3. Earning and Purchasing Miles

3.1. General

3.1.1 You may earn Miles from the day you enrol in the Programme by travelling with us or using other goods or services supplied by Participating Companies. Miles which you earn will be automatically added into your account as long as you provide your membership number at time of booking or travel.

3.1.2 If you do not provide your membership number at the time of booking or travel you may seek to earn mileage on Virgin Atlantic flights for up to six months after the date of travel / activity. The time limits to register Miles for other goods or services may vary for other Participating Companies. Please refer to Missing Partner Miles page for further information.

3.1.3 Mileage can be claimed online by entering the booking reference or, in the case of a flight, through the presentation of either the original or a copy of the boarding pass for such flight. Any attempt by a Member to claim mileage from the same boarding pass on more than one occasion with different carriers will constitute a breach of this agreement and the termination provisions in clause 9.2 will apply.

3.1.4 Provided that you provide your membership number at time of booking or travel, Virgin Atlantic Miles should be credited to your account within 7 days of travel, and any Participating Company Miles will usually be credited to your account within 30 days of the activity, but please note that certain Participating Companies may take slightly longer to credit your account. You will need to save evidence of your mileage entitlement until the Miles appear in your account. Flying Club may at its discretion, determine whether any item of proof is sufficient. If any activity has not been automatically added to your account within the above timeframes or if you failed to provide your membership number at the time of booking or travel then you may request retrospective credits to be made. All requests for retrospective mileage and Tier Point credits must be made within the time limits set out in paragraph 3.1.2.
If a Member earns Tier Points within an Upgrade Cycle but a Member’s Upgrade Cycle finishes before such Tier Points are credited to the Member’s account for whatever reason (this may include where a Member has omitted or incorrectly entered their Membership number when making a booking or where the flight date has not yet occurred), it is possible that these Tier Points won’t automatically be credited towards a Member’s Tier Points total for that Upgrade Cycle.
A Member may therefore be temporarily downgraded if insufficient Tier Points have been credited to the Member’s account to retain their current status as a result. Virgin Atlantic will in this instance manually upgrade a Member back to the correct status upon Member instruction and receipt on the account of the late credit. This will be done after any month’s grace period between tier statuses has expired with the renewal Tier Point balance then resetting to zero for the next Upgrade Cycle. Any Tier Points accrued during the grace period will be credited to the Member’s account for the next Upgrade Cycle and will not count towards this manual correction of their tier status. Failure to notify Virgin Atlantic of any Tier Points which have not been credited to a Member’s account as described above will result in those Tier Points being lost.

3.1.5 Miles and Tier Points will be issued only for flights actually flown by you and will be based on the class of ticket you have paid for and will not reflect any complimentary or Reward upgrades. Miles and Tier Points will only be credited once travel has been completed, not at time of booking. Miles cannot be earned on any free or reduced rate tickets including, without limitation, reward travel, upgraded reward travel including upgrades purchased at the airport and Plusgrade, travel agent or industry discounts, Charter flights operated by VAA, Vex Courier, Miles Plus Money, child or infant and complimentary tickets. Travel on codeshare flights and partner airlines will not qualify for Miles More Friends bonus Miles.

3.1.6 Miles and Tier Points have no cash value and are not exchangeable under any circumstances for cash.

3.1.7 The Miles and Rewards available through the Programme will change from time to time. Please refer to the Little Red Book and the Current Miles & Rewards for the most up to date information relating to membership, Miles and reward offers. VAA may offer other Rewards and/or opportunities to earn Miles for limited periods in other Flying Club publications. Such Rewards or opportunities to earn Miles will be subject to the Flying Club Terms and may also be subject to specific additional requirements or conditions as set out in the relevant publication.

3.2. Miles More Friends

This offer is only open to existing Flying Club members who enrol non Flying Club members into the Programme through Miles More Friends. Both the current Member and the new Member must be at least 12 years of age or over to qualify for Miles More Friends bonuses.

3.2.2 Non Flying Club Members have to enrol via the email sent by the existing Flying Club Member and then take their first flight after joining in order for both parties to earn the bonus Miles.

3.2.3 Flying Co administrators, secondary contacts, travel agents, or any other travel bookers making bookings for third parties are not eligible to take part in this scheme. You may not enrol on behalf of new members. They must enrol online and accept the Flying Club Terms.

