How many Flying Club miles do you earn without flying?

My last flight was December 2012. Since then I have earned 79569 miles without flying.

How does everyone else do against this?

I'm hoping my figure is great but if there are people beating me then I want to know their tips and tricks ):

Edit: I actually only started earning miles in October 2013.

I think most of my miles are non-flight related!

The credit card's the biggest earner - I pay for everything on it and if you spend, say, £2k a month that's nearly 50k miles a year.

Then there's Shops Away which can be quite lucrative when there are deals on - some merchants offer as many as 16 miles per £.

And if you convert Tesco club card points - especially when there's a bonus on as there has been recently - you can rack up quite a few miles too.

I dont have the VA credit card although I am going to have to get it. I want the black account one but I think I am going to have to wait about 6 months to apply as I have recently changed both mine and the wifes mobile contracts, bought a new car with a bit of finance, bought a watch on 0%, taken a sim only deal for my daughters iPad and got an AMEX cashback card. This has resulted in 6 credit searches and 6 new accounts on my file in the last 4 months.

I convert my Tesco points and I have an IHG Hotels account through my business so I get the points from two of my managers using it cos they both book under my rewards account.

I also get miles from Virgin Trains and a few stays at Marriott Hotels.

I also have 4 refer a friend bonuses coming from VA (1 in May and 3 in August).

I have just started using Shops Away. I have my accounts girl using it for our Viking orders for stationary, we spend around £15k a year with them so that will clock up nicely.

Managed 86,000 since feb 1st and already swapped them for a couple of G upgrades to JFK/BOS next winter. It becomes a bit of a hobby!

This was done with a virgin black Amex for a month then an Amex platinum, plus a load of shops away whenever possible.

Now that will have to be something I look into. I haven't kept track over the years but am very impressed by the amounts of other V-Flyers, well done y)

R-P

79000 miles by auto converting Tesco points especially with 30% more deal y)

I'm sure I'm amongst others to of recently received the MBNA annual statement, very interesting if not slightly alarming!
I think TheBB your total is'nt that unusual....
The dumbing down of their value (fees/surcharge) however, has drastically reduced our specific spend to Virgin, with a preference to Amex generic points to allow choice.

About 400k from not flying in last year. I do get a fair few from flying as well. We have had 8 X UC reward returns to the USA, 3 x return PE to UC upgrade, 1 a one way PE from USA and I am waiting for availability to upgrade that and book the return UC. Virgin credit cards x 2 net about 150k a year. I have a lot of HP ink following the tesco promotion which gave about 100k. Shops away-3k this month for example. Hilton but that has changed and the new scheme isn't as good.

Totting that up it is closer to 900k since January 2012.

Interesting post.

Since May last year I've clocked up over 103000 miles from non-flight earning and have earned from 1 UC flight in July. Miles earned have been from VS Amex cards including sign up bonus, FC referral bonus for my partner, and Shops Away, with some occasional earning from eRewards surveys. I also signed up to Virgin Wines for a 3k bonus (and got £60 off a nice selection of vino thank you very much).

I have spent 25k on PE to UC upgrade and currently have approx 16.5k miles pending from Shops Away and 17k miles due on my next VS Amex statement. My VS Amex has been getting hammered in the last few months, the black one is a good earner, especially when purchasing from VS. I'll have more miles in a few weeks from my next flight to NRT.

As someone has already eluded to, collecting FC miles has become a bit of a hobby. I'm driving my other half mad because everything is about collecting miles. Anything that I would normally use my debit card for I'm often using my VS Amex for since it gets paid off in full (the interest rates are horrendous).

We have also made use of miles boost for my other half's FC account and am thinking about it for future flights as the miles purchased are good value. Don't think I can match Barnaby's earning though, that's phenomenal! :0

We charge every penny almost to our virgin card- the great thing is that unlike the BA Amex (which we have as well and get about 100k a year on) Visa is accepted where amex isn't. £2 at the post office, latte at starbucks etc. We spend about £10k a month (we both pay work expenses and claim back) and less than £200 is cash- the rest is on either virgin or BA Amex cards. Pay car insurance, house insurance, water, tv etc annually by card. I use 3V from Tesco to top up edf but that takes time so pay some by direect debit as well and pay council tax by direct debit but next year I may bite the card fee charge and pay that by card as well. Use Amex 1st as more miles but always VISA over cash or debit card.

I always off the Virgin Amex if that's not accepted the Virgin Visa. We shop at Tesco and collect their points and convert when they give a bonus rate.
My wife didn't have virgin credit cards till I persuaded her it was worth it, then she got 10,000 for signing up and first use! Far more than I got. She is now way ahead of me because all the household shopping goes on her cards.
Dick D

That's a good idea Barnaby. I have the white and black VS Amex and haven't used the white one since I got the black, but am going to start this financial year using it for business purchases, and keep the black for personal.

Think about half my current VS 200k miles over last 3 years are earned from non-flying - or bonus deals via Virgin Holidays and other vendors I use (and hotel etc). These contribute more than you would think! I think I worked out that 50k were just from one holiday booking with vhols - part from the v-hols points, part from the vs black card 4x points, part from the flight - Virgin holidays worked out at 6x spend back then which was quite amazing points earning (and the U/C flight + hotel was cheaper via them than direct too). I charge every penny to a miles earning card I can - and have for years. I also keep eye on the headforpoints site, and use tesco petrol. That said, I'm probably not earning as quickly as original poster, as I havn't yet started use of 3V cards for additional points.

