We recently saw the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program adopt dynamic award pricing. While I was worried about this at first, the execution so far has been great, and has opened up some amazing sweet spot redemptions.
While I generally think you’re now best off booking Virgin Atlantic awards directly through Flying Club, there’s one exception.
In this post:
Air France-KLM Flying Blue still useful on Virgin Atlantic
Air France-KLM Flying Blue is a great frequent flyer program, particularly for redeeming miles. Air France and KLM share an alliance membership with Virgin Atlantic, as all airlines belong to the SkyTeam alliance.
Assuming the lowest cost (“Saver”) awards on Virgin Atlantic are available, you’re typically best off booking through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, given that the pricing can be incredibly low. 29,000 points plus $250 in taxes and fees for a one-way transatlantic business class award is pretty tough to beat.
But here’s what I find interesting. With Virgin Atlantic adopting dynamic award pricing, Flying Club members can redeem points for every seat on a plane, though often at a really high cost. It’s not like the old days, where there were a limited number of award seats, and they were bookable through Flying Club and through partner programs.
With this new system, how does that translate to partner award availability, though? Well, you might be surprised by the situations in which partner programs have access to this space. For example, take the below business class flight from New York to London, where Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is charging 350,000 points.
That same flight is bookable through Air France-KLM Flying Blue for just 69,500 miles. You wouldn’t expect that to be available with partner miles, but it is.
This isn’t just an isolated fluke, as I’m finding the same in other markets. Take a business class flight from London to Dubai, where Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is charging 165,000 points.
That same flight is bookable through Air France-KLM Flying Blue for just 69,000 miles.
More often than not, I’m finding this disparity when booking last minute. It seems Virgin Atlantic Flying Club often hikes award prices close to departure, while partner programs, like Air France-KLM Flying Blue, still have access to those seats at much lower costs.
Of course this could evolve over time, but if you find yourself in a situation where you need a Virgin Atlantic flight, don’t assume that Flying Blue will have high award pricing just because Flying Club does.
How this compares to past redemption opportunities
For some historical context, how does the ability to redeem Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles on Virgin Atlantic compare to opportunities in the past?
Prior to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club introducing dynamic award pricing, I found that booking through Air France-KLM Flying Blue was typically the better value. That’s because while Flying Blue often required marginally more miles, the surcharges were way lower, given that Flying Club was consistently charging $1,000+ for one-way business class awards. So you might’ve paid an extra 20,000 miles, but you typically saved $700, or so.
Now that has changed significantly. Not only has Virgin Atlantic Flying Club significantly lowered award pricing during its lowest demand periods, but surcharges have also been decreased considerably.
So if you’re earning points from transferable points currencies (and therefore have access to both programs), I’d recommend booking through Flying Club if there are “Saver” awards available. But if there aren’t, keep an eye on Flying Blue, as it might have access to reasonably priced awards.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club now offers some really attractively priced awards, especially when traveling during off-peak periods. I’d say there’s more merit to booking through the program than ever before.
What’s worth being aware of, though, is that Air France-KLM Flying Blue often has access to reasonably priced Virgin Atlantic awards, even when Flying Club is charging very high costs. While this is niche, it’s definitely worth keeping in mind, especially for awards close to departure.
The big question is whether there is partner award availability. How many airlines have we seen jack around with it?
In the first 2 examples (JFK to LHR on different dates) it doesn't seem logical that the tax almost doubles. The amount obviously includes a fuel surcharge but this should be constant on a particular route, or not?
I am afraid this article's half-life may be really low.
Yeah, Flying Club has loaded some mightily attractive saver awards, but I expect these to get considerably sparser.
We've seen the playbook dozens of times. Loyalty program devalues and then makes it appear the changes are not all that bad to soften the blow.
Give it a year at the most and saver awards through Flying Club will be scarcer. And pricing anomalies wrt FB will have disappeared for the most part.
I'll NEVER fly again into London........the taxes and fees are a deal breaker.........
Connecting in London to a non-UK destination (or INV) would not incur the government's taxes.
If they are going to require a visa, not going there and not even passing through!
Of course, the EU is doing the same thing. In case you had not heard.