3.2.4 For every person you refer who joins Flying Club, you will earn Miles on the basis of the cabin in which they complete their first round trip with Virgin Atlantic: the following Miles will be awarded: Economy (Y,B,,R,L,U,M,V,E,Q,X,N,O) 2,000 Miles, Premium Economy (W,S,K,H) 5,000 Miles and Upper Class (J,C,D,I,Z) 10,000 Miles. Miles will only be credited once travel has been completed, not at time of booking. Miles cannot be earned on any free or reduced rate tickets including, without limitation, reward travel, upgraded reward travel including upgrades purchased at the airport and Plusgrade, travel agent or industry discounts, Charter flights operated by VAA, Vex Courier, Miles Plus Money, child or infant and complimentary tickets. Travel on codeshare flights and partner airlines will not qualify for Miles More Friends bonus Miles.

3.2.5 The appropriate number of Miles will only be credited to your account once your friend has completed their first flight and the Miles earned have been credited to their Flying Club account. Miles can only be earned on enrolments made through the Miles More Friends online process.

3.2.6 For all persons referred who subsequently join Flying Club and travel, they will earn bonus Miles on the basis of the cabin in which they complete their first round trip with Virgin Atlantic: the following Miles will be awarded: Economy, 1,000 Miles, Premium Economy 2,000 Miles and Upper Class 3,000 Miles. Miles will only be credited once travel has been completed, not at time of booking. Miles cannot be earned on any free or reduced rate tickets including, without limitation, reward travel, upgraded reward travel including upgrades purchased at the airport and Plusgrade, travel agent or industry discounts, Charter flights operated by VAA, Vex Courier, Miles Plus Money, child or infant and complimentary tickets. Travel on codeshare flights and partner airlines will not qualify for Miles More Friends bonus Miles.

3.2.7 Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to change, suspend or cancel the Miles More Friends offer at any time and the mileage levels listed are subject to changes at any time.

3.2.8 You may refer as many new Members as you like through Miles More Friends, but you will only earn bonus Flying Club Miles on the first ten who enrol and then take a qualifying flight.

3.2.9 Virgin Atlantic will not be responsible for email messages that are sent by Flying Club Members that are undeliverable or cannot be opened by the recipient.

3.2.10 The emails you send to your friends will be the only communication they receive from us until they have joined Flying Club and agreed to our Flying Club Terms & Conditions. Their email address and details will not be used for any other purpose until this time.

3.3. Virgin Atlantic

3.3.1 You automatically qualify to earn Miles and Tier Points from your first revenue flight in Economy, Premium Economy or Upper Class. You will earn Miles for each base mile flown (click here for a definition of “base mile”). When travelling in Economy (E,Q,V,X,N,O) you will earn 50% of the base Miles flown, (Y,B,R,L,U,M), you will earn 100% of the base Miles flown, in Premium Economy (K,H) you will earn 125% of the base Miles flown, (W,S) you will earn 150% and Upper Class (I,Z) you will earn 150% of the base Miles flown, (J,D) you will earn 200% of the base Miles flown.

3.3.2 Flying Club Silver Members earn an extra 50% of base Miles flown and Flying Club Gold Members will now earn an extra 100% of base Miles flown, when travelling with Virgin Atlantic across all classes. Flying Club Silver and Gold Members travelling on a codeshare agreement and with partner airlines will not qualify for the extra Miles.

3.3.3 Tier Points are earned for each qualifying one-way flight taken as a Flying Club Member. The number of Tier Points earned per qualifying Virgin Atlantic flight is determined by the fare class paid. The breakdown of Tier Points earned per one way flight is:

3.3.4 Tier Points can also be earned when travelling with Partner Airlines when earning Miles in qualifying classes. Please refer to the relevant Partner Airlines’ page for qualifying booking classes. Please refer to the Tier Points page for the Tier Points that can be earned when earning Miles in a qualifying class with Participating Company airlines.

3.4. Code Share Flights
Miles will only be earned on a code share flight with a Flying Club airline partner that has a “VS” prefix and booked in an applicable class as per section 3.3.1. All other code share operated or marketed flights by the partner with an airline other than Virgin Atlantic will not qualify for Miles.

3.4.1 Tier Points will be awarded on code share flights as per section 3.3.3

3.4.2 Air China
All flights on Air China code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.3 Air New Zealand
All flights on Air New Zealand code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix route will earn Miles.

