Several weeks ago, Virgin Atlantic announced plans to ”reinvent” its Flying Club loyalty program. At the time, we learned that the program would adopt dynamic award pricing, though not much was revealed beyond that.
Continue reading: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Adopts Dynamic Award Pricing: Not So Bad?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Is there any way to combine a Virgin flight with one if its partners on one award?
Flights with connections seem the hardest hit. LAX-LHR-MLE was pricing at 125k yesterday, now its 700k.
It has its pros/cons. It's great to see upper class to be redeemed that low at 29k but during peak season it is crazy at over 150k. Even economy redemptions at peak season is crazy nowadays with the new pricing! (Beforehand it used to be set at 20k one-way which was great!)
I myself am not a fan of dynamic pricing but it is what it is. Even with the old award chart, even though it is fixed from time to time VS had discount sales on awards (6000 miles one-way in economy).
Still trying to figure out what points you need for “on the day” upgrades from PE to UC which I used to do very often. And in todays budget the government announced an increase on APD so expect an overnight update as VS apply the changes.
One more bad news: I don't think you can combine Virgin Award and SkyTeam Award in a same trip anymore
@Ben APD rates effective April 25
https://www.businesstravelnewseurope.com/Air-Travel/UK-government-announces-increase-to-Air-Passenger-Duty
It seems like a mixed bag, and especially in favor of those with the flexibility to travel outside holiday seasons. Which, I think, is the whole point of Virgin: they can say that they actually offered award seats, but the either someone will burn up an ocean of points, or the awards won't get claimed due to pricing levels, leaving opportunities for revenue seats.
I'll definitely keep an eye on any possible bargain deals though!
Anticipated the devaluation and booked 2 UC award seats on a flight BOM-LHR-SFO for 105k + ~$550 each.
Today the same flights for next summer price at 700k + ~$1,000 each. Not only has the miles required skyrocketed, but the already exorbitant surcharges have now doubled. @Ben - 'Not Bad' is not the shade of lipstick I would use on this pig!
It's terrible if you only travel in peak seasons, in/around Easter, summer, Christmas, as prices have gone up multiples in one day. Some routes are also showing crazy pricing for offseason e.g., Nov from LHR-JNB. And some fees are also showing as much higher. That said, if you can travel on weekdays, and out of season, there are bargains to be had. The big Q is whether they stay like this, or increase significantly over time eliminating the lower priced opportunities. It's what we've seen before and it would not surprise me for one minute to see that happen with Virgin.
btw - you should reference the Virgin reward seat checker. That's the best way to view the pricing at a glance https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder
I feel like the title should be "No So Bad...For Now?" You may find lower rates now, but with dynamic pricing the rates can creep up over time.
Is November really offseason for LHR to JNB? Usually that would be a peak time to leave England and head to the southern hemisphere.
"Well, Flying Blue’s new dynamic award pricing has now been implemented..." *Flying Club's
Wait a year. If there aren't substantial changes that hurt the passengers then I'll agree that it's really not so bad.
The change is not good for family travelers, who can only get away during high season when the kids are not in school.
Last week, I preemptively booked our June flight to London for next summer knowing the change was coming using the 40% bonus transfer from Chase.
Our economy ticket was 25K points + $152 under the old system (even cheaper with the 40% bonus). As of today, the same economy seat is 150K points + $92. Yeah, right, how many people are going to cash in that many points for an economy seat?
DUDE. Combined with the 40% transfer bonus, I just snagged a JFK-LHR round trip in upper class at the end of may for under 60k chase points plus about $1,100 in fees. I'm loving this dynamic pricing lol.
(Though it was a bit stressful. Their website is struggling, their app won't even let me log in, and their phone line just gets a busy signal, so no holding tickets for this one. Thankfully, chase helped me transfer the points fast and the deal was still there after the transfer went through.)
Just searched MCO-LHR flights in economy across several weeks for next year. Previously these were available for 12,500 for 7 out of 10 days. Now, you'd mostly get 38,000, 66,000 and even 150,000 for most days with 1 out of 15 days for 7500. Can't say change is positive in any way.
Ex U.K. its staggering if you need to travel in term time and less flexible but if you are then there are deals to be had, winners and losers as everything in life! Use the VS reward seat checker rather than the site proper to get an idea;
https://travelplus.virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder
I'm in the same boat as you with family travel. I didn't know what would happen with partner awards when the news was announced, so I booked my summer flight from SFO-FCO last week. No J class tickets, so I purchase economy. About 17k points with the Chase bonus + $175 in fees per person on AF. Glad to know partner awards are not affected...yet.
Yeah, the website and app has basically melted down for booking awards. It will APPEAR to book through but the record locator that is generated won't work, and the charge on your credit card gets instantly refunded. Can't log in using the app.
Sigh.
Award fees to the UK from the US are indeed much better, but fees on flights from the UK to the US are still quite high (usually $600-$900 on saver awards).
Huh? Considering you can routinely fly from NYC to London or Paris in J for 2-2500 round trip I fail to see that as a good value. Also, you could have booked that same rate you just did on VA before now.
??? Where are you finding $2,000 round trip tickets in J across the atlantic? Especially into heathrow where the airport taxes eat up a third of that on the spot
One-way Upper Class seats LAX to Heathrow went from 135,000 points for two and $2,000 to 700,000 points and $900. And that isn't a last minute booking. In no way is that a good deal. The spend to get to 700,000 points isn't worth it, even with Capital One double points.
I love how multiple commenters here look up ONE example and then claim this is a negative change. Unless you're carefully reviewing the VS reward seat checker, you really shouldn't be commenting on this.
Anyway, imo it's a mixed bag but overall I think this is a wonderful update. SEA to LHR UC for 44k and slightly less tax? I'll take it.
Just booked 30K + ~$256 in taxes from NYC - LHR. Stack that with the current Chase 40% transfer bonus and you fly across the Atlantic in J for 22K UR and a couple of hundred greenbacks. The last time I booked VS that cheap was when I transferred 20K SPG points to Virgin America yielding 25K which was enough to fly VS Atlantic UC OW. That was like eight years ago or more. This is truly amazing and the taxes are slashed also.
Well you may do better to position to a different airport. I found PE flights for as little as 14K + $100. If you don't look you don't find. I look at NYC, BOS, YYZ, IAD, ORD and ATL. Look harder, the Easter Bunny hides the golden egg.
I have seen lots of August & July awards at 35K. Nothing to sneeze at in high season.
Just locked in a VS J flight IAD-LHR. With the 40% bonus from chase, this is a steal.
The more examples of flights I research, the more I’m convinced the true game changer here is the tax/fee reduction.
Sure, I’ll take fewer-point redemptions any day, but being able to fly upper class from the west coast to LHR for $254? That was basically unheard of until now.
Time for you to review this article - now that the articles have all been written since the launch, Virgin Atlantic have shown their true colours - good luck finding a saver deal and you can expect to pay 2-5x as much as you previously would have - particularly if looking to fly out of the UK or in cabins that aren't economy. This was just a tool to devalue points, most specifically in their use for the premium/upper cabins. So now we get ripped off with the miles, we get totally ripped off in the 'surcharges' (how that's allowed is criminal) and we even get slammed on the change fees too now. Nothing good for 99% of customers in this change. Recommend you re-do your analysis and see what's really going on now.