Why would you want 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles?
Simply put, Virgin Elevate miles are awesome. They are twice as good as everything else, but you earn half as much usually. For example, the Amex transfer to Virgin America (Elevate miles) is 2:1. Thus, it would take 40,000 Amex points to get 20,000 Elevate miles.
I’m going to show you how you can get 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles (and possibly make a few bucks), for little effort. But first I just want to mention what you could actually do with 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles. I’ll give two examples.
1) In this post, I show that you can fly Singapore Airlines from New York to Frankfurt for 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles roundtrip! No fuel surcharges either.
2) In Cheapest Miles To Get To Hawaii, I show that Virgin Elevate miles are the cheapest, at only 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles roundtrip!
That’s right. The trick I’m showing you to get 20,000 Virgin America miles can be used for a roundtrip to Frankfurt or Hawaii, and that’s just two examples.
A Quick Step 1 (1/2)
All this is based on an Airbnb promotion. So to make this cheaper (actually, more profitable), I’m going to tell you about the other airbnb promotions going on.
$20 refer-a-friend bonus
You can signup for Airbnb using a refer a friend link and get $20 off your first stay (over $75).
But it’s not hard to find these refer a friend links.
For example, here is the flyertalk airbnb conga. How this works is simple. You make sure you go to the last page and use the last person’s refer a friend link, then you post yours. Just comment, “I used [username’s] refer a friend link, and here is mine…”, and that’s it. You get $20 off your stay, and the next person will use yours and you’ll get another $20 coupon when they use theirs.
Amex offers = $50 off
Next, you pay with your Amex card because Amex is having a promo where you get $50 when you spend $100.
You need to sync your Amex card so that it is enrolled in the Amex Offer. Click here for the offer, and click here to read more about how to sign up for the promo.
Basically, it involves signing up on the Amex site, and then tweeting to “@AmexOffers” and including the hashtag “#AmexAirbnb”.
Anywho. You do that and spend at least $100 on that Amex card toward airbnb, and they’ll take off $50.
Also, see Frequent Miler’s Complete Guide to Amex Offers. As hopefully you’ll see by the end, you may want to add your dog as an authorized user, so he/she can make a booking. (Actually, maybe not your dog, because you need a valid ID to use airbnb).
The BIG Promo (step 2/2)
Virgin and airbnb are doing this promo where you earn 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles after you “create a New Listing”.
You click through, add your listing, and host 1 person over $75. That’s it.
Understand that the promotion does require you to actually get paid for hosting someone. However, don’t be scared. You have to approve the person listing, so it’s not like people just book your room/house and show up. And you can blackout all your dates so it won’t show up. Personally, I would just list a place for the bonus, and host a friend… or at least take their money.
Here are the details listed:
- click “List Your Space” after navigating from the Virgin website (click here) to Airbnb;
- complete the Verified ID process;
- accept at least one reservation for the New Listing priced at $75 or more per night, excluding cleaning fees and taxes (a “Qualifying Reservation”).
- The Qualifying Reservation must begin on or prior to November 1, 2017.
Reading between the lines
Buried at the end of my “Love / Hate with Airbnb” post, I talk about how the refer a friend system works. Details like how airbnb takes 9% to 15% per stay.
And there are all kinds of rules about who stays with you from a normal refer a friend earning bonus, like it has to be $75 and all that. But also, the person staying can’t be referred to from the host (you). Or, both of you can’t be referred to from the same person.
Let me get to the point…
Let’s say you want to host someone and get the 20,000 Virgin Elevate miles.
You can click through the host part of this link.
Then you click “Become a Host”. (Despite the site saying that you should click “list a place”, I didn’t see the option).
List your house for at least $120 (as long as the Amex offer is alive), and all the details and information needed.
Have someone stay with you, who is referred to by someone other than yourself or your referrer. They have to spend $75 (before fees and taxes) for you to get the bonus.
But also, if they enrolled in the Amex offer, they get $50 back on their card.
It could work like this:
- The room is $120
- But if they have a refer a friend discount, they get $20 off
- Their card is charged $100, but get $50 back via Amex offer. $50 total cost.
- $102 ($120 – $18, assuming they take as much as 15%)
- You get 20,000 Virgin miles
$50 is charged, $100 is paid, and 20,000 Virgin miles earned.
