Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has just devalued awards on All Nippon Airways (ANA), as flagged by AwardWallet. This is the second time since 2023 that we’ve seen these award prices increase.
This is a no-notice devaluation (and for that matter, the change hasn’t even been announced). On the plus side, I think this devaluation could have been a lot worse. Furthermore, at least different awards are being devalued than last time, so we’re not seeing cost increases to the same awards.
In this post:
Virgin Atlantic increases All Nippon Airways award costs
One of the best airline award ticket sweet spots is redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points for travel on All Nippon Airways (ANA). Not only does the Japanese Star Alliance airline have phenomenal new first class and business class products, but the redemption rates through Virgin Atlantic are among the best in the industry.
Unfortunately for redemptions as of May 23, 2024, Flying Club has increased select ANA award costs. Here’s the new Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart for travel on ANA (prices shown are roundtrip, but you can book a one-way for half the cost):
So, what has changed with this latest devaluation? Here are the increases we’ve seen:
- One-way business class awards between Japan and Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, have increased in cost from 32,500 points to 35,000 points
- One-way business class awards between Japan and Hawaii, India, and Indonesia, have increased in cost from 35,000 points to 37,500 points
- One-way business class awards between Japan and Western USA, Australia, and Canada, have increased in cost from 45,000 points to 52,500 points
- One-way business class awards between Japan and Central & Eastern USA, Europe, and Mexico, have increased in cost from 47,500 points to 60,000 points
As a point of comparison, here’s the previous Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart for travel on ANA, which applied between March 2023 and May 2024:
And just to be thorough, below is the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart for travel on ANA that applied prior to March 2023 (which was before the previous devaluation):
During the last devaluation, we saw first class awards devalued pretty considerably, while this time around we’ve seen some business class awards devalued. As you can see, business class awards between the United States and Japan are increasing in cost by either 2,500, 7,500, or 12,500 points.
This could have been much worse, in my opinion
A devaluation without any sort of advance notice is frustrating, so I wish we’d see Virgin Atlantic Flying Club communicate these changes. That being said, we’ve now seen Virgin Atlantic Flying Club devalue ANA awards twice, yet I’d still consider them to be a sweet spot.
I at least appreciate that these aren’t devaluations that completely gut the value of awards. The award rates are still competitive to begin with. There are two biggest advantages of booking ANA awards through Flying Club:
- Flying Club partners with major transferable points currencies, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou
- Best of all, we often see transfer bonuses, which can stretch your points even further, especially for redemptions like this, and I do tend to make speculative transfers to the program
I’d say the biggest issue with redeeming Flying Club points on ANA isn’t the award pricing as such, but rather is finding award availability, which can be super tough to come by.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has increased award costs for All Nippon Airways business class redemptions without advance notice. We’re seeing price increases of 2,500 points to 12,500 points one-way. While not insignificant, it’s a far cry from some of the award pricing massacres we’ve seen at other programs.
Even with these changes, redeeming Flying Club points for travel in ANA premium cabins is a great value, assuming you can find availability. That’s especially the case if you can take advantage of a transfer bonus with Flying Club.
What do you make of these changes to ANA awards?
good, all these tiktokers making it seem like VS has been bookable at all.
I mentally eliminated VS from my own valuations when all awards disappeared in 2023. (I can’t last-minute travel, unfortunately.)
What’s more interesting is that despite all the massive devaluations, CC sign up bonuses rarely move in the same direction. We still get “best ever” 75k advertisements from blogs on transferable point cards.
At this point, between the higher points requirement, having to call it in, marrying multi-segments manually, blocking close-in awards, and lack of awards for partners, best to look for ANA award (if any) through their own program.
Having to find round trip availabilty makes ANA pretty useless.
true. difficult to find more than 1 seat as well. U are able to mix classes for the return if you're open to PE.
I have also noticed a ton of recent buzz and blog posts/articles this year about booking ANA award tickets through Virgin, so perhaps there was an increase in demand and the trend landed on Virgin/ANAs radars. Just a thought.
You mean the trend started costing them a fortune, and the bean-counters pulled the plug.
We all have to face the facts - the Golden Age of award/reward travel has passed, and airlines are obviously tightening up on availability, or restricting the award availability of their very best product to their very best customers. If we're honest about it there was a long period where very nice awards could be redeemed for a song,...
You mean the trend started costing them a fortune, and the bean-counters pulled the plug.
We all have to face the facts - the Golden Age of award/reward travel has passed, and airlines are obviously tightening up on availability, or restricting the award availability of their very best product to their very best customers. If we're honest about it there was a long period where very nice awards could be redeemed for a song, like the mid 2010s when we scored SYD-BKK-HND and back in Thai first class for 110K Mileage Plus points + something like $40 in taxes each. It sure was fun while it lasted.
strange that there is no mention that VS has not been allowing last minute bookings of NH departure within 14 days as of May. This is how you usually find ANA availability, so blocking it is much more devastating.
That’s some BS!
I was able to book SFO-NRT and HND-LHR in biz for this early May within 5-10 days of departure. Both were in The Room suite.
Good luck that I was able to find and ticketed them in one call to VS (took almost an hour before the agent answered).
Young the YouTuber? Lol. Where did you find this information? If in fact you can't book within 14 days that truly is devestating... ugh. I was planning on finding a flight this Oct... now I have to contend with raised prices and 15 days ahead.... wish me luck.
I read it in certain spheres and tried it out myself. Picked 3 TPAC NH J seats and asked on VS phone line. UA can see all 3 of them, but VS cannot see any of them. All departing within 2 weeks. Hope it is temporary. Called last Friday for 1.5hr because I am that bored.
Now I know it's you!
Given that there has been virtually no ANA biz or first availability for months as it is, the practical impact of this is limited.
It is definitely thin on the ground. I managed to find a Business award for HND-SFO March 2025. But I burned way too much time looking.
you have to look 355 days out when the calendar opens, using either NH or SQ. I have been seeing 1-2 first seats and 2 business seats on ORD flights
VS only opens at 330 days, and AC doesn't show online and you have to call
They open award space quite close in. Good availability, but annoying.