Definitive Guide: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household Accounts

Household or family accounts exist for a few frequent flyer programs, including the British Airways household account and the Flying Blue family account. These accounts can be a great tool for households who earn miles and points as a family, as the ability to pool and redeem points as a unit can result in more effective mileage earning and easier redemptions.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club also offers a household account, but it has a few quirks that make it a bit different than the other frequent flyer program household options listed above. While the household account is not a new feature, it is now available to all members and not only those who have earned elite status with the program.

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account and how you can use it to your benefit.

What is a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household Account?

At its core, the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account acts as an easy way to pool and redeem points as a household when multiple Virgin Flying Club members live at the same address.

The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account can contain up to ten members who reside at the same address, and there are no age restrictions as to who can join the household account. Once a member joins a household account, they must remain a member of that household account for at least 12 months.

The member who sets up the household account is considered the “head of household” and they are the only person who can add members and redeem Virgin points. The head of household can redeem points towards flights for anyone, not just members of the household account.

As a reminder, Virgin points never expire, so there is no need to worry about that if you combine points as a household. Tier points earned by each Flying Club member also remain with that member, as they are not pooled with the household account.

Benefits of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household Account

The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account is quite simplistic in the value it offers members who choose to set one up.

Pool & Redeem Virgin Points With Up to 10 Members

If you are a family of miles and points enthusiasts, the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account allows up to ten members to pool points. The head of household can add up to nine other members, provided they have their own Flying Club account and have the same address listed on their account. The head of household cannot be changed, so choose carefully when setting up the account.

For example, if you often fly on cash fares with your family on Virgin Atlantic flights, the household account is an easy way to ensure that all household members can contribute the points earned in their Flying Club account without any extra effort required.

Similarly, if you are earning Virgin points by utilizing transferrable points currencies paired with valuable transfer bonuses, automatically pooling these points between household account members can reduce the risk of ending up with points stranded in various accounts.

Drawbacks of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household Account

There is one major drawback of setting up a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account, so be aware of it before you set up your family account.

Previously Earned Points Aren’t Pooled

If you have already been earning Virgin points, existing Virgin points balances that were earned before joining the household account will remain with that member and will not be pooled in the household account. Only points earned after joining the household account will be pooled in the household account balance.

This is a bizarre restriction and means that points are pooled on a going-forward basis, and not retroactively. For example, if I have 140,000 Virgin points and create a household account with my significant other, those points will not be available to be redeemed as a household. Simply put, don’t be surprised when your existing points balances don’t pool once the household account is created.

While this is a pretty negative aspect of the household account, I’ll touch on a way to get around this restriction in a few sections below.

How to Set Up a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household Account

If you are interested in setting up a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club household account, the steps are easy to follow. Before starting, ensure you have determined who will be the head of household, and have them follow the steps below to start adding members to the newly created household account.

Once you are logged into your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account, click “Household Account” on the left-hand sidebar, or visit here.

Once you are on the household account page, click “Create Household Account” to initiate the process of setting up the account.

In order to create the household account, you will need to enter your invitee’s Flying Club number and click “Finish & Send Invite”. Remember, invitees must live at the same address as the head of household.

Once the invite is sent, the member who was invited will need to log into their Flying Club account to accept the invite. The process is the same if you wish to add additional members to the household account.

Alternatives to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household Account

Normally frequent flyer programs that offer household or family accounts are majorly beneficial to members, as paying to transfer points is usually prohibitively expensive and flat-out not worth it.

This is not the case with the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program, as all members can transfer up to two million points in one transaction for a cost of £10. Points transfers to another member can be initiated here and there is no limit to the number of transactions you can make.

There is no limit to the number of members you can transfer points to, nor is there an overall cap on the number of points that can be transferred or received. Transfers should be completed within 24 hours but can take up to 7 days in some cases if additional verification is required.

Transferring points has never been cheaper, so this could be a good alternative and less restrictive than the household account if you only need to transfer points once. 

Alternatively, since existing points balances don’t pool within a household account, you could use the transfer points feature to move Virgin points from one account to another after the household account has been set up, turning those points into “earned” points. They would then be available for redemption within the Virgin Atlantic household account.

Conclusion

While I think it is always a good idea to be aware of all the functionalities that frequent flyer programs offer, I don’t think that the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Household account feature is necessarily a game changer. Transferring Virgin points between Flying Club members is cheap, and shouldn’t break the bank even if you need to do it semi-regularly. 

However, it could make the most sense to set up a household account and pay for a points transfer to the head of household Flying Club account, and then all future points will be pooled.