Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a useful frequent flyer program, especially with the airline now being in the SkyTeam alliance. Not only does Flying Club have useful niche redemption rates on airlines like All Nippon Airways and Air New Zealand, but the program also allows members to redeem points on all SkyTeam carriers.
Unfortunately Flying Club has just devalued its best award redemption value on Delta, as flagged by Thrifty Traveler. Worst of all, this is the second Flying Club devaluation that we’ve seen for Delta awards in just a matter of months.
In this post:
How Flying Club redemption rates on Delta have changed
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club’s redemptions on Delta aren’t exactly straightforward in terms of pricing, as there are three separate award charts:
- There’s an award chart for travel between the United States and United Kingdom
- There’s an award chart for travel between the United States and Europe, excluding the United Kingdom
- There’s a distance based award chart for travel in all other regions
For a long time, Flying Club hasn’t changed award pricing between the United States and United Kingdom, which has both standard and peak pricing, and pricing based on the part of the United States you’re traveling to. These redemptions have carrier imposed surcharges in both directions.
Now, with absolutely no notice, Flying Club has just increased award pricing between the United States and the rest of Europe (excluding the UK). For context, below is what the award chart used to look like, through July 1, 2024.
Meanwhile below is what the award chart looks like as of July 2, 2024.
On the surface, this might not look that bad. Economy awards are staying the same price, while business class is going from costing 50,000 points consistently, to costing anywhere from 47,500 to 77,500 points.
But here’s the really bad news. Historically these redemptions didn’t have carrier imposed surcharges when originating in the United States. However, now they do, and you can expect to pay $1,000+ for a one-way business class award in Delta One from the United States to Europe. That’s awful, of course.
This latest devaluation follows the devaluation that we saw at the beginning of the year, to Flying Club’s distance based award chart for travel in all other regions. For what it’s worth, below is what that award chart looked like through December 31, 2023.
Meanwhile below is what the award chart looked like as of January 1, 2024.
I’m guessing that Delta is behind these changes
There are ultimately lots of mileage arbitrage opportunities out there, where you’ll get better value earning or redeeming miles with a partner program, rather than directly with the program of the airline you’re traveling with.
Over time we’ve seen many opportunities like these devalued, though not across the board. In the case of Delta and Virgin Atlantic, I’m not surprised to see this change:
- Delta owns a 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic, the two airlines have a joint venture, and Delta is also known to be a rather controlling partner
- Delta is determined to turn SkyMiles into as much of a revenue based program as possible, and that includes eliminating outsized value for premium cabin redemptions, and for any partner arbitrage opportunities
- I suspect Delta was seeing an uptick in award redemptions through Flying Club, and the airline wanted those redemptions to instead be made directly through Delta SkyMiles
Here’s the statement that Virgin Atlantic released about these changes:
“We routinely evaluate our pricing and from 2 July we have updated pricing for redemption flights using Virgin Points on our Business class cabins, to align with our Joint Venture pricing. Virgin Atlantic remains committed to offering our loyal members the most competitive pricing for redemption flights across our partner airline network.”
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has just devalued awards for travel on Delta for the second time in several months. Earlier this year we saw Flying Club’s distance based award chart for Delta devalued, and now we’ve seen Flying Club’s award chart for travel on Delta between the United States and Europe (excluding the UK) devalued.
Being able to redeem 50,000 Flying Club points for Delta business class from the United States to Europe was an amazing value, assuming you could find availability. Now you can expect to pay 47,500 to 77,500 points, plus pay $1,000+ one-way in surcharges. Ouch.
What do you make of these Virgin Atlantic Flying Club changes?
"Virgin Atlantic remains committed to offering our loyal members the most competitive pricing for redemption flights across our partner airline network" well...they did just the oposite.
Wow, right after a transfer bonus. How surprising!
Eh. Even with these prices, they haven't gone Full SkyTeam until they reach 7-digits for business redemptions to Europe on Delta.
