FAQs

No you will not spend any more by using our site – and you'll get the benefit of earning points! It's the same price as shopping directly with the retailers (so you won't miss out on any of their special offers); however by using our site you can earn points on every purchase (excluding the purchase of gift vouchers, taxes, VAT and/or delivery charges). And our service is totally free!

Yes, you will still get your points but we would advise that you don't purchase any items if you have previously saved them to your basket – this could affect receiving your points. It's best to start your shopping basket from scratch.

• It takes up to 5 working days for a purchase to display as 'Pending'.
• It may be that the web browser used or retailer site at the time of purchase had cookies disabled. Cookies allow us to track your purchase - without them there's no way for the system to allocate points to your Account. Read more about cookies.

If you'd like help figuring out what's happened, contact us.

Shops Away rewards work on a last referral basis. Here are some best practice guidelines to help make sure you receive your points:

• Make sure you log in your Flying Club account via the Shops Away partner page on Virgin Atlantic.com and click on the 'Shop Now' button to go the Shops Away site.
• Complete your purchase online, all in one session.
• If you decide after check out that you want to purchase something else, close the retailer site window and start the process again from the Virgin Atlantic Shops Away site.
• Don't retrieve previously-saved items in your shopping cart; start completely from scratch.
• If you're buying insurance, make sure you start from a completely new quote; don't retrieve a saved one or use a renewal offer if you're already a policy-holder.
• Don't click on another banner or website promoting the retailer, or retailer's own eNewsletter before you complete your transaction. If you must visit another site before completing your purchase, please use a different browser to do so. Interrupting the browser session that started from Virgin Atlantic Shops Away can affect tracking.
• Don't use "refer a friend" programs, again this changes the referrer.
• Telephoning or going to the physical store of the retailer to complete or modify your order will likely over-ride the Virgin Atlantic Shops Away referral (and therefore your points).
• Unless otherwise stated, purchases made through retailer apps will not earn Points. Please make your purchase from their website via your browser (e.g. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer) and follow our other T&Cs to be eligible for your reward.
• Increasingly some advert blocking software programs prevent the special tracking codes we need to track your purchases, please disable your program before using Virgin Atlantic Shops Away.
• Don't use a voucher code that is not provided on the Shops Away site.
• Make sure the retailer site cookies are accepted when you land on the site from Shops Away

Points can be cancelled for a number of reasons. The most common are:

• You have returned the products you purchased to the retailer
• Your payment failed or you didn't meet the requirements of the retailers credit check
• Your new registration has not been deemed genuine
• Your last click with this retailer didn't come from the Shops Away site
• Your transaction didn't meet the retailers Terms and Conditions
• Your transaction has been deemed not for genuine personal use
• You didn't accept the retailer site cookies

Sorry no, we're unable to retrospectively allocate points. The next time you shop, always visit the Retailer's website via Virgin Atlantic Shops Away so that cookies can track your visit and we can allocate points.

• When you buy something from a retailer, the transaction will appear in your Virgin Atlantic Shops Away Transaction History as 'Pending' within 5 working days.
• We'll confirm the transaction with the Retailer before updating the transaction status to 'Approved'. This takes up to 45 days (or 90 to 120 days from the last day of your stay on hotel & travel bookings or policy, contract or subscription start date) but in some cases it can take longer and is subject to the Retailer's Terms & Conditions.
• Once 'Approved' the points will be credited to your account.

If you'd like help please contact us.

Virgin Atlantic Shops Away will clearly outline how many points you'll earn. In most cases, this will be expressed as a number of points earned per £1/USD$1 spent at the retailer.

• If a retailer is offering 2 points per £1/USD$1 spent, and your transaction total is £50/USD$50 (excluding VAT and shipping), you can expect to receive 100 points.
• In another example, you may not earn points per £1/USD$1 spent, but rather a certain number of points for a single purchase, or by registering for a service with that retailer. In this instance, you'll receive points for that one action, but not for subsequent actions or purchases on that retailer's site.

Points are not calculated on postage/handling or tax.

Yes.

• You can see all your transactions whether they are 'Pending', 'Approved' or 'Cancelled' within your Transaction History.

It's the Retailers who decide the level of points given for shopping with them.

Points rates can go up or down, but the current rate is always displayed on this site so remember to look at the current rate to know what to expect.

We're constantly adding and looking for new Retailers, so if you know of a great online service or shop that you'd like to see added to our growing list, please get in touch.

You can cancel purchases and get a refund in the usual way that you would do direct with the retailer. However, you will not earn points for any cancelled or refunded sales.

From time to time Retailers may decide they no longer wish to participate in Virgin Atlantic Shops Away. When this happens, we bid them a fond farewell and remove them from our listings.

