Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a program that largely has overpriced redemptions, though also has a surprising number of award chart sweet spots. Just recently Spencer wrote about some of their sweet spot redemptions on partner airlines, including for travel on Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, and Delta.
One of the most remarkable Flying Club values is their redemption costs for travel on Air China. Flying Club miles can only be redeemed for travel on Air China between London and Beijing (they don’t allow redemptions on any other routes), and roundtrip redemption rates are as follows:
- Economy — 56,000 miles
- Business — 63,000 miles
- First — 75,000 miles
As of May 1, 2018, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will be increasing redemption rates for travel in first and business class on Air China. They’re not just mildly increasing redemption rates, but rather are obliterating redemption rates. The new rates for these city pairs will be as follows:
- Economy — 56,000 miles
- Business — 135,000 miles
- First — 200,000 miles
As you can see, redemption rates in business class and first class are more than doubling, so these are going from sweet spot redemptions to nearly worthless redemptions.
Note that there are also hefty fees on these redemptions, totaling about $780 roundtrip in business or first class. That’s due to the $217 UK Air Passenger Duty, as well as the $486 in carrier imposed surcharges, in addition to the airport taxes.
If you’ve been eying this award then you’ll want to book in the next couple of days, because once this change is made this will no longer be a decent redemption. It’s a shame to see one of these sweet spots disappear, given that Virgin Atlantic has only a few of them. If you do want to book I recommend looking up award availability online with one of Air China’s Star Alliance partners, and then calling Virgin Atlantic to book, as they don’t allow online redemptions on Air China.
For a sense of what you can expect from Air China first class, see my review.
Does anyone plan on ticketing one of these Air China awards before the cost is increased significantly?
(Tip of the hat to Head for Points)
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