3.4.4 All Nippon Airways
All flights on All Nippon code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.5 BMI
All flights on bmi code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.6 Jet Airways

All flights on Jet Airways code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.7 Singapore Airlines
All flights on Singapore Airlines code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.8 South African Airways

All flights on South African code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.9 US Airways

All flights on US Airways code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.4.10 Virgin Australia

All flights on Virgin Australia code share services bearing the “VS” flight number prefix will earn Miles.

3.5. Participating Companies
3.5.1 Participating Companies may impose additional conditions that affect the way you may earn Miles from other Participating Companies. Please read each Participating Company’s rules regarding earning Miles as set out at Partner Miles.

3.5.2 A member may only earn Miles from Participating Companies for flights or other goods or services actually taken up by that Member, except in circumstances expressly provided for elsewhere in these Flying Club Terms.

3.5.3 To ensure you earn the correct Miles, you will need to give your name (as it appears on your membership card) and your account number to the Participating Company or when specified by the Participating Company or VAA. You should show your Flying Club membership card at the relevant time and make sure your account number has been correctly recorded by the Participating Company.

3.5.4 Once Miles have been awarded to your Flying Club account or to an account with another airline for an activity on Virgin Atlantic or a Virgin partner the Miles cannot be transferred between the two accounts.

3.6. Cancelled Flights or Involuntary Transfers
If you are transferred to another VAA flight or Participating Company airline, which differs from the original issued ticket, the mileage earned on the resulting flight will be credited to your account. However if you are involuntarily transferred to a non-Participating Company airline, you may request Miles for your original VAA booking. In this case you will be required to send in a cover letter to outline the original flight details, along with a copy of your original boarding pass and new ticket details, to your local Flying Club department. Please note that VAA shall not be liable to award Miles where either (i) you voluntarily transfer to a non-Participating Company airline; or (ii) you are transferred to a non-Participating Company airline in circumstances where your original VAA flight is cancelled due to natural disasters/disruption, weather, fire, strikes, war, civil unrest, closed airports, acts of terrorism or any other reason beyond VAA’s reasonable control.

3.7. Purchasing and Gifting of Flying Club Miles
a) A Member can purchase a total of 30,000 Miles each calendar year, in increments of 1000 Miles, for their own account and/or for the accounts of another Member/other Members. There is no limit to the number of Members you can purchase for so long as the total number of Miles purchased per person does not exceed 30,000 in each calendar year.
b) A member may receive a total of 30,000 gift Miles into their own account each calendar year. This may or may not be in addition to any Miles (up to a limit of 30,000 Miles) purchased by themselves. The maximum that any one member can receive, in any one transaction as a gift, is 30,000.
c) All Members must be logged into their Flying club accounts online to purchase Miles. If purchasing Miles for another Member, it is necessary to know that other Member’s Flying Club membership number. Customer services are unable to advise of another person’s membership number. Miles cannot be purchased via any method other than online at Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic will charge a transaction fee to a Member each time that member purchases Miles, whether for their own account or for another Members’ account, or for both. The transaction fee is included in the total cost quoted online at the time of purchase.
d) The purchase and gift facility of Flying Club Miles purchased online through Virgin Atlantic is operated on behalf of Virgin Atlantic by Points International Ltd.
e) Once Miles have been purchased or received, Miles will be added to a member’s mileage balance, these Miles will be indistinguishable from other Miles in an account. Members will have the right to cancel any purchase of Miles for up to 7 days after the date of purchase provided that none of the purchased Miles have been redeemed. If any of the purchased Miles have been redeemed then Members’ will not be entitled to a refund for any of the purchased Miles including those that have not been redeemed. Once the 7 day cooling off period has expired any Miles purchased and received by members are non-refundable and non-transferable except as set out in paragraph 2.9.
f) Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to alter the total number of Miles that may be purchased and/or received by a Member in each calendar year, to alter the level of increment in which Miles may be purchased and/or received by a Member and to alter the amount of the fee payable by a member when purchasing Miles.
g) Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to restrict the availability of purchasing and/or receiving Miles by Members to certain geographical areas and the purchasing and/or receiving of Miles by members is at the sole discretion of Virgin Atlantic.
h) The currency of Miles purchased is determined by Virgin Atlantic and is dependent upon a Member’s registered country of residence.
i) In completing your credit card details online, you are authorising Virgin Atlantic, or its agent, to charge the total cost of the purchase of Miles including the transaction fee and any applicable taxes. The transaction will appear on your credit card statement as “VirginMiles by Points”.
j) Where an email address is provided by the purchaser of gift Miles for the receiving member, Virgin Atlantic Airways has no control over and accepts no responsibility or liability for the content of the confirmation email received by the recipient.
k) No Tier Points will be earned for any purchase or gift transactions.
l) When Miles have been purchased, you will need to log out and log back into your Flying Club account to view your updated mileage balance.
m) Buy Miles/Gift Miles cannot be purchased unless a previous earning activity is showing in a Member’s account.

