Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has just launched an excellent sale for reward flights. This could save you points for an award ticket booked in the coming days, for travel this spring.
In this post:
Save on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club awards
With a new sale from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, members can save 50% off the number of points required for award tickets on Virgin Atlantic flights to and from the United States.
As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:
- This is valid for bookings made between March 14 and March 20, 2024
- This is valid for travel through June 30, 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 to and from the United States, including London (LHR), Manchester (MAN), and Edinburgh (EDI), flights
- Only the number of points required is reduced by 50%, 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 saw four such sales in 2023, and already saw one earlier in 2024).
This promotion is for a larger percentage discount than the past offers we’ve seen, though the travel window is also a bit shorter than for some past deal. 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.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a generous promotion on award redemptions, as you can get 50% off the points required for award tickets for travel to and from the United States. 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 next few months, then I’d say this is an opportunity worth considering.
Do you plan on taking advantage of Virgin Atlantic’s award sale?
A sale by nubes for nubes to go see nubes..............
Anyone know how to book without paying fees?
@Ben There is actually now a sale of up to 70% bonus when buying points till 31/Mar.
You should also add that Virgin is giving tier points for reward bookings.
I'm sorry but any time I'm paying $1000 for an award ticket I'm losing not winning. Especially when LifeMiles has redemptions at 63K.
When the fees are this high, the mileage price is mostly irrelevant. They know this and this is why they can offer such a steep discount on miles.
Saying "Wow" in the article header is feeding into their trickery a little. This is a not a "wow" deal. At best it brings VS redemptions down to pricing that is on par with other programs.
the fees can often be lower if you book as a round trip
Nothing to do w/ roundtrip. Fees are lower when originating from LHR. So you're just paying less fees for that one leg.
Why is nobody answering Mark’s question??. Huh?
That’s the answer we need.
A roundtrip SFO-LHR is great value at 15,000 points but it’s also $493 in taxes and fees. The same flights are available for $573 in cash so you’re basically using 15,000 points for an $80 discount.
And not earning miles on the paid flight. Significant opportunity loss if you're chasing SkyTeam status
You earn VS tier points for VS redemptions using Flying Club.
It's such a great deal for 15,000 points but they really need to not pass on the fees of award tickets to make it the best. I believe the $573 cash fare is without any checked bags though right? It's $75 each way so $723 roundtrip if you factor that in. Award tickets gives you one bag at least.... but still don't like the fees...
Can I reprice a current booking and get the difference in miles back? Any fees to do this?
From the T&C’s;
“ Existing bookings changed to dates within the promotional period will be eligible for this offer and any reduction in the points price will be credited back to the member’s account. Changes are subject to the usual change fees and any increase in taxes, fees, and carrier-imposed surcharges. ”
Not sure of the surcharges
Could be 90% off and I'm still not making the redemption due to the RIPOFF FEES
Yeah, I hate to be negative here but I really don't see the value for premium bookings -- look at the example Ben has, 24k miles plus $997 in fees. Now, if that's the only availability you can find, that's one thing. But if you think of this at Ben's typical miles valuations -- say, 1.5c a point/mile -- that is the equivalent of 90k miles with no surchages (or, e.g., 70k miles with $300...
Yeah, I hate to be negative here but I really don't see the value for premium bookings -- look at the example Ben has, 24k miles plus $997 in fees. Now, if that's the only availability you can find, that's one thing. But if you think of this at Ben's typical miles valuations -- say, 1.5c a point/mile -- that is the equivalent of 90k miles with no surchages (or, e.g., 70k miles with $300 in surcharges) for a transatlantic business class flight. This does not strike me as a good deal -- in fact, it's kind of a bad deal. 90k miles with essentially no surchages is, I believe, like United's current devalued pricing.
I mean if you have a small amount of miles and are happy to effectively pay about $1300 for the flight, most of it in cash, good for you, but that's not a good deal all-in relative to most saver-level bookings.
Meh…the ridiculous and overpriced surcharges ruin this potential great deal.
100% I love the Club House and Upper Class Wing as a feature, but ultimately they're not worth upwards of $1000 in fees alone when that, plus a couple hundred more, could get you potentially a R/T (with a fare sale) or at least a points-earning one-way on another airline out of the same general area. If you're in the UK, then maybe it's worth it, but if you reside elsewhere in Europe there are...
100% I love the Club House and Upper Class Wing as a feature, but ultimately they're not worth upwards of $1000 in fees alone when that, plus a couple hundred more, could get you potentially a R/T (with a fare sale) or at least a points-earning one-way on another airline out of the same general area. If you're in the UK, then maybe it's worth it, but if you reside elsewhere in Europe there are way too many other hubs serving North America regularly that it's somewhat silly to not simply hop a tag flight or the train to get to CDG, FRA, AMS, or (shudder) MAD and LIS. Being based in Spain part time, it's easy to fly directly to IAD or ORD (for me and my US airports) from BCN...or I can use points out of FRA, AMS, or DCG and just book a separate, cheap flight on Vueling or easyJet. Yeah, those last two aren't glamorous at all, but for a sub-2-hour flight, super doable.
Y awards for 5k+$100 are outstanding.....