Virgin Group has announced plans to develop a new Virgin-wide loyalty programme , which will use the same currency as Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club scheme.
The group says the programme, which is expected to launch in 2019 as the Virgin Group Loyalty Company, will offer “unique and differentiated reward opportunities, to reward customer loyalty across Virgin branded companies”.
It will also offer members the chance to earn and spend “miles” (the currency of the Flying Club) across “a range of products and services”.
The group has stressed that Flying Club will continue to be the programme for Virgin Atlantic customers, who will continue to earn tier points, and have the ability to earn and spend miles across Virgin Atlantic, Delta and a range of airline and other partners “as they do today”.
At the same time Flying Club members will be able to enjoy “an expanded range of valuable ways to earn and spend miles that will be powered by the new Virgin loyalty programme”.
Readers may remember the launch of Virgin Red in 2015, a similar group-wide membership app which promised “exclusive offers, events, and experiences from across the Virgin Group”. This will now be integrated into the new programme, which will be owned by Virgin group and Delta Air Lines.
The new scheme will be headed up by Andrew Swaffield, who previously oversaw the creation of the Avios brand, and was most recently CEO of the Monarch group.
Commenting on the news Swaffield said:
“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.”