Also, local taxes could change the price, but it’s still a good rule of thumb.
All this depends on finding someone willing to stay with you, and I’m sure you can find someone who is at least willing to do so on paper. Maybe friends or family, or pet. Just be willing to give them their $55 back. It’s no loss to them.
If the Amex offer goes away, do everything closer to $75, since you don’t need the $100 minimum. For example:
- Room could cost $75+
- Discount lets them pay $55
- You get paid ~$64
- You get 20,000 Virgin miles
Conclusion
Everyone should at least enroll in the promo incase you decide to list a place on airbnb. You might as well get 20,000 Virgin miles as well.
This is actually minimal effort if you understand the rules.
And you don’t have to be new to airbnb, you just need to list a new place. Completely new. You can’t relist something old. But I think most people qualify for this bonus.
It could be a minimal amount of effort, and there is nothing to lose for trying it. Best case scenario is that you get 20,000 Virgin miles and $50. Worse case scenario is that you just get the $50. Think about how much sweeter this deal has been made.
This is possibly a roundtrip to Hawaii or Europe… just for listing your place on airbnb via a Virgin Elevate link. Easy.
This is the kind of blog post that made me a points addict.
Yeah I saw this promo this morning, and I immediately thought of the same thing, but nobody was really talking about it.
Really seems like pretty easy money!
Is the 20,000 point offer eligible for those outside of the U.S.?
Drew you are the man! Thanks as always for posting this form of solid gold.
You are such a genius!!! Thats why I come everyday to check if you have any new post! Thank you!!!!
Thanks Drew! Has anyone gotten a confirmation (Air BNB message, email or other) that they are enrolled in the promo?
that $120 mentioned, is that per night or the total amount spent over few days as part of a single reservation?
I love you man.
This is why this site is the best!
Only if I had a friend with an amex card …..
Haha, I just saw this on frequent miler (I started from top down on emails) and had the same thought. Then I saw the link to the article you already wrote. This completely solves my dilemma of how to go from Australia to Europe on RTW trip.
PS another sweet spot on that chart with SIN is SIN-DXB for 12k + $24. That’s an 8hr flight!
Anyone else concerned about tax implications for air bnb rentals? In San Diego you have to pay a $50 rental unit tax and have an occupancy tax certificate approved by the city to be eligible to rent your home short term..
So here’s the real kicker to me…what’s the validation process for AirBnB to ensure the room you are “renting” out belongs to you in the first place?
For example, I could “rent” out my house. My wife could “rent” out (list) her parent’s house. My kids could rent out my parents house, etc.
Thanks,
Any idea how long it takes for the 20,000 points to post?
TOS: “Please allow 4-6 weeks from completion of the trip for posting of Elevate points.”
Clint – I think they go by addresses, so what youre saying is entirely possible… But on the sign up somewhere- you do ‘Say’ that you ‘own’ the house you’re renting out. I’m fairly certain in their TOS youre not allowed to Rent out a place that YOU are renting…But thats not to say it never happens.
For your situation- i think you would need THREE Amex Cards (all tied to this offer setup, with 3 Virgin accounts) to make it 60K that youre looking for.
shoot me an email if you want to “rent” each others’ apartment
jackbergsman@yahoo.com
That’s a great deal, thanks a lot!
Do you know whether the deal works for any nationality – especially I’m wondering if this deal works for Indians and Europeans…
Thanks for your help, cheers!
Hi, I was wondering to get the 20,000 points for hosting, is there a restriction on why can stay if I don’t opt in for the $20 credit? Ex: I host my apartment and I have one of my referred friends staying in order to get the 20,000 points. The only bonus would be $100/night – $50 AMEX Offer.
Thanks!
The AirBnB deal sounds good, but….
“They are twice as good as everything else, but you earn half as much usually.”
This is your comment about VA’s points. Doesn’t the half earn rate cancel out the twice as good part? I just checked out their reward chart…Upper class SFO to LHR is 50K pts and $1150. On AA, I can get business class to LHR for 50K, period. These two classes may not be equivalent, but I don’t see a business class on Virgin (unless that’s what upper class is.) Granted, there may be other uses or a niche I don’t know about, but this London example makes Virgin miles actually worth less in my book.
