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Virgin America Wants to Tap That Cash

January 26, 2009 at 12:55 PM | by | Comments (2)

In what is most likely another step towards world domination for Richard Branson, members of Elevate, the Virgin America loyalty program, have been receiving actual mail from the airline this last week.

Don't worry about missing out; the envelopes are just more credit card application junk as it seems Virgin America is trading a little cool for a lot of cash. Evidently, they are now trying to get in your pants...pocket, we mean, with a Visa Signature Card. (Previously, Virgin Altantic announced an Amex card.)

Of course they are beginning with the VA fans first and directly positioning themselves to counter Jetblue's TrueBlue Visa by offering no annual fee and all that other APR mumbo jumbo.

We all know the real test for the worthiness of a loyalty credit card is in the free points, and here VA sadly disappoints.

They start you off with 2,500 points for signing up and award the standard 1 point per dollar spent on the card. If you spend $5,000 on it in one year, then you get an additional 300 points. All totaled, that means 7,800 points for one year. Since a one-way, cross-country flight is about 6,500 points, that means that after the year of minimum use, you only get a crap one-way.

On the other hand, spend a hefty $45,000 on the card in a year and redeem it for a luxury one-way in first class. Whatever, Branson, we're not impressed. You let this card get us into those too-cool-for-school Virgin airport lounges, however, and then we'll talk.

Related Stories:
· The Absurdly Simple VA Card [Official Site]
· Virgin Atlantic Announces US Credit Card With Stellar Reward [Jaunted]
· Virgin America coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo via Copyblogger]

Comments (2)

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I Think The Card Is Great!

I have this credit card and I think it's a great value . Based upon current points-to-dollars ratio, you get 2.05% back on your money. Compare to this to card where for 25,000 points and you get up to $400 for roundtrip airfare - this is a reward rate of 1.6%. With a card like this, if you book anything under $400, you also are basically throwing away points. No so with VA. Plus there's the roundtrip requirement, with Virgin America, you can book 1-ways with your points. And if your flight is cheaper in dollar values, it is also cheaper in points too (so sales help you). Look at the details and see the value!
Phamer55 on January 26, 2009 at 4:15 PM #Permalink

This card is exceptional value...

It has 0 annual fees, which is different from some other reward cards. If you live in one of the major cities which Virgin flies to, and often go to other major cities, I don't know of any card that's better. I live in LA and I've seen a round trip flight to SF be lower than 5000 points total. I flew to NYC for around 11,000 points. Since I pay off my balances in full every month in all my bills are on the card (and I use this card exclusively), it results in a free trip somewhat close every 2 and a half months, and a cross country trip every half a year
David Oh on March 11, 2010 at 4:15 PM #Permalink

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