Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to “reinvent” its Flying Club loyalty program. While exact details remain limited, I can’t imagine this will be good news for savvy consumers.
In this post:
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club changing how award pricing works
As of October 30, 2024, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will be changing how award flights work. Most significantly, you’ll be able to redeem Flying Club points for any seat onboard a Virgin Atlantic flight, though with dynamic award pricing. As the airline describes it, “the price of seats will vary in line with demand, in a similar way to standard tickets.”
It’s my understanding that the airline won’t strictly adopt revenue based pricing, which is to say that each point won’t consistently be worth a certain dollar amount toward a ticket. Instead, revenue pricing will factor into how much an award ticket costs.
For context, currently Flying Club makes a certain number of award seats available at a reasonable award cost, and if those seats aren’t available, you’re out of luck. In the future, you’ll be able to redeem Virgin Atlantic points for any seat on a plane, though it remains to be seen at what cost.
Virgin Atlantic plans to introduce what it calls “Saver reward seats,” which will offer the lowest possible pricing. As it’s described, this will be offered in order to “make flying with points even more accessible.” Virgin Atlantic claims that these awards will provide “the best value” the airline has ever offered, with prices starting even lower than the cost of reward seats today.
Under the new program, members will be able to use their points to upgrade to any available premium economy (Premium) or business class (Upper Class) seat, including from reward tickets.
It’s not yet clear what will happen to partner awards booked through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, as there are some great partner opportunities. I’d assume we won’t see dynamic award pricing there, but we could see some other changes… who knows.
Here’s how Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss describes these updates:
“Our customers mean the world to us. We are flying because of them and for forty years we have existed to make their journeys safe and special. Our aim is always to do right by them and to make them smile. In our special Ruby anniversary year, we are making every single seat available for purchase with points, becoming even more rewarding for our millions of loyal Flying Club members.”
Meanwhile here’s how Virgin Atlantic CXO Siobhan Fitzpatrick describes these updates:
“Our promise to our customers is to deliver a brilliantly different experience, providing thoughtful touches across their journey. Our loyal Flying Club members are so important to us, and today’s announcement is not only a first for the UK, but a significant step further in offering them as much choice, value and flexibility as possible.”
My take on these Virgin Atlantic Flying Club changes
Virgin Atlantic is 49% owned by Delta, so I think we all know what the inspiration is for these changes. 😉 We’ve seen enough programs go revenue based and introduce dynamic award pricing to know what the implications of this will be.
I think the biggest question is just how punitive the award pricing will be. Is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club going full-on Delta SkyMiles, where long haul business class awards on the carrier’s own metal consistently cost 250K+ miles one-way? Or will the program strike a better balance, like we see at American AAdvantage and United MileagePlus, where there are still some deals to be had?
It’s really unfortunate to see these changes, as Flying Club has been a pretty compelling program, all things considered. So while I’ll reserve final judgment until the changes are live, I’m certainly not feeling great about this.
Bottom line
As of October 30, 2024, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club will be introducing dynamic award pricing. While the airline is light on details for the time being, the plan is that every seat can be booked with points, though the cost will vary.
While the airline is of course marketing this as some amazing innovation, I have to imagine that this will be bad news, at least for those willing to put a bit of effort into using their points.
What do you make of these changes to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club?
Is this like SAS where there are award tickets priced after the normal chart and when those are gone they’ll be dynamically priced after demand and price so you can end up paying 800 000 points for tickets?
Dynamic pricing *AND* absurdly high fees so their award prices are more expensive than revenue tickets.
I guess VS will adopt a dynamic model similar to Flying Blue. Awards on Skyteam members like ITA & Vietnam Airlines may also be affected, but their pricing on ANA and Air NZ would not change to dynamic pricing.
Delta just destroys anything it touches….
No one has to like it but it is to be expected. The entire industry is moving in this direction. However, the balancing factor is opening up award inventory. The overall changes at Virgin might force British Aiways' hand to bring the Executive Club into the 20th century. But, the problem will still remain: we're in the 21st century.
The cruise industry wishes to thank airlines, like Virgin Atlantic, who gut the value from their frequent flyer programs and encourage their customers to consider cruising to their next destination. So far this year we have cut out at least ten thousand miles of flights.
Good for you, but I think the universe of people deciding between an airline award ticket or a cruise to get somewhere is…you.
Does Virgin Voyages offer a six-hour cruise from New York to London? Comment again when they do :D
Another one bites the dust.
lol SkyTeam is such a s***show; Flying Blue will be next
huh? they already are dynamic. its just that they have reasonable low end pricing. maybe VS will remain the same but the real issue is the threat of partner awards changing
Right, that's more of a hybrid model; they haven't gone full SkyMiles yet. However, given Delta's obvious involvement in the Virgin devaluation...
Flying blue has been dynamic pricing for a long time. It’s not THAT bad considering that AFKL has way cheaper saver rates than BA/LH and that’s before considering that the surcharges on Flyingblue are much less than BA/LH. I’d rather have dynamic pricing than fuel surcharges.
@Ben just received from VS the following link;
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/spend-points/reward-flights/reward-seats.html?cid=PDM406496&bid=833502417
And changes to VS Gold reward vouchers;
https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/spend-points/reward-flights/reward-vouchers.html
Honestly not bad for a devaluation. Flights to new york as low as 6K, for off peak pricing that’s pretty good despite the fees. Plus an increase in earning on some fares this isn’t as bad as other pure devaluations.
Virgin has been my main FF program for the past 3 years as Gold is easy to earn and points are easy to burn despite fees. I was 1K with UA for many years prior but gave it up last year. UA stopped the long haul flight I fly the most, devalued its FF program and made status much tougher to earn. Now what to do?
Gold is pretty easy to earn via CC spend or even flying?
Touched By Delta!