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🟥 🟨 From Red to Gold: Master the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Rewards Fast!

🟥 🟨 From Red to Gold: Master the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Rewards Fast!

Plus Your Guide to the Star Alliance Lounges

Sylvie Simpson
September 01, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Hello, Adventurous Travellers, and Happy Sunday!

This week, we have an essential guide to the Virgin Atlantic membership tiers and a guide to the Star Alliance lounge access perk.

Let's get started:

✈️ Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Membership Tiers: Your overview of the three membership tiers and what you need to do to climb the tiers.
🌍 Your Guide to the Star Alliance Lounges: Gain entry to over 1,000 Star Alliance lounges worldwide for you and a guest when you achieve Star Alliance Gold status.

✈️ Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Membership Tiers: How Does the Rewards Programme Work?

You will earn points every time you fly with Virgin Atlantic or a partner airline, which can be used for redemptions. You’ll also earn tier points, which will help you climb the Virgin Tiers: Red, Silver and Gold.

Once you start climbing the tiers, you’ll get benefits like additional Virgin points on bookings, seat selection, baggage, lounge access, premium check-in and priority boarding.

You can earn tier points by Virgin Atlantic, one of our partner airlines or with Virgin Atlantic Holidays.

🟥 Red status in the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

You'll automatically have Red status once you sign up for the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Your immediate benefits will include:

Advanced economy boarding - board first in Economy
Earn Virgin Points when you fly
Points Plus Money on flights
Spend Virgin Points on Reward Flights
Access to a whole host of partner brands
Earn and Spend your points with Virgin Red

Once you’ve earned 400 tier points, you will be awarded Siver Status. Here’s a guide to how many tier points you’ll get when flying with Virgin Atlantic:

You can earn Siver status with as little as one flexible upper-class return flight or two flexible premium return flights.

🥈 Silver Status

Once you have Silver status, you’ll have the following benefits:

30% more Virgin Points on flights
One extra piece of checked baggage
Premium check-in
Free seat assignment in Economy Light
Earn and spend points through Virgin Red

You need to earn 1,000 tier points to move to Gold status. From signing up to the club, you can earn Gold status with as little as two returns and a one-way in upper class, five flexible premium return flights or ten economy delight return flights.

You’ll notice that Silver Status doesn’t have a lounge access perk, so Gold is the status you want to aim for!

🟨 Gold Status

60% more Virgin Points on flights
Upper-Class check-in
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse and London Heathrow Revivals access
Extra luggage allowance in every cabin
Gold Reward Seats (for twice the usual points price, you can turn any seat into a Reward Seat)
2,000 bonus points on your birthday
Silver membership for a friend
Cabin upgrade award when you earn 2,000 Tier Points in a year (subject to availability)

Once you have Gold status, you’ll be awarded a complimentary companion ticket every time your status is renewed for another year. There is no status higher than Gold, but Goldwill be awarded milestone rewards, including:

1500 Tier Points: Clubhouse passes
2000 Tier Points: A cabin upgrade reward

Airline Partners

Remember you can earn tier points when flying with any Skyteam airline or one of Virgin Atlantic’s other airline partners:

Virgin Atlantic’s Skyteam Partners:

Other Airline Partners:

Important Things to note

Tier points expire after 12 months.
You will earn 20 Tier Points for every £500 you spend on your Virgin Holidays booking, up to a maximum of 400 tier points per trip.

🌍 Your Guide to the Star Alliance Lounges

Last week, we covered the Star Alliance loyalty programme, whether it’s worth it and how to move through the tiers. Once you reach Gold status, lounge access is one of the most valuable perks, in our opinion.

There are four ways to access the Star Alliance lounges: being a Star Alliance Gold member paid access, flying in Business, or First.

Star Alliance has over 1,000 lounges worldwide. You can use the Lounge Finder to find a lounge at the airport you travel from.

Gold Members: You and up to one guest can access any Star Alliance lounges on the same day of your flight or a flight that departs before 5:00 am the next day.

Business Class Passengers: Some member airlines offer lounge access at the departure airport for domestic travel. No guests are permitted. If you are traveling internationally, you can use any Star Alliance business lounge.

First Class Passengers: If you’re travelling internationally in first class, you and a guest travelling on the same flight can visit any lounges that display the Star Alliance logo. Lounge access may be available depending on the airline if you travel domestically. You can also bring a guest travelling on the same flight.

Paid Entry: Eligible paid lounge customers include Air Canada Maple Leaf and United Airlines United Club. To enter the lounge, you must present a valid paid lounge membership card displaying the Star Alliance logo and a boarding pass for a Star Alliance flight departing the same day. Day passes are also available at some Star Alliance branded lounges.