That said, I'm done with VS. Between restrictions on when you can secure reservations and pricing changes, it's better for me to focus on AA (for JAL) and EVA to cross the Pacific Ocean.
Look - there was a post a few days ago about crowding at the D1 JFK lounge. This implies D1 to Europe is full. If that is so, why would Delta give away cheap seats to Virgin members? There is no business reason to do so. From a SkyMiles perspective, the “Flash Sales” I used in the past to book D1 to Europe somewhat reliably haven’t appeared in two years - I assume they are gone. It is what it is. You want D1 - pay for it. If you don’t want to pay - book elsewhere.
Truth is I haven't been able to find any of those Delta flights in a long time anyway. They used to be great.
I would complain but I have been looking for 2 J class from any east Coast city to any city in Europe fpr the past year and there has been zero availability,For those with Virgin points to burn there is good availability on Air France now but you must call in to book. Go ahead and book before they pull the inventory. I booked two tickets in J for 48,500 from MIA to NCE June...
I would complain but I have been looking for 2 J class from any east Coast city to any city in Europe fpr the past year and there has been zero availability,For those with Virgin points to burn there is good availability on Air France now but you must call in to book. Go ahead and book before they pull the inventory. I booked two tickets in J for 48,500 from MIA to NCE June 2025 .The other blogs have also been talking about the wide open award chart. Book now ,it will end soon.
Thanks, can you clarify? You're calling Virgin to book flights on Air France? What kind of fuel surcharges?
@Sue check out today's Frequent Miler post about this deal. Fuel surcharges are marginally higher than booking direct through AF, but miles savings are significant.
Fuel surcharge in business was $325 a ticket, not great but there is tons of availability. Also Air France in J is a much better product than Delta. The current availability will dry up. If you have any plans I would book now.You must call in to book but you can search the Virgin website to check availability.
I’m shocked Ben hasn’t written about this topic yet. It’s brilliant and may very well be “fixed” (read: stopped) soon, so take advantage now.
While Sir Richard owns a bare majority of Virgin Atlantic, the airline is controlled and run by Delta-imposed management. So, this isn't surprising.
Latam Pass has just devalued Delta awards as well. I guess this isn’t some crazy coincidence, as Delta also owns a stake in Latam.
lol slapdash arrogance - classic VS!
This would be a lot more relevant if there was actually any availability. You can put 5000 miles or 500,000 miles on the award chart, but it does not really matter when they have not had significant J award space in years.
Exactly. Ben talks about these 50k redemptions yet I never once saw one pop up on the award calendar. I would sometimes look through the entire year to no avail. Certainly not for SEA or SLC anyway.
N=1, but still…
Actualy i did Slc-cdg for 50k virgin but couple years ago.
Glad I burned my delta miles years ago and abandoned trying to fly their products. Simply not worth the hassle or the frustration they bring to reward redemptions on their flights, since they are constantly finding ways to bleed every last dollar out of customers.
I don't redeem skypesos when I can get the same flights on Virgin or AF at half or less of the miles. So I still have a big balance despite wanting to get rid of them! I just need to bite the bullet and get rid of them
Disappointing news but the consistency of point transfer bonuses for Flying Club still makes the program worthwhile imho.
Certainly not worth stockpiling points though. Also worth pointing out the big hassle that comes with changing/cancelling Flying Club itineraries... everything requires a phone call (or two), and anything involving Virgin's refunds department is painful.
I agree the refunds process takes too long at a couple of weeks... but I've never had an issue getting it done. Similarly, never had an issue changing itineraries (incl recently canceling and rebooking to take advantage of the 40% redemption discount)
What we are seeing is Delta had the right idea years ago to scrap award charts and inflate business class awards to hundreds of thousands of miles. Delta knew the points game was picking up steam in the middle class. Delta wanted to preserve the upper class prestige of its business class cabin. The way to do that is make it impossible to redeem points for a good value. You wanna fly Delta business class?...