I also sadly had to give the VS card the boot 2 ish years ago due to a disagreement with MBNA who then refused to renew the black card for me - and I didn't have time to put in a formal complaint. Annoyingly happened just before my wedding 2 years ago, so couldn't get the >20k points I'd have got just from that, and had to settle for MR's instead..

I switched to Amex platinum + gold combination for MR points, and have just got 120k of those in the account - in under 2 years, so now I am mulling getting a BA card, transferring a few months spend to them, and doing a companion redemption once the spending requirements met to get a freebie companion.... Unfortunately I can't charge any work expenses to personal card though so I have a massive earning opportunity lost. Overall it's VS/MNBA's loss - as now I have a choice on where my MR's go - and can pick the most advantageous transfer for me.

Interesting thread.

I only started collecting VS miles in January. I had half- heartedly collected BA miles/ Avios for many years (and have been on several European flights and two CW returns to the Far East courtesy of those).

I have only been on one VS flight (LHR-JFK return) which gave me 9000 miles approx. I have collected and additional 100,000 since January by getting the MBNA VA Black cards, an Amex Platinum (taking advantage of the 20% bonus miles offer in February). The rest has been through shopping via Shops Away.

Like others I use the Amex or Visa for everything I can. I was tutted at (by the other half) for using the Amex for a £1.10 purchase the other day, but hey, a mile is a mile!!!

Saying all that I am now turning my attention to Avios again. I am using my VS miles for Economy to UC upgrades to Tokyo next year. I shall continue to collect VS miles at a low level and when I have enough, use them to upgrade east coast states flights.

I am quite impressed by my achievements with miles collecting so far, and can truly say I have not purchased anything I would not have bought ordinarily, so anything is a bonus. I did open a Virgin Money ISA and change my wine club to Virgin Wines. I also defected from Waitrose to Tesco. This was the hardest change for me, as I come out in hives if I enter a Tesco store, but with on-line grocery shopping I am managing However, I have not exchanged any Tesco points so far and will use them for Avios I expect.

Happy collecting all.

What a great thread.

We earn miles flying but the ones we don't are from Amex, Tesco Clubcard and Shops Away. We did convert our barn and paid for everything down to the last screw via some sort of card earning miles.

It will keep us going for a little while yet.

I use cashback credit cards for everything. Even down to paying for parking. I clear them in full every month. My debit gets used twice a month, once to clear AMEX and once to clear Barclaycard.

I really need to get the VA Black card though.

Super thread. Our non-flying miles come from Virgin Amex/Visa. Shops Away depends on remembering, because we use Internet Explorer on Windows 8.1 and you can't (no honestly you can't) download Shops Away to that. Microsoft and Virgin don't talk to each other seemingly, so the only way round it is to remember and use Firefox.
And I can't, really can't, bring myself to shop Tesco online rather than Ocado. No-o-o-o-o-o.

Very interesting thread. I also use the credit/charge card scenario where possible, and it certainly mounts up. I would say 2/3rds of my miles have been achieved through this method. But now my situation has changed and i am looking to spend my 2million+ miles accrued, i cannot find much availability. So as much as gaining miles is great, spending them is better. And i cant really see availability improving.

Very interesting thread. I also use the credit/charge card scenario where possible, and it certainly mounts up. I would say 2/3rds of my miles have been achieved through this method. But now my situation has changed and i am looking to spend my 2million+ miles accrued, i cannot find much availability. So as much as gaining miles is great, spending them is better. And i cant really see availability improving.

Necker island?

I have had the Virgin Amex for years and racked up lots of miles mainly because I had my own business and used it to buy lots of materials.

my all time best was buying a wood fired boiler for a PITA clients block of 8 flats. cost inc VAT was £32000+ and at the time there was a special on of 4 miles per £1.....happy days...said client bought me a nice return UC ticket.

I have managed the PE upgrade vouchers every year for ....a long time

having moved to the US I took out a BA visa BOA wouldn't let me have a VS card) and in 15 months have amassed nearly 200k miles

Wish we could use the Tesco points in Ireland !! No rewards etc for shopping, it sucks !

I love this thread as the only way I really get to collect miles now is not by flying VS! Our last (and only) flights with Virgin were in PE to Jo'berg in 2011, but since then I've accumulated about 250,000 miles. We have the black Amex and Visa and I try to put absolutely everything on the cards. I also try and use Shopsaway as much as possible. I travel a lot within the UK so use expedia and hotels.com via Shopsaway for booking hotels and I try and do all my clothes shopping via the site now to get points. I go the shops, try stuff on, then come home and order online just to get the points! Today I've ordered myself an new Ipad mini (birthday present to myself), so with the Amex points, plus double points on offer at the moment will be almost 4000 miles, so you can see how quickly it adds up. We moved house last year, and have had to buy quite a lot of new white goods and furniture, so that has also added to the pot.
Due to a family member being terminally ill, we have been unable to take any foreign holidays for the last couple of years, but seeing my FC miles building up, and knowing we now have enough miles for two UC reward flights for when we do get the opportunity to take a much needed holiday, keeps me going!

And this site has been great in arming me with the knowledge of how to get the most out of our miles when we are ready to book something.

600/700k points easily as everything goes thru my business, trouble is cant spend them quick enough.

Cheers

Alex v