Virgin America and Joie de Vivre Promo

by  The Points Guy
July 14th, 2010

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Virgin America announced a partnership today with Joie de Vivre hotels, a unique California boutique hotel chain. The promotion, spelled out here, allows Virgin Elevate members to double dip when staying at Joie de Vivre  hotels for the rest of this year- meaning you can earn both Elevate and “Joy of Life” club points.

As far as Virgin’s hotel partnerships, I’d say this one is more generous than Hilton (which gives 1 Elevate point per $2 spent) and less generous than Morgans Hotel Group which gives a standard 1,000 Elevate points per stay (unless your hotel stays are routinely over $1,000/ stay- then the Joie de Vivre partnership would be your best bet).

The value:

With Elevate- you earn 5 points per dollar spent on base airfare.Virgin Elevate points are worth about 2 cents a piece, so their program basically gives you back 10% in value. Spend $1,000 on airfare and you get $100 off a future flight.

With the “Joy of Life” club- you earn 1 point per dollar on hotel and points are worth about .75 cents each.

During the promo period, you can earn points in both programs until 12/31/10. Thereafter, you have to choose a program, which based on ROI, I’d recommend banking to Virgin.

Overall, I’m glad to see boutique hotels and “low-cost carriers”  hopping on the loyalty program bandwagon. The more points-earning opportunities, the better!

Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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