The other day I received an email with an eye catching subject line: “Up to 90,000 bonus miles offer” for the Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard®. At first glance, 90,000 bonus miles is a lot, but after a more detailed look at the offer, there are quite a few stipulations to get the full 90,000 bonus miles. It may or may not be worth the effort depending on your circumstances.

90,000 Mile Offer Details

The initial bonus miles is only 20,000 miles after your first purchase, then another 50,000 bonus miles after spending $12,000 on the card in the first 6 months. You can add another two cardholder for up to 5,000 miles.

• 20,000 bonus Flying Club miles when you make your first purchase
• 50,000 more bonus Flying Club miles when you make at least $12,000 in purchases in the first 6 months
• Up to 5,000 bonus Flying Club miles when you add additional cardholders
• Up to 15,000 more bonus Flying Club miles upon anniversary — 7500 after $15,000 in spending and 15,000 more when spend $25,000 in a calendar year
• $90 annual fee first year and every year after

Ways To Use Virgin Atlantic Miles

You can redeem Virgin Atlantic miles on a number of partner airlines. You can find the award chart here. For example, domestic Delta Airlines First Class awards are only 45,000 miles and short haul one-way awards with Virgin America go for as little as 10,000 miles.

Virgin’s Delta Award Redemption Chart

If you are a typical Delta Flyer, I’ve written about what the Delta / Virgin tie up could mean for you in this old post.

How To Get 90,000 Bonus Miles

You can apply for the card here.

Apply for a Virgin Atlantic World Elite MasterCard® credit card and make a big splash with your purchases. You’ll earn up to 90,000 bonus miles* after qualifying transactions. You’ll also earn 1.5 miles for every dollar on all purchases.

Terms And Conditions

*Bonus Miles offer is 20,000 miles after first purchase. You will receive 50,000 additional Bonus Miles after you make net retail transactions (transactions less credits, returns and adjustments) totaling at least $12,000 within the first 6 months. This one-time promotion is limited to new customers opening an account in response to this offer. Offer sponsored by Bank of America. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks after your qualifying transactions appear on your billing statement for bonus miles to post to your account. 7,500 anniversary Flying Club miles will be awarded when you spend a minimum of $15,000 in Net Purchases within the anniversary year with your Virgin Atlantic Card. An additional 7,500 anniversary Flying Club miles will be awarded when you spend $25,000 in Net Purchases within the anniversary year with your Virgin Atlantic Card. Earned Anniversary Flying Club miles will be posted to your Flying Club account each year within four to six weeks of the anniversary of your Card’s open date.

**Receive 2,500 bonus miles for the first additional cardholder. Receive another 2,500 bonus miles for a second additional cardholder. As the primary Cardholder, you are responsible for all account activity incurred by additional Cardholders.

Bottom Line

Virgin Atlantic miles are useful with their partner airline Delta, but come with higher fuel surcharges. This card has a high sticker bonus of 90,000 miles, but I’d likely only go for 75,000 miles by making a first purchase, spending $12,000 in the first 6 months, and adding two additional card holders.

The downside of this offer is that your miles are in Virgin Atlantic and aren’t nearly as flexible as with points programs like American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards.

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• Virgin Atlantic Mile High Club Gone Wrong
• Benefits Of Delta’s Stake In Virgin Atlantic
• Delta And Virgin Join Up – What Does It Mean To Delta Flyers
• Delta Expands In Seattle, Applies For Antitrust With Virgin And Other News
• Virgin Atlantic Gold Status