3.8. Transfer Miles
a) By providing your credit card details and confirming your purchase selection of Miles for Transfer you are acknowledging and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions which may be amended from time to time. In addition you are accepting that Flying Club Miles are subject to the normal terms and conditions as acknowledged at the time of your application to joining Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club.
b) A member can Transfer a total of 120,000 Miles in each calendar year, in increments of 1000 Miles. There is no limit to the number of members you can transfer to so long as the total number of Miles transferred per person does not exceed 30,000 in each calendar year.
c) A member may receive a total of 30,000 Transfer Miles into their own account each calendar year. This may be in addition to Gift or Buy Miles (up to a limit of 90,000 Miles). The maximum that any one member can receive, in any one transaction as a transfer, is 30,000.
d) All members must be logged into their Flying club accounts online to Transfer Miles. When transferring Miles, it is necessary to know the other member’s Flying Club membership number. Customer services are unable to advise of another person’s membership number. Miles cannot be transferred via any method other than online at www.virginatlantic.com. Virgin Atlantic will charge a transaction fee to a member each time that member transfers Miles. The transaction fee is included in the total cost quoted online at the time of purchase.
e) The Transfer facility of Flying Club Miles is operated on behalf of Virgin Atlantic by Points International Ltd. www.virginatlantic.com
f) Once Miles have been transferred, these will be indistinguishable from other Miles in an account. Miles received by members are non-refundable and non-transferable.
g) Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to alter the total number of Miles that may be transferred and/or received by a member in each calendar year, to alter the level of increment in which Miles may be transferred and/or received by a member and to alter the amount of the fee payable by a member when purchasing Miles.
h) Virgin Atlantic reserves the right to restrict the availability of purchasing and/or receiving Miles by members to certain geographical areas and the purchasing and/or receiving of Miles by members is at the sole discretion of Virgin Atlantic.
i) The currency of Miles purchased is determined by Virgin Atlantic and is dependent upon a member's registered country of residence.
j) In completing your credit card details online, you are authorizing Virgin Atlantic, or its agent, to charge the total cost of the transfer of Miles including the transaction fee and any applicable taxes. The transaction will appear on your credit card statement as `VirginMiles by Points'.
k) No tier points will be earned for Transfer Miles transactions.
l) Flying Club accounts starting with 002 and Flying Co accounts starting with 004 may not participate in the Transfer Miles programme