What we are seeing is Delta had the right idea years ago to scrap award charts and inflate business class awards to hundreds of thousands of miles. Delta knew the points game was picking up steam in the middle class. Delta wanted to preserve the upper class prestige of its business class cabin. The way to do that is make it impossible to redeem points for a good value. You wanna fly Delta business class? That will be $10,000.
Business class must be the domain of the well heeled. People under 30 shouldn’t be able to afford it even if they are senior associates on the Cravath scale.
Make partner first. Then fly business. That’s how aviation should work and Delta has the right vision. My name isn’t Tim Dunn.
I m in my 30s.
Have no desire to work more than 20 weeks a year. And can easily fly business class anytime.
What I would like to see is business class be exclusive and not have some low level corporate peon whi makes 50k a year be up there because his corporate overlord is paying.
This is an all-timer comment. Thanks for making it to my screengrab memorialized Entitled & Privlidged Hall of Fame!
it's amazing how many people take obvious tongue in cheek posts at face value.
@Jeff
It's obviously a troll comment.
People who actually fit that description is very rare, most if not all of them would be on Instagram not a credit card blog.
I'm thinking old @Anna is a mid 50s working minimum wage and despise fellow Spirit passengers.
The hate comes from the lack of retirement savings.
Interesting. So your name isn't Tim Dunn. Is it Paul Weiss? Or Davis Polk? Or Biglawv10? Or all of the above? Why are you writing using the names of major NYC law firms? Also, why are you spewing nonsense? A very senior Cravath associate is good for $550k. He or she can't afford a $10k ticket? Also, junior partners can net less than senior associates due to buy-in requirements. Is trolling fun?
Wow- you are even dumber than I thought. Wife, three kids and decades of practicing with the big boys. What’s next—posting as Simpson Thatcher? Fried Frank? Please add something useful to Ben’s blog or troll elsewhere. Please? Some of us respect our professions (if you are even in this profession, which I doubt because none of your posts make any sense).
Heaven forbid something of value be offered to anyone for anything Delta.
All the more reason to avoid, avoid, avoid Delta at all costs.
It's just disgusting how routinely this stuff is devalued at no notice. But annual fees? Nah, those will always go only in one direction - UP!
It's all a racket, save for a few niche international redemptions on OneWorld, the points game is over.
Prices go up, that's how inflation works. Air travel inflation is still only a drop in the bucket compared to housing, groceries, and other goods and services inflation in recent years.
Credit cards, obscene inflated amounts handed out to OPM flyers based on "spend".
Of course it's over. 1% rebate is all points will be worth (or less with Delta)
These comments are bizarre. Sure, you can't find amazing business class deals with Delta SkyMiles, but SM is still far from worthless. The redemption rate for regional flights is fantastic, for example.
I just looked at regional flights in the northeast for an upcoming trip and Delta redemptions lagged behind every other carrier. Either Deltas cost was higher (Jet Blue, American, Spirit - if booked through Chase travel), or they were cheaper but only if you flew basic economy (United). At this point the only "value" they seem to have is on their awards deals, which always restricts your options and essentially only covers economy. Unless you're...
I just looked at regional flights in the northeast for an upcoming trip and Delta redemptions lagged behind every other carrier. Either Deltas cost was higher (Jet Blue, American, Spirit - if booked through Chase travel), or they were cheaper but only if you flew basic economy (United). At this point the only "value" they seem to have is on their awards deals, which always restricts your options and essentially only covers economy. Unless you're flying Delta metal on work's dime or your locked to one of their hubs it makes little sense to earn their points
I wouldn't call it amazing but fair and consistent value if you're redeeming it towards economy class like cash, which is 1.3 cpp if you have a Delta CC (comes with annual fee though). Or 1.1 cpp if you don't.
Just don't think about using Delta SkyMiles for premium cabins. It's much more difficult to find a reasonable award pricing (with surge charges and fees) for Delta One it seems.