Virgin America/ Virgin Atlantic Announce Points Earning Partnership

You can now earn Virgin America Elevate points when flying Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points when flying Virgin America.

The ratios:
Earning Elevate Points on a Virgin Atlantic flight:

If you fly on Virgin Atlantic from London (LHR) to New York (JFK) in Premium Economy, you would receive the following:
LHR-JFK Base Miles (Round Trip): 6,916
Premium Economy: 50% of miles flown
Elevate points: 3,458 points= roughly $65 towards a Virgin America flight. If you banked to Flying Club, you would get 10,374 Flying Club miles.

Considering NY-London in Upper Class is 90,000 miles, what would you rather have- $65 or 1/9th of an Upper Class ticket to London?

Analyzing the reverse, earning Flying Club on Virgin America, yields a less drastic result. You earn Flying Club miles based on miles flown and class of service:

Main Cabin* - 50% of miles flown
Main Cabin Refundable* - 100% of miles flown
Main Cabin Select Instant Upgrade* - 100% of miles flown
Main Cabin Select* - 100% of miles flown
First Class* - 150% of miles flown

Virgin Elevate points are based on dollars spent on base fare, so a JFK-LAX $358 fare will yield 1,790 Elevate points, which are worth about $34. That same flight would yield you roughly 2,470 Flying Club miles, or about 1/36th of an Upper Class ticket to London. What would you rather have? A little less clear, but I'd still go for Flying Club, since I'm a sucker for premium class international travel and that ticket is worth about $4,000 to me (1/36th of which is $111).

Either way you bank, I'm glad the Virgins are partnering up in a stronger way.. the more options to earn points and miles, the better!

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