The Offer
- Receive a 30% bonus when you transfer your American Express membership rewards points to Virgin Atlantic. For example, transfer 1,000 American Express membership rewards and receive 1,300 Virgin Atlantic miles.
The Fine Print
- Must transfer a minimum of 1,000 points
- Valid until October 31st
Our Verdict
American Express often offers transfer bonuses (you can view the full list here), here are all of the transfer bonuses they have offered to Virgin Atlantic in the past:
- April 1st – April 30th, 2015: 25% bonus
- October 16th – November 30th, 2014: 35% bonus
- May 1st – May 31st, 2014: 30% bonus
- October 15th – November 30th, 2013: 30% bonus
- August 27th – September 2nd, 2012: 30% bonus
- March 19th – March 26th, 2012: 30% bonus
- April 1st – May 15th, 2012: 25% bonus
- November 27th – December 29th, 2012: 35% bonus
- June 3rd – Unknown end date, 2011 (most likely June 30th): 25%
- January 10th – February 28th, 2011: 15% bonus
- October 1st – October 31st, 2010: 20%
- July 19th – July 30th, 2010: 15%
- February 22nd – March 16th, 2010: 15%
As you can see, 30% is the normal bonus they offer and they offered 35% this time last year. I’m not a big fan of Virgin Atlantic miles because of their fuel surcharges and how easy it is to earn the miles with the Bank of America credit card (and the other transfer bonuses that have been offered by Citi & Diners Club). You can also redeem your Virgin Atlantic miles for hotels with Kaligo.com, but you’d almost certainly be better offer redeeming directly with American Express for hotels.
The other option would be to transfer these points to Hilton at a rate of 1:1.5, which means after both the bonuses you’d be getting 1.95 Hilton points per American Express MR points. This could be an OK option if you value Hilton points highly, but I find these too easy to earn in other ways (mostly from Citi).
Hat tip to Travel Star on Flyertalk
Would I only see this offer if my VA account is already linked to my MR account?
You should see it in your MR account, not VA.