Travel News

Want to Fly Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to Space? You Could Do it With Points – A Lot of Them!

a plane with many seats
Written by Charlie

If you want to be one of the future passengers aboard Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, you don’t have to pay $250,000. You COULD do it with points – a lot of points.

Yesterday, Richard Branson went to space aboard his Virgin Galactic spacecraft. This was a big deal for him and the many people who watched this event that was 17 years in the making. There are many people who are awaiting their chance to head 53 miles above the earth and there is a way to do it without spending $250,000 for the chance.

Flying Virgin Galactic with Points

a man in a space suit

Courtesy of Virgin Galactic

Link: Virgin Galactic with Points

While this is something you can do with points, it is likely easier (or maybe even cheaper!) to outright pay the $250,000 for a place on the list as a Virgin Galactic then use points. The reason for that is that it costs 2 million Flying Club points! I wrote about this years ago and people had to wait for it to open to commercial travel. Well, it just took one giant step closer yesterday!

The 2 Million Points and What it Gets You

Get this – having 2 million points is not even enough to get you onboard! That is just the amount you need for the drawing to determine if you are allowed to head to space aboard Virgin Galactic! That’s right – it costs 2 million points just to be in the drawing for this ride to the edge of space.

Let’s make it even more difficult! You can only earn those 2 million points by flying Virgin Atlantic! Those points cannot be earned from credit card bonuses, earnings, or even transferred over from flexible point programs or from other accounts. You yourself need to have earned all 2 million points by flying, butt in seat, on Virgin Atlantic.

What it Could Take to Earn 2 Million Points

Here is an example of what it would take to earn those 2 million points. If you flew round-trips from London to Los Angeles in Upper Class and you were at Gold status (which you would have from this amount of flying), you would earn 34,905 miles. The cost for such a ticket (on a random set of dates) is $5,800.

It would require you to fly that trip 57 timesDoing it in business class would end up costing you $332,000 – and a whole lot of time in the air! So, this is definitely not an award you want to do a mileage run for – at least at these prices!

So, let’s wrap up:

  • You can fly Virgin Galactic using just points but…
    • It will cost you 2 million points
    • They must all be earned by the account holder on Virgin Atlantic flights
    • This just gets you in the drawing to be selected for the chance – and then the flight would cost you the 2 million points

I cannot imagine there are a whole lot of people on such a list right now! I would think that, instead, they would rather just pay the cash – or use those 2 million points for some other flights that take place just at 40,000 feet but taking a lot of them in some very nice comfort!

Featured image courtesy Virgin Galactic

Some of the links on Running with Miles are affiliate links that pay a commission if a purchase is made. Running with Miles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

About the author

Charlie

Charlie has been an avid traveler and runner for many years. He has run in marathons around the world for less than it would cost to travel to the next town - all as a result of collecting and using miles and points. Over the years, he has flown hundreds of thousands of miles and collected millions of miles and points.
Now he uses this experience and knowledge to help others through Running with Miles.

2 Comments

  • That means if you’re one of the very few who have 2 million VS points from butt-in-seat VS flights, likelihood of you winning that draw is higher than winning powerball or megamillion!

  • Except for the restrictions on earning the points, this is a good deal really. It is common to see business class awards that cost hundreds of thousands of points for a single round trip. The other major drawback is being unable to use any of those points for a period that could be years. For 2,000,000 points or $250,000 it feels like there should be PDBs and some inflight service.