Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has just launched an excellent sale for reward flights, in celebration of the carrier’s 40th anniversary. This allows you to save 40% on the cost of award flights all the way through the end of the year, but you need to book soon.
In this post:
Save on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club awards
With a new sale from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, members can save 40% off the number of points required for award tickets on Virgin Atlantic flights in all markets.
As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:
- This is valid for bookings made between June 21 and June 24, 2024
- This is valid for travel all the way through December 31, 2024
- This is valid exclusively for travel on Virgin Atlantic, and not for travel on partner airlines
- This applies for all cabins and for both peak and off-peak season
- The discounted pricing should already be reflected when you search availability
- The sale applies to all Virgin Atlantic routes systemwide
- Only the number of points required is reduced by 40%, and not the taxes, fees, and carrier imposed surcharges
Virgin Atlantic points are easy to come by
Even if you’re not collecting points directly with Virgin Atlantic, keep in mind that these points are easy to come by through transferable points currencies:
- Amex Membership Rewards partners with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Bilt Rewards partners with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Capital One partners with Virgin Red
- Chase Ultimate Rewards partners with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Citi ThankYou partners with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
On top of that, Virgin Atlantic often sells points with a bonus, which can be an opportunity to acquire them at a reasonable cost.
Is this award sale a good deal?
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen a promotion like this from Virgin Atlantic, as we typically see similar offers from the program about once per quarter (we’ve already seen two in 2024). However, what makes this unique is that it covers every single route, and that it’s valid for travel all the way through the end of the year.
I’d say that this is a deal that could be worth considering, though there are of course some things to be aware of.
For context, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club awards between the United States and United Kingdom cost the following number of points, depending on the route and season:
- 10,000-25,000 points one-way in economy
- 17,500-37,500 points one-way in premium economy
- 47,500-67,500 points one-way in Upper Class business class
Being able to redeem so few points for a one-way Upper Class ticket is a solid deal. Now, in fairness, the carrier imposed surcharges are significant. But still, this is a huge discount, and for many people could be worth a speculative booking.
If you need to later cancel your award ticket, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club charges £30 in the UK, or $50 in the United States (or an equivalent amount in another currency).
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a generous promotion on award redemptions, as you can get 40% off the points required for award tickets for travel in all markets. This is a great deal, especially since the discount is applied at the time that you book, so you don’t have to wait for some points refund after the fact.
If you have any travel to plan for the remainder of the year, then I’d say this is an opportunity worth considering.
Do you plan on taking advantage of Virgin Atlantic’s award sale?
Thank you ever so much for detailing this offer. My family and I had been mulling over a trip to Florida so when this offer came along we snapped up 4 multi-city trip tickets from LHR - MCO and TPA-LHR for 33K each saving 88K points in total.
Thank you for your post, I was able to get 2 Upper class tickets from Delhi to CDG with stop in LHR for 75k points
Got BOM-LHR-SEA for 75k + a lot but not too much tax!! Thank you for the post.
One thing these areticles NEVER tell you is that Britain has ridiculous taxes on both VA and British Air. So while the miles might be low for Upper Class (which is just ordinary business class, not particularly great either), in the end from NYC to London you might pay <60K in miles and another $2,300 in taxes for a 6 hour flight (round trip). I just looked for early November, NYC to London roundtrip is...
One thing these areticles NEVER tell you is that Britain has ridiculous taxes on both VA and British Air. So while the miles might be low for Upper Class (which is just ordinary business class, not particularly great either), in the end from NYC to London you might pay <60K in miles and another $2,300 in taxes for a 6 hour flight (round trip). I just looked for early November, NYC to London roundtrip is 57K miles and $2,376 in taxes.
ALSO, there are officially only TWO Upper Class seats available on each flight. As the date gets closer and perhaps there are unsold seats, more might become available.
The biggest SCAM is the idea that the premium economy and upper class seats (equivalent to business class) will be available on Delta or other partner airlines. NEVER happens until you are so close to the date-- and these are very unwanted flights.
LASTLY, If there is a flight London-New York-LA, and you want to go NY-LA. You must go NY-Lon-NY-LA, you cannot skip touching base in Britain on VA, and that is where the taxes get you. BTW, it isn't Virgin's fault, I believe it is the private equity firm that owns Heathrow. Not sure how Delta gets around it, possibly they just charge more money for the flight so you don't realize it.
What the hell is this? First, most of the charges are from Virgin - not Heathrow Airport or the UK tax (perhaps about 30% is tax, the rest is Virgin’s way of charging you for a ‘free’ ticket). Second, no idea what you’re talking about to go from NY-LA … virgin don’t fly that route and only a fool would use Virgin to go via London. That would be like flying American to get from London to Paris and complaining you have to go via New York.
OF COURSE!! The point is that the flight exists LON-NY-LAX but Virgin won't let you pick up just NY-LAX. even if they have seats available.
Congrats for letting us know you comment without reading. This article literally states the high cost of surcharges along with a big old screen shot of said high tax. Literally, every points article related to BA and others like them points this out nor is this new news. We've seen and talked about this for decades now.
As much as I love VS the only redeeming features on the B787 and A330 are the bar and Premium Economy seating! The A351 UCS is cheap & badly thought out, the loft a waste of space, the A339 UCS and Retreat Suite are a vast improvement so if I were to pick any route to use miles on would be A339 options.
Do you still think Upper Class is a good deal when booking a round trip flight from NYC where paid flights are often <$3k
I booked a couple of flights during the 20% sale – one from LHR-JFK in business, and one in premium economy. Do you think it's worth paying £60 to rebook the flights so I can get the 20% of miles back? We're talking about 11500 miles on the outbound, and 5500 miles on the inbound.
A calculator could answer that question for you.
If you can get the same flights Id do it
It only seems to apply to flights through the end of the calendar year
which the article clearly mentions