There’s an inverse relationship normally with earning vs worth. If they are easy to earn they are worth less (in dollars and cents), because it is not difficult to get a lot of them. If they are difficult to earn, each individual point is worth more. I plan on using mine to island hop in Hawaii. 21,500 (first time rental bonus too) points will get 7 one way flights around Hawaii on Hawaiian Airlines.
can you explain how you go about booking the island hopping? Sounds fun
Hawaiian Airlines is a partner with Virgin Elevate. You can go here to see play with the routes. – https://www.virginamerica.com/cms/elevate-frequent-flyer/redeem-points
I actually plan on flying business class on AA to HNL, use my Elevate miles to fly from HNL to LIH, then from LIH to OGG. OGG to home on business class AA. You can fly between HNL, LIH, OGG, KOA, LNY, MKK, and ITO using these miles. You would need to route it correctly, but you can go from HNL -> LIH -> OGG -> KOA for only 12,000 miles.
Anyone else notice that it’s possible to get a $100 AirBNB credit by posting in the conga? If you refer someone who then hosts, you get $80, plus $20 if they book using AirBNB. Obviously we all will be hosting in order to get this promo, so not too shabby for icing on the cake!
Since the main point of the Conga is not the $25, but the ‘Hosting Bennies’ of 20,000 Virgin Points, I beleive youre right- each person WOULD be hosting (more than likely) So this is an even greater deal.
However, I feel like many on that forum have ALREADY signed up with AirBnB Years ago – so I for example couldn’t even participate – because I’d be lying if I said ‘I signed up with the previous user’s ID.’
Is the hosting offer limited to new AirBnB sign ups only? I have an account but never hosted. Hope I get my 20k points bonus!
It seems that a person staying by you will get 1500 miles. Can you do it multiple times?
I wonder if you can earn the 20k bonus multiple times by adding more than one new listing. The terms on Virgin’s website do not seem to exclude it. If so, this could be pretty huge… especially when stacked with the extra $50 off from Amex.
This sounds really interesting, but I just have spent quite some time trying to confirm the Elevate/Singapore airlines flight awards from JFK to Frankfurt, with little success. On the Elevate site, it only gives me options to book domestic flights, and has only a passing mention of partnering with Singapore, and clicking thru on that takes me to the Singapore airlines site, which has very high surcharges (almost $200). Can you tell me is I am doing something wrong? I’ve signed up for both Elevate and Krisflyer, thinking that those offers only came up for members, but that did not work either. Thanks in advance for any help
Certain routes can only be booked by phone.
Drew or anyone:
1) Do you know if this works for an existing account?
2) How about an existing account that has not yet hosted but been a guest?
Thanks!
I am already a host, in an attempt to get the 20k I followed the link and created a new listing (a private room instead of the whole apt)…which according to the terms is all that I needed to do. Already had it rented out, now we wait!
So did you just put your Elevate number, click Host Now and signed in with your existing account and added a new listing? I am curious cause once you sign in with your existing account how will Virgin America now that its a new listing? I dont know if I should use an existing account and create a new listing or create a new account completely.
when you enter your elevate number and click the “Host now” button it will take you to the airbnb websie and the URL address bar will have your elevate number in some part of it so it can track activity that you do in that airbnb instance. This is how all cash back portals do their tracking…its all in the URL address bar.
Chris-
Since you were already a host on airbnb, I wondered if you were finally credited the 20k or not?
My friend and I signed up and cross booked each other. 3 days later airbnb permanently cancelled both accounts. hard to image they will pay the bonus.
Use at least 3 people if you do this.
Never hosted before. Just created a new listing by clicking through the VX link and had my friend “stay” for a night. Shall report back any progress.
I just got a cancellation email form Airbnb about my listing. They warned me not to do it again or my account will be cancelled.
I just got an email asking to take down my referral link and so I did.
My guess is that they were shown this post somehow, and hopefully unrelated are already looking out for people with duplicate accounts gaming them. Maybe by ip address, maybe by credit card info… who knows how. But they probably want to crack down on any case where they know for sure it’s a duplicate account gaming them. Any company offering a referral promo like this is going to have gamers, and they know that. So they probably have something to look out for em.
On the other hand, they don’t want to delist actual customers. So I’d be curious what you did that might have flagged them.
