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12 day cruise for 80,000 points for 2
I recently cruised on Virgin’s newest ship, Valiant Lady for one of its first sailings from Portsmouth. A full review will follow shortly but I really enjoyed it. There are 26 eating places to choose from and no buffets! The food was excellent with modern cuisine that’s a far cry from the usual cruise ship formula. It’s also adults-only which may be a blessing for many!
Virgin Red has teamed up with Virgin Voyages to give its members a chance to jump on board Valiant Lady for 12-nights on a one-way voyage from Portsmouth to Barcelona and visit locations including, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and Lisbon for just 80,000 Virgin Points for two people.
This offer is only available to Virgin Red members for the sailing from Portsmouth to Barcelona on Monday 2 May 2022. Be quick too – as there are only a limited number of cabins! It’s also one of the nicer cabins which I had – a sea terrace which has a balcony with tables and chairs as well as a hammock seat. The price is per cabin whether you have 1 or 2 people.
It’s all-inclusive for food and most soft drinks – you just pay for the alcohol and specialty coffees.
To book yourself on to this sailing, head to the Virgin Red app or website, where you can redeem your Virgin Points in return for the voyage. Virgin then send you details on how to complete your booking in an email afterwards.
The only drawback is that you have to find your own way back from Barcelona!
You can read my review of the previous ship which is almost identical Scarlet Lady here.
20,ooo points with Virgin Money
Virgin Money’s latest current account offer gives switchers to the Virgin Money M Plus Account and Virgin Money Club M Account 20,000 Virgin Points to spend with Virgin Red. These can be used for flights or lots of other options from sausage rolls to their exclusive suite the Virgin Red Room at Manchester Arena.
Switchers will also benefit from 2.02% AER on balances up to £1,000, plus 1% AER variable on their linked savings account on balances up to £25,000 and 0.50% AER variable on balances over £25,000.
Virgin Red is Virgin’s Group-wide rewards club that turns everyday spending into points that unlock far more rewards, with hundreds of options to choose from.
New advertising campaign for Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic has today launched a new brand and advertising campaign – the first in more than two years since the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The campaign introduces the end line “See the world differently”. The line draws on the airline’s heritage of challenging the status quo – as well as recognising that the travel industry is entering an exciting new era, after the disruption brought on by the pandemic.
The campaign will champion the individuality of the airline’s people and customers, building on research showing that travellers find most airlines’ crew to be impersonal in their service. In contrast, Virgin Atlantic crew are encouraged to be their true selves on board and on the ground. I have certainly found that with Virgin and have always had great service on board.
The campaign features a 60-second TV ad which focuses on a group of charismatic characters, at an airport and on board a state of the art A350-1000 plane, set to the song “I am what I am”. I liked it and it felt like it captured the Virgin “spirit”.
There is also a print campaign made up of shots of Virgin Atlantic crew and customers, with lines championing their individuality. These include a businesswoman saying “I am my own captain”, a family arriving for their holiday saying “A crew like no other” and a female Captain with the line “Born to fly”.
Virgin Atlantic cabin crew rejects latest pay offer
Unite members of Virgin’s cabin crew have rejected their latest pay offer by a good size majority (89% of a 77% turn out). The pay rise was pretty poor considering the current rate of inflation and the fact they are on low wages already – 2.5% this year, 4% for 2023. When Virgin crew rejected the pay offer in 2019 they balloted for industrial action, although it never actually happened. It remains to be seen what happens next after this rejection of the offer.
5 comments
Just booked for New York in October (using upgrade option for voucher). Looking forward to the new Upper layout despite shockingly high taxes and fees! (lot more than BA).
I’m sure you will enjoy it. I’ve never had a really bad flight with Virgin. All my flights have been excellent bar one when the cabin crew serving me could have been better but was when A350 was new so probably due to that.
Unrelated question, but would be grateful for any guidance. What us the cheapest way to travel to Vancouver in business? Both ex EU and UK flights seem to be expensive year round. Canada seems to have even higher taxes than the UK so two single flights don’t work any better.
I’ve seen some decent prices for Canada recently. You could consider flying to Seattle which often has some good prices and then fly from there which is usually fairly cheap. Prices are very high generally at the moment. Best thing to do is set a few alerts on Google flights for Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam and see what comes up.
IME as a reasonably regular on the route, there are rarely bargains to be had unless you can book 330 days out but even then the fares can still be eye watering in comparison to similar destinations.
With a connection try Westjet or Air Transat – but more like Premium Economy than business but still OK and also Air France/KLM, the latter are often about £1K less than Air Canada/BA who of course hold an unchallenged monopoly on the route.
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