With the intention of offering a wider range of reward opportunities to its most faithful customers, Virgin Group and Virgin Atlantic have announced the creation of a new loyalty programme. With the chance to earn thousands of “miles”, the programme will be launched in 2019 and managed by the Virgin Group Loyalty Company.
Over the years, Virgin Group has been largely invested in offering its clients the best services and opportunities. The group, and specifically the group’s airline and Britain’s second largest carrier, Virgin Atlantic has announced an initiative to further accommodate and please its most loyal customers: the new Loyalty Programme.
With unique and differentiated reward opportunities, it will give Virgin’s faithful travellers the chance to earn and spend “miles”, the currency of the airline’s frequent flyer programme, across a range of different products and services.
Virgin Group Loyalty Company (VGLC) will be established next year to own and manage the new programme. The creation of VGLC aims to bring reward across the Virgin family together into a single company and create a more valuable offer for their faithful customers. Virgin Red, an existing loyalty start-up within the Virgin Group, will be integrated into the group-wide loyalty programme and the existing Flying Club will continue to be owned and managed by Virgin Atlantic as its frequent flyer programme and will continue to use miles as its currency.
Flying Club members will continue to earn “Tier Points” and earn and spend miles across Virgin Atlantic, Delta and a range of airline and other partners as they do today. The new perks for Flying Club members in the future are an expanded range of valuable ways to earn and spend miles that will be powered by the new Virgin Loyalty Programme.
VGLC will be led by Andrew Swaffield, previously Chief Executive of Avios. Swaffield oversaw its creation, and most recently was CEO of the Monarch Group; earlier experience in the aviation world includes 17 years with British Airways and 10 years with Thomas Cook.
The future CEO of VGLC, explained:
“Virgin is one of the most admired brands in the UK and across the world, serving 53 million customers each year across 60 companies.
“Customers expect to be rewarded for their loyalty to Virgin and we want to ensure Virgin customers get the very best rewards possible.
“Our ambition is to bring the Virgin companies together and combine their appeal to customers, working together to create a truly outstanding offer”
In addition to this statement, Oli Byers, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Customer Loyalty at Virgin Atlantic, commented:
“Today Flying Club offers Virgin Atlantic’s customers compelling and valuable rewards for flying on Virgin Atlantic, Delta and a range of Flying Club partners.
“This will continue to be the case, but at the same time we’re excited to work collaboratively with Virgin Group to build a stronger loyalty programme and unleash the power of our shared brand to reward customers for their loyalty to Virgin.
“We’ll be giving customers more reasons to join Flying Club and fly with Virgin Atlantic and our airline partners.”
As plans come together for the development of this new initiative, the Virgin Group Loyalty Company and Virgin Atlantic will keep customers updated with more details. VGLC will launch in 2019 and will be owned by Virgin Group and Delta Air Lines.