NEWS: Virgin announces new routes/frequencies and BA’s Executive Club Rewards app

Virgin Atlantic announces new flights from October 2020

Virgin Atlantic has announced new flying from Manchester and London Heathrow from October 2020 onwards.

For the first time, Virgin Atlantic will fly to India from Manchester to Delhi in addition to their double daily service from Heathrow to Delhi and daily service from Heathrow to Mumbai. Virgin Atlantic have previously announced that they are adding a daily Cape Town service flying from Heathrow complementing the existing service to Johannesburg. Increased flying between Manchester and Barbados and Heathrow and Havana will also offer customers more choice and better chances of getting that miles redemption. Don’t forget you can use SeatSpy to find Virgin Atlantic redemptions for a whole year. 

Juha Jarvinen, Chief Commercial Officer, Virgin Atlantic commented: “2020 is an extremely exciting year of continued growth for Virgin Atlantic and increasing our presence out of Manchester is a huge focus for us. Not only are we the headline sponsor of the Manchester Pride Festival but we’re delighted to announce a new service flying three times a week from Manchester to Delhi, additional capacity into Barbados from Manchester as well as a Clubhouse opening this summer. This year will also see Flybe transform into Virgin Connect, and we’re excited to offer customers flying from the north 47 daily flights throughout the UK, Ireland and across Europe.”

“2020 marks our 20^th anniversary of flying to India and as the destination continues to grow in popularity for both business and leisure travel, we’re thrilled to fly to Delhi for very first time from Manchester, our home in the north. Additionally, we look forward launching new services from Heathrow to Sao Paulo and Cape Town as well as increasing capacity on our Heathrow to Havana route.”

• Manchester to Delhi

The new three times a week service will fly on an A330-200 aircraft. Operating on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday, the VS318 will depart Manchester at 16:40 landing the next morning in Delhi at 06:05, the return service, the VS319, will depart on a Tuesday, Friday and Sunday at 08:10 landing back at 12:10. Flights on sale from 3^rd March 2020.

• Manchester to Barbados

From January 2021 in addition to daily flights from Gatwick and a seasonal flight from Heathrow in winter, Virgin Atlantic will now fly a Boeing 747 three times a week on a Monday, Thursday and Saturday from Manchester. This will add an additional 13% capacity compared to Winter 2019. 

• London Heathrow to Cape Town

Virgin Atlantic’s new daily seasonal winter service flying between London Heathrow and Cape Town will use a 787-9 aircraft. The new service launches on 25^th October and will complement the existing daily A350 service to flying between London Heathrow and Johannesburg. The VS478 will operate as a night flight departing Heathrow at 16:20 arriving into Cape Town at 05:55 whereas the inbound, the VS479, will depart at 08:00 landing later that day at 18:00.  

• London Heathrow to Havana

As the only UK airline flying direct to Havana, Virgin Atlantic is adding an additional weekly service to the city. Now flying three times a week on a Tuesday, Friday and Sunday on a B787-9 aircraft, Virgin Atlantic is offering 45% more capacity compared to winter 2019 to this vibrant city. 

You will be able to book on Virgin Atlantic for the new flights and redemptions.

British Airways Executive Club Rewards App

Earlier this week I talked about how to find Avios flights using a new free site called Seat Spy. However, if you want to collect the Avios in the first place you may want to consider the British Airways Executive Club Rewards App. Although you can easily (assuming it’s working!) track your Avios balance through the BA app, there are a couple of additional features that may be of interest in the Rewards app. It’s particularly of interest if you want to use the BA EStore on your mobile or know what the best offers are. 

Some of the newest features include:

• Now showing the best routes to find Reward Flight availability
• Members can now see their Avios balance, monitoring it increase and get closer to their next dream escape or experience
• In-app notifications when Members Favourite their most-loved brands which means they will be the first to find out about the latest bonus Avios offers

I find it an easy way to look at my purchases from the BA EStore, as you can see all your pending Avios very easily. It is also a quick way to browse through the latest Avios offers. Head over to today’s other article to find out some of the best deals at the moment. 

Did you know you can also use online chat through the app for Avios queries? 

Over the coming months, more features are planning to be added to the app. You can download the Executive Club Rewards App for free from the App Store or Google Play, just search for ‘Executive Club Rewards App’.