My First Foray as a Virgin Red Mastercard Personal Perks Virgin

Virgin Red Mastercard

My wife and I have had a wild ride with the Virgin Red Mastercard since my we each promptly acquired the card upon arrival last year.  But we’ve reached our destination.  Points are accurately posting to each of our accounts – something that took about four months to untangle – and I’ve reached $30k spend on my account.  Next, I need to pick my two personal perks which come with the card and that level of spend.  Today, I’m getting into each of the options and my strategy for optimally timing the redemption.  But first, I’m resetting what these personal perks are all about.

What is a Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard Personal Perk?

Virgin Red cardholders can earn up to two personal perks each cardmember year:  the first at the $15k spend threshold and the second at $30k.  Specifically, the timeframe resets on each anniversary of the date your account opening.  Here are a few other particulars:

• The Personal Perk will arrive in the cardholder’s Virgin Red account within two statement periods after it is earned, as long as the card account is open. A cardholder will receive a notification when the benefit is available.  (I received an email.)
• A cardholder will have 12 months from the notification date to make a selection from among the available choices.
• Once selected, the Personal Perk cannot be changed to a different one.
• Personal Perks are non-transferrable.

Current Personal Perk Options

Once cardholders meet the big spend bonus thresholds, five choices are currently available for Personal Perk redemption:

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Voucher:  A cardholder can pick a voucher for a round trip companion seat or cabin upgrade.
• Virgin Hotels One Free Night Stay
• Virgin Hotels Priority Room Upgrade
• Virgin Voyages Bar Tab Credit (Up to $300 Value)
• Virgin Voyages Blue Extras Perk Package

Here’s a full description of card benefit terms and conditions.

Our Decision and Timing

We’re not interested in cash bookings for eligibility with certain benefits above, and we have no cruise plans any time soon.  But for our travel style, the Virgin Hotels one free night stay perk is right up our alley.  I find two areas particularly noteworthy with this choice.

Positive #1

First, this one-night stay cert is redeemable at the following six out the eight current Virgin Hotels:

• Chicago
• Dallas
• London
• Nashville
• New Orleans
• New York

The only two properties not participating are the Las Vegas and Edinburgh locations.  (Point stays at the former are available via Hilton Honors points.)  In my experience, points rates at those six Virgin properties vary, with a floor of 25k points per night.  Naturally, cardholders can maximize these certs on properties and dates on the higher end of the point redemption options.

Positive #2

Again, cardholders have up to 12 months from the notification date of earning to actually pick a Personal Perk, as I described earlier.  However, as the additional terms state, the actual stay can be after this 12-month period.  Basically, this Virgin cert has a “book by” rather than “stay by” deadline.  Coupling this with the ability to book Virgin Hotels almost one year out, cardholders have almost two-year window to use these certs.  And since it can take up to eight weeks to receive the initial notification of earning the Personal Perk, that provides even more time, well over two years in aggregate.

But don’t necessarily rely on that additional eight weeks.  In practice, I received notification four days after the statement closed where I qualified for my first perk, and three days after my second.  Regardless, these Virgin Hotels free night certs are substantially more flexible for attentive cardholders than other chains’ versions (from a time perspective, at least).

So perhaps I should say I’ve informally picked my Personal Perks.  I’m going with the hotel free night certs, but I’ll officially select these two perks a bit before my card anniversary.  Is that days or weeks before?  I don’t know, but I’ll ensure to leave enough time to book the actual stays.  And, who knows, something may come up and I’ll stay earlier.

Finally, a savvy individual can theoretically stitch together a four-night stay at a single property with these certs by earning the first two certs late in a cardmember year and a second two early in the following cardmember year.  Add another player into the mix, and even more options exist.

Conclusion

By deferring our Personal Perk selection, I know that I’m subjecting myself to some risk.  In my opinion, it’s minimal, though.  Is it possible Virgin Red Rewards and the card decide to update or devalue Personal Perks before I actually pick them, possibly removing the hotel cert option?  Perhaps, but I’d be surprised if this occurs with a relatively young card product.  And I value the longer timeframe more highly than the small risk I’m taking.  Much like the Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard, I look forward to dorking around with these certs as I get more stick time with them.

Have you earned a Virgin Red Rewards Mastercard Personal Perk or two?  What did you select and why?