In late 2024, the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program was completely overhauled, with the introduction of dynamic award pricing.
While the changes were a mixed bag, there were definitely more positive changes than many of us were expecting, as the cost of Virgin Atlantic’s cheapest award tickets dropped considerably, especially for Upper Class (business class) tickets. So along those lines, unfortunately there’s a negative change now, as flagged by Thrifty Traveler.
In this post:
Virgin Atlantic massively increases award surcharges
Flying Club’s dynamic award pricing doesn’t just apply to the number of points required, but also to the surcharges, which vary based on the type of award ticket you’re booking.
The bad news is that with some newly introduced updates, the cheapest surcharges added to award tickets has increased considerably. For example, for a one-way award ticket from the United States to London:
- Business class award surcharges have increased from $255 to $586
- Premium economy award surcharges have increased from $106 to $240
- Economy award surcharges have increased from $75 to $111
These are all estimates, and there was always a little bit of variation. Furthermore, surcharges differ considerably across markets. But as you can see, the increases here are absolutely massive for transatlantic travel. We’re talking about business class and premium economy surcharges more than doubling in some situations.
At least surcharges are still lower than in the past?
Make no mistake, increased fees are bad. There’s absolutely no silver lining here, because nothing is improving while this is getting worse. It’s just a negative change, period.
I think the one important perspective to keep in mind is that Virgin Atlantic substantially reduced surcharges on many tickets when it implemented the late 2024 program changes. At the time, a one-way business class award from the US to London would typically come with somewhere around $1,000 in fees.
There are definitely still situations where I think redemptions on Virgin Atlantic represent a great value, given that transatlantic business class awards start at just 29,000 points one-way (though finding availability at that price takes some effort).
Honestly, when Virgin Atlantic rolled out its program changes, I was surprised at just how low some redemption rates became. Not only did Virgin Atlantic introduce among the lowest transatlantic premium cabin redemption rates in terms of the number of points required, but surcharges were also scaled back massively. So while I don’t like to see it, I’m not surprised to see a bit of a “correction” there. After all, British airlines love their surcharges!
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has unfortunately made a negative change, whereby the carrier imposed surcharges for award tickets have increased considerably. For transatlantic tickets originating in the United States in business class and premium economy, we’re seeing surcharges more than double.
This is of course a bummer that no one should be happy about. At least the surcharges are still way lower than they were before the late 2024 program changes.
What do you make of Virgin Atlantic increasing award ticket fees?
They're just trying up so something to offset the massively higher points earning opportunities in the US vs the UK.
Isn’t this what United Airlines calls “Points and Money”? You can book with money only, points only, or a combination.
We regularly fly Man to Mco
Before changing points required it cost 47500 each way in Upper Class with 2 seats available on every flight.
New redemption
Outbound October in Upper Class 55000 points
Return April in Upper Class. 350000 points
This is Not good Costumer relations
We have decided to come back to Uk on a cruise Ship
We are also looking at other Airlines to serve our needs.
Not only have the surcharges increased but also the number of rewards points, apart from a few reduced opportunities, has also increased considerably, particularly for USA to GB . I have cancelled my Virgin Atlantic Rewards + credit card and will instead use my BA Amex to vollect Avios and travel with BA.
I think they actually decreased the costs… I remember the tax is that high like 600ish when I booked last time with still you need much more miles, now surprisingly cheaper…
Yes the YQ charges are also dynamic now, I’ve picked up LAS reward flights ex LHR for £600 which is usually £1k.
How come there's such a thing as a variable surcharge ? The fare is the only variable part in a ticket price.
The surcharges represent fixed taxes and fees related to the cabin of travel but not the fare class. This has various implications notably in markets where fare and surcharges are taxed differently.
Moreover The variable surcharges are mislabelled as "tax" hiding the fact that this is really pricing on behalf of...
How come there's such a thing as a variable surcharge ? The fare is the only variable part in a ticket price.
The surcharges represent fixed taxes and fees related to the cabin of travel but not the fare class. This has various implications notably in markets where fare and surcharges are taxed differently.
Moreover The variable surcharges are mislabelled as "tax" hiding the fact that this is really pricing on behalf of the airline.
I would not be surprised to see a lawsuit coming.
The fares are not variable.. there are multiple fares under different fare codes (Y, B, Q, H etc.) with varying availability depending on time of year and how many seats are already sold etc.
The YQ element is supposed to represent the fuel surcharge. In theory this should be easy to change when there are fluctuations in the cost of jet fuel in order to maintain profit margins without having to change all 20...
The fares are not variable.. there are multiple fares under different fare codes (Y, B, Q, H etc.) with varying availability depending on time of year and how many seats are already sold etc.
The YQ element is supposed to represent the fuel surcharge. In theory this should be easy to change when there are fluctuations in the cost of jet fuel in order to maintain profit margins without having to change all 20 or so fare individually all the time. It actually makes a lot of sense from a commercial point of view, however the issue is that many airlines aren’t all using it in the way it is supposed to be and it has an impact on award tickets. This is clear from the fact you can see £1 fares transatlantic and then the fuel surcharge added on top.
They generally label them as “taxes and airline surcharges” or “taxes and fees” so they are being transparent. The issues is the YQ fees generally don’t represent the actual fuel surcharge, even if their base calculation of fuel on the fare component was zero.