Same thing here. My listing got cancelled, but they kept my account. 🙁
I had a reservation booked in Florence, IT in a week and a half and my account has been disabled.
did they say why they “canceled” our listing and what you are specifically not to do again? someone I know encountered similar happening and they refuse to say why they cancelled. what kind of b**s is that?
If you are curious what the cancellation email looks for a booking guest here it is. Not the most friendliest email. The host email is different and is more concise.
Hi guest,
My name is and I’m a member of Airbnb’s Trust and Safety team. During a routine review of your account, we noticed your does not appear to be legitimate and is in direct violation of Airbnb’s campaign with Virgin America.
Our community is built on trust and transparency, and accurate, honest hostings and reservations are part of that foundation. As per our Terms of Service we don’t allow this type of reservation or the creation of fake hostings. Please review the Airbnb Terms of Service here: https://www.airbnb.com/terms.
In this instance we have cancelled your reservation and refunded the payment in full.
We kindly ask that you refrain from making these types of reservations in the future. Repeated creation of false accounts, hostings or reservations could lead to the permanent deactivation of your account. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation with this matter.
If you have any questions or concerns, let us know. We’re here to help!
Best regards,
Hmmm, only thing that happened to me is that I’ve gotten two requests to fill out a survey. I didn’t have my friend “stay” yet though.
I want to try this offer, but do not understand your instructions. They are quite badly written. In future posts, could you please consolidate your thoughts before you write?
Airbnb has been canceling most of these bookings. Talking with friends who got cancelled, it seems that if you just signed up for an Airbnb account and try to host via the Virgin link, Airbnb cancelled. None of them were using mutual referrals. In these cases, people actually stayed at the host place and Airbnb even cancelled after they stayed. Mine was cancelled before the person even stayed. This offer worked for one friend who had some history using Airbnb. This offer is a sham.
Hi –
Did you see the part about accepting and completing reservations for at least FIVE nights? Is this a new stipulation?
Offer valid only for new Airbnb listings in the United States (a “New Listing”). You must (a) create a New Listing; (b) click “List Your Space” after navigating from the Virgin website to Airbnb; (c) complete the Verified ID process; and (d) accept and complete reservations for the New Listing for a total of at least five nights priced at $75 or more per night, excluding cleaning fees and taxes (a “Qualifying Reservation”). The Qualifying Reservation does not need to be a single reservation comprising of five nights, and may consist of multiple guest reservations that total five nights. The Qualifying Reservation must begin on or prior to November 1, 2017.
That’s totally new.
The part I list above, is/was an exact quote:
“accept at least one reservation for the New Listing priced at $75 or more per night, excluding cleaning fees and taxes (a “Qualifying Reservation”).”
As you can see the wording changed quite a bit.
Hey Drew, you don’t have a screenshot of that do you? I successfully did the original one night term through an A-B-C three person process and normally get screenshots of the TOS, but didn’t this time. I have a feeling VA is going to make us fight for these points.
Agreed, if anyone has a screenshot it would be incredibly appreciated!
True scumbag move by Airbnb and Virgin America to renege on this offer. What a scam.
I did one listing for my account and had a friend A stay with me and another for my friend B’s account and I stayed with her. How is this not legitimate? I’m going to be completely honest with airbnb and say yes I made my friend pay to stay at my house so we could get the points.
I don’t understand how they can say this is not legitimate…thoughts? They screwed up this promo, not me.
Same here, I got a letter with no explanation of how my completed hosting was in violation of the terms. The terms have since been changed. Not surprised. airbnb is well known for unethical business practices. I’m thinking of taking them to small claims on this. It’s a fairly clear case of bait and switch. I was completely within the terms of the offer. They reneged after the fact.
Anyone screenshot this???
Id love to hear from anyone that actually GOT the 20,000 Points from Virgin, and DIDNT get a Cancellation letter. Apparently that’s the norm… If anybody hosted a non friend successfully – It’d be nice to know if you have to still do 4 more if the 1st offer (one stay of $75) is still honored.
Also I wouldnt attack Drew for this offer not being as fruitful as advertised… Its not his fault for them changing the terms / being hyper vigilant on the system being gamed.
I also haven’t received my miles. Airbnb and Virgin America keep sending me back and forth between each other. Total scam. I didn’t even have a friend book my Airbnb, some stinky stranger slept on my couch and I dont get the points…. WTF!
so i guess no news is bad news with regard to the old one night offer?