No, your points earned through the Shops Away site will be credited to your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account and can you can redeem your points for Virgin Atlantic reward flights, upgrades and more. Full Flying Club terms and conditions apply.

To collect Virgin Points with an instore retailer, simply login to your Flying Club account, click on instore and then use the ‘register card’ functionality to register your payment cards, which will be registered to your Flying Club account. Participating merchant instore offers will be automatically linked to your eligible card(s).

You only need to do this once and you can add or delete cards at any time. You will be able to see which retailers are participating and what their current offers are on the Flying Club website.

Then just use one of your registered payment cards for a qualifying purchase and we will do the rest. Please allow up to 24 hours for your card(s) to register before making your first purchase using that card.

We use your registered payment cards to track your spend in participating retailers to determine whether you are eligible to earn Virgin Points. This avoids you needing to show a coupon, voucher or your or providing your Flying Club membership number to the retailer.

Once logged in to your Flying Club account, using the register card function you will be able to register cards to your Flying Club account. There is no limit to the number of cards you can register.

You will be able to register UK issued credit and debit cards bearing the Visa, American Express, MasterCard or Maestro symbols. Some instore offers may only be available on specific card types and these will be shown within the offer conditions. Not all Visa, Mastercard, and American Express cards are eligible for registration .

Your card details will be kept secure. We will not be taking any payments from registered cards and the storage of your cards will fully conform to Payment Card Industry (PCI) data standards. For more information about PCI standards view our privacy policy.

It will take up to 24 hours for a payment card registered on the Shops Away site to be registered to your Flying Club account.

The participating retailers and current offers will change from time-to-time and can vary by individual. So we suggest you regularly login to Shops Away to see which offers are currently available to you.

Using the 'edit cards' function on the website, you can add or delete the payment cards that are registered to your Flying Club account or edit your nickname and expiry date.

Typically, a qualifying instore transaction will show in your Flying Club account as 'pending points’ within 7 days of the transaction. It will then take up to a further 45 days for the points (or 90 to 120 days from the last day of your stay on hotel & travel bookings or policy, contract or subscription start date) you have earned to move from 'pending' to 'approved' and show in your Flying Club account.

Virgin Points collected through instore offers may take up to 52 days after the date of your purchase to appear in your Flying Club account although they should show as ‘pending points’ in your Shops Away account within 7 days of purchase.

If you returned an item and received a refund, the points collected will be removed from your Flying Club account. To collect points for instore offers, you must first have registered the payment card that you used to make the purchase, up to 24 hours prior to purchase. You might not earn Virgin Points if the same payment card is registered with another ‘card-linked offer’ programme. To avoid this, ensure that you delete or remove the card from any other ‘card linked offer’ programmes and re-register the same payment card again with Shops Away instore.

If you can't see your points in your account 52 days after your purchase, please complete the 'Missing Points’ form by logging in and clicking the Missing Points link. It may also be necessary for you to provide a scanned copy of your store receipt.

Virgin Atlantic Shops Away will not share any personal information about you with our Retailers. Please note though that when you click a 'Shop Now' link to a Retailer, you will leave Virgin Atlantic Shops Away completely and be subject to that Retailer's Terms & Conditions. If you leave your details with a Retailer, they may contact you.

A cookie is a small piece of data used by web servers to help identify web users. Cookies can be turned on and off by you at any time in your web browser menu.

Cookies allow us to award your points for any transactions with Retailers.

We use cookies to track Virgin Atlantic Shops Away transactions so that we can credit your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Account for any purchases made with our Retailers.

How it works is that a piece of code on our Retailers' websites records your unique ID number and transaction, and then passes that back to us. We then use this to match it back to your details so we can allocate points to your Account.

Please view our full Cookie Policy on this page.

In Internet Explorer, you open up the browser then:

• go to "Tools",
• select "Options",
• under "Privacy" move the settings slider to "Medium" or lower, hit "Ok."

In Firefox, you open up the browser then:

• go to "Tools"
• select "Options"
• under "Privacy", select "Accept cookies from sites", hit "Ok."

In Safari, you open up the browser then:

• go to "Edit",
• select "Preferences",
• under the "Security" tab in the "Allow Cookies" section, select "Only sites you navigate to", hit "Ok."

In Konqueror 3 and 4 (for Linux):

• select "Configure Konqueror" from the "Settings" menu,
• in the new Configure Konqueror menu, find and select 'Cookies' from the left side menu (you might need to scroll down the list a bit), to enable,
• Select "Automatically accept session cookies", hit "Ok."

*If using any other browser, just check out their Help section.

Get in contact with us.

Login to yourFlying Club account and update your details at https://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/frequentflyer/youraccount/managefcaccount/index.jsp.

We have hundreds of retailers currently on our site covering a vast range of shopping categories and are always adding more!