Amex on a regular basis and aside from the 20% for Singapore Airlines, this 30% for Virgin are the only two partners with a bonus right now.
You can find the transfer option in your online Amex card account under Membership Rewards – Airline Transfers :
There is a special ‘sweet spot’ with Virgin Flying Club, namely redemptions with ANA All Nippon Airways in their fantastic First Class (access the reward chart here) between Japan and USA / European destinations:
A Virgin Flying Club redemption in First Class on ANA is only 110,000 miles round trip (84,000 Amex points) between Los Angeles and Tokyo and 120,000 miles to Europe.
In order to book ANA and many other partners, you need to call Virgin Flying Club as it’s not possible to book through the online search engine.
I recently managed to book a great ANA First Class award using Virgin miles from Los Angeles via Tokyo to Thailand which I featured in our series Award Success:
Award Success: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Redemption For ANA First Class Los Angeles-Tokyo-Bangkok
This conversion bonus is usually available 2-3x per year from Membership Rewards USA so that’s something to think about when considering if you should convert the points or not.
One huge benefit is that the transfer is instant, meaning you can call Virgin to check availability and set up a reservation while during the same call transferring the points and issuing the ticket within a couple of minutes.
Be prepared to wait quite some time on the phone though to get to a live agent. Sometimes I waited 20 minutes, sometimes over an hour.
Conclusion
This could be a fantastic opportunity for those with sufficient Amex points in their account to get themselves on the way to a nice First Class trip to/via Japan at probably the lowest mileage rates out there (should the country ever reopen to foreign visitors).
Keep in mind though that Virgin Flying Club will levy fuel surcharges and availability should be checked beforehand over the phone to make sure it matches with those displaying on star alliance availability tools such as United Mileage Plus.
Here are the Terms&Conditions for this promotion:
You must be enrolled in Virgin Atlantic Flying Club® in order to participate in this offer, visit https://www.virginatlantic.com to enroll. American Express is not responsible for availability of flight, accommodations or any other rewards in the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Once you have transferred Membership Rewards points, they become subject to the Terms and Conditions of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and cannot be transferred back to your Membership Rewards program account. Taxes, fees, charges and surcharges, including airline surcharges, apply on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club redemption flights and upgrades. See Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Terms and Conditions for details. Individual air carrier restrictions may apply.
Minimum transfer is 1,000 Membership Rewards points. Redeem for this exclusive offer from 12:00 a.m. MT on 3/3/2022 to 11:59 p.m. MT on 3/31/2022 to receive 30% additional Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Additional Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will be awarded at the time of transfer.