3.9. Miles Booster
The Miles Booster product (the “Miles Booster Programme”) provides an opportunity for customers to purchase additional Flying Club Miles together with an upcoming flight to accelerate (e.g. double or triple Miles) the point-to-point base flown Miles earned on the flight.
3.9.1. Purchase of Miles through the Miles Booster Programme can be made from the time of flight booking until the original date of the first sector of the flight in the itinerary. Miles may also be purchased through the Miles Booster Programme up to the date six months following the original date of the first sector of the flight in the itinerary.
3.9.2. Miles can be purchased through the Miles Booster Programme via a Virgin Atlantic Airways (“VAA”) Contact Centre.
3.9.3. Through the Miles Booster Programme, Flying Club members are able to purchase Miles to add to the number of Miles they earn on their VAA marketed flight. Qualifying flights include tickets purchased utilizing VAA’s two letter VS designator code. Tickets purchased utilizing another carrier's two letter designator code are not eligible, even if operated by VAA
3.9.4. Miles can be purchased through the Miles Booster Programme in association with any reservation with up to four sectors on VAA-marketed flights (with VS prefix), regardless of purchase channel. Only one Miles Booster offer can be applied per passenger per itinerary.
3.9.5. For reservations with multiple passengers, each passenger may be eligible to purchase Miles through the Miles Booster Programme, but these transactions are to be processed individually.
3.9.6. Miles purchased through the Miles Booster Programme will be tied to the Flying Club account number associated with the flown flights. To be eligible to purchase, Flying Club Members must have a single-member Flying Club account number (e.g., with prefixes 006-, 007-, 008-, 009-).
3.9.7. Miles can be purchased through the Miles Booster Programme with flights that were purchased or upgraded via the redemption of Flying Club Miles.
3.9.8. The Miles Booster Programme is available to all current Members of Flying Club. However, VAA reserves the right to restrict the availability of purchasing Miles via the Miles Booster Programme by Members to certain geographical areas and the purchasing of Miles via Miles Booster by Members is at the sole discretion of VAA.
3.9.9. There is no minimum Flying Club Miles balance requirement to purchase Miles through the Miles Booster Programme.
3.9.10. The Miles Booster Programme offers customers the ability to double (2x) or triple (3x) the base Miles earned on a flight. The Miles Booster Programme does not double (2x) or triple (3x) effective Miles earned, which may be accelerated as a result of ticket class and/or Flying Club tier status.
3.9.11. Customers may choose to accelerate base flown Miles from all or a portion of the sectors of the associated itinerary.
3.9.12. Miles Booster Programme purchases cannot be combined with any other bonus tier points or any bonus Miles from other promotions; the doubling (2x) or tripling (3x) of Miles only applies to the base point-to-point Miles earned on the flight.
3.9.13. No Tier Points will be earned for any Miles Booster Programme transactions.
3.9.14. Miles purchased via the Miles Booster Programme will be credited to the Member’s Flying Club account within 48-72 hours of the originally scheduled date of the first sector of the flight in the itinerary. This applies for purchases both pre- and post-original flight date.
3.9.15. Each Miles Booster Programme purchase is eligible for a 1,000-mile promotional bonus, which is credited to the Member’s account within 48-72 hours of the original date of the first sector of the flight in the itinerary.
3.9.16. Payment for Miles Booster is taken via credit card or debit card charge at the point of sale.
3.9.17. Members must have a valid email address in order to purchase Miles through the Miles Booster Programme.
3.9.18. Members will have the right to cancel any purchase of Miles for up to 7 days after the date of purchase provided that none of the purchased Miles have been redeemed. If any of the purchased Miles have been redeemed then Members will not be entitled to a refund for any of the purchased Miles including those that have not been redeemed. Once the 7 day cooling off period has expired any Miles purchased and received by Members are non-refundable and non-transferable, except as expressly permitted by the terms and conditions of Flying Club.
3.9.19. If the itinerary associated with the Miles Booster purchase is changed or the customer does not take the flight, payment is still taken at the point of sale of the Miles Booster Programme purchase and the Miles will be credited to the Member’s Flying Club account within 48-72 hours after the originally scheduled date of the first sector of the flight in the itinerary.
3.9.20. If the flight associated with the Miles Booster Programme purchase is cancelled by VAA, customers are eligible for a refund and may initiate one by calling a VAA contact centre. All refunds will be processed by Points.com International Limited within 48 hours of approval and credited back via the original form of payment.
3.9.21. If you are refused carriage in accordance with our Conditions of Carriage, entitlement to refund will be at our discretion.
3.9.22. Miles earned via Miles Booster Programme purchase(s) do not count toward the 30,000 Mile limit associated with Buy Miles and Gift Miles programs. There is no limit to the number of Miles that a Member can earn via purchase(s) of Miles Booster.
3.9.23. Miles Booster Programme purchases can be made in United States Dollars or British Pound Sterling. Miles purchased via the Miles Booster Programme will be priced as follows:a. British Pound Sterling: £0.015 per mile, plus an additional £15.00 transaction fee per purchaseb. U.S. Dollars: $0.025 per mile, plus an additional $25.00 transaction fee per purchase
3.9.24. There are no additional taxes levied on Miles Booster Programme purchases.
3.9.25. The purchase facility of Flying Club Miles via the Miles Booster Programme through VAA is operated on behalf of VAA by Points International Ltd. and any information provided is entered into the Points International system.
3.9.26. VAA reserves the right to cancel or amend any or all of these terms and conditions, without notice and at any time.
3.9.27. The purchase and use Miles purchased via the Miles Booster Programme are subject to the terms and conditions of Flying Club and our Conditions of Carriage. VAA is solely responsible for the redemption and fulfillment of Miles.
3.9.28. These terms and conditions are governed by English law and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.