How Long Do Virgin Air Miles Last?

Whilst Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points themselves do not expire, your Flying Club account will reset to zero if there is no activity on the account for 36 months.  As such there is limited chance of active collectors being caught out. However if you’ve historically earned a significant number of points which have been sitting in an account for some time, there are a number of easy options to prevent Virgin Atlantic miles from expiring.

Virgin Atlantic miles expire if there hasn’t been any activity on the account within a 36-month period.  Even the smallest ‘activity’ can reset the mileage expiration clock.  An activity can be either earning or spending miles on the account.  Preventing Virgin Atlantic miles from expiring is simple and we set out numerous examples below for inspiration to prevent your hard-earned Virgin Atlantic miles going down the pan.

Preventing Virgin Atlantic Flying Club expiration

Your Virgin Atlantic miles expire if you either don’t earn or spend any points on your Virgin Flying Club account within a 36-month period.  Let’s take a look at ways you can both earn and spend miles…

• Fly with Virgin or an airline partner: You’ll earn Virgin Atlantic miles for flying with either Virgin Atlantic or one of the following partner airlines (simply insert your Virgin Flying Club number):
  • Delta
  • Singapore Airlines
  • Air New Zealand
  • Virgin Australia
  • South African Airways
  • ANA Airlines
  • Jet Airways
  • Air China
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • SAS Scandinavian Airlines

• Buy points: One of the simplest and quickest methods would be purchasing 1,000 miles for £30 through the Virgin website here.  This should only be a last resort though.
• Shop through the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal: Found here.  You can earn points through the likes of eBay, Tesco and many other retailers.

• Stay with one of Virgin Atlantic’s hotel partners: Virgin has 13 hotel partners through which you can earn points.  Found here.
• Rent a car with a car rental partner: Rent a car through one of 8 Virgin Atlantic partners and you’ll earn points.
• Shop through the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal (Shops Away): With 1000 retailers I’d be amazed if you won’t use one of these retailers over the next 36 months!  Found here.
• Gift miles to another person: This comes with a charge of £15 for 1,000 points – so one to be avoided if possible.
• Transfer points from the American Express Membership Rewards: You can instantly transfer Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic at a rate of 1:1.  The easiest method to earn reward points is through the (free for the first year) American Express Gold card (reviewed here) which offers 10,000 points when you spend £3,000 on the card in the first 3 months and an earning rate of 1 point for every £1 spent on the card.  If you use this link you’ll also earn a further 2,000 points sign-up bonus.

• Exchange Flying Club miles for hotel points: You can transfer points to Hilton and IHG.  Unfortunately these need to be undertaken in increments of 10,000.
• Redeem miles for an award flight: Every time you use your points for award flights you’ll restart the 36-month timer…

Summary – Do Virgin Atlantic miles expire?  YES, but you have options…

As we’ve seen during this review, Virgin Atlantic air miles expire after 36 months of non-activity on a Flying Club account.  Activity is defined as either spending or earning miles on your account.  The simplest place to do this is likely to be the Virgin Atlantic shopping portal (Shops Away).

One of the quickest methods of accumulating a reasonable Virgin Flying Club miles balance would be through the American Express Gold credit card.  This card offers a market-leading (for a free credit card) sign-up bonus of 10,000 points which can be transferred to Virgin Flying Club at a rate of 1:1.  Read our full review here and don’t forget you can increase the sign-up bonus to 12,000 points by using this link.

Enjoy what you’ve read? Join our mailing list to receive our best articles on luxury worldwide travel and points earning opportunities. No charge. No Spam. Only Inspiration.