@Pognation
A little tongue-in-cheek here, but I'd argue that charging the customer generic "taxes and fees" that are variable, arbitrary, and have basically no connection to the supposed reason they were introduced (high fuel costs) is the antithesis of transparency. Compare to the specific airport and customs taxes that are clearly delineated from the rest of the bunk on the bill.
Europeans are such twats. Cheapskates, who try to charge more and deliver less at every turn. Especially the Brits with the ripoff LHR, but the Frogs and Teutons are nearly as bad. I’ll stick with ME and Asia providers, thanks.
Where we don't pay scammy resort fees and drip pricing is illegal.
Who are the real twats?
I doubt you ever travelled and if you have what a shame with that level of discriminatory comments to describe a nation. God forbid if anyone asked you to describe Africans.
Enjoy your middle eastern customer service
At this point the fees are starting to approach the price of just buying the ticket
Looks like Delta is now starting to screw over Virgin Atlantic’s mileage plan members too…
Anything Delta management touches turns to dust.
I'm currently looking for a trip to London for 2026. Fees and taxes are close to $1000. Buying a ticket on BA or VA is $1500 plus csr has a 5% discount on BA while virgin has $250 off with Amex. There's no point in redeeming at that rates.
I'm starting to wonder if all these changes and credit card AF hikes are all designed to get us here to the death of the pts game.
This is outrageous and ridiculous. This doesn't make any sense to pay that much for an award ticket surcharges.
does this only apply to VS metal and transatlantic only? I just use VS miles to book AF from Paris to Berlin, and no fee increase (yet) lol
Per someone else's reply to me, yes this only applies to VS awards on VS metal, and possibly Delta metal (for now).
Virgin J is mid at best, no loss, they can eff off
Economy flights are still not bad from east cost 6K points plus $ 111. But premium and business are ridiculous. One better pay cash for those.
Seems to be a tendency. Recently seen surcharges of $ 970 for Business on LH transatlantic, while similar flights on other days are $ 50 co-pay, go figure. Also for AK transatlantic flights on BA metal via LHR. We know that LHR is the pits for co-pays on outgoing flights, but now also on incoming?
When you have to pay hundreds or even a thousand dollars for an "award" ticket can it still be called award travel? Does the points/loyalty program not become instead a ticket discount scheme? Use 50K miles and get a $1,000 discount on your $1,500 one way business class ticket from NYC to LON. An award means something you are given, not something you have to pay for.
The price of fuel has reduced significantly, but YQs haven't changed at all.
They are exactly like resort fees, just a scam to increase award prices and reduce commissions and taxes payment.
Disgusting. There should be no such thing as "surcharges" on an award ticket.
To be honest, if raising surcharges to $1000s would make it easier to book premium cabins, I am all for it. I am willing to pay a thousand surcharge for business class and 2000 for first class, plus reasonable amount of miles.
Since you like it so much, maybe you just pay full price. Lots of availability that way!
Jesus wept, you can fly halfway across the world and back in business class for about €2000 and even get a reasonable amount of miles for your troubles, why would you bother redeeming miles if you save little/nothing compared to a revenue ticket?
Because at least the poors wouldn't have it.
TF people finding 2,000 Euro return business class tickets? Has to be harder to come by than saver availability.
Look at Flyertalk premium fare deals and any number of pages/blogs dedicated to publicising such offers. There's lots out there, often for substantially less than €2k - e.g. currently Lufthansa/SN are selling Sweden to Kenya and back for ca. €1260 (P-class, so no miles in many partner programmes).
Ben, are the biggest fee hikes for UK flights in conjunction with the UK duty fee, or are you seeing those same changes for any destination? I know you said it varies by market.
It’s becoming ridicules across the board. I have points balances across Amex, chase the capital one which are increasingly losing value and becoming harder/more expensive to use! I really question the value of having these cards.
So dramatic. Just subscribe to pointsyeah or some similar service, create your filters and alerts, and sit back for the ride. Plenty of great redemptions out there still.
This is a real shame. I have booked two trips already at the lower prices. I probaly wlll not transfer any points to Virgin anymore. I was waiting for the next membership rewards transfer bonus.
In before someone posts how this is indeed a good thing or not so bad as some other airlines
Well, those are two very different things. You'd have to be out of your mind to call it a "good thing" but obviously VS is still not as bad as other airlines in this regard. Want me to list some examples that don't begin with "British"?
VS is also making further “tweaks” with an announcement due in July; extract from an interview Business Traveler did a few weeks ago;
Corporate conundrums
Nevertheless, there is more work to be done, says Weiss, with announcements due later in the year “to explain some tweaks” that will support “greater profitability in the years to come”.
“We’ll talk in July; it’s nothing major,” says Weiss, who declined to provide further details. “It's very...
VS is also making further “tweaks” with an announcement due in July; extract from an interview Business Traveler did a few weeks ago;
Corporate conundrums
Nevertheless, there is more work to be done, says Weiss, with announcements due later in the year “to explain some tweaks” that will support “greater profitability in the years to come”.
“We’ll talk in July; it’s nothing major,” says Weiss, who declined to provide further details. “It's very much the continuation of a premium carrier. It will reinforce our position as a premium carrier focused both on the leisure market as our traditional heartland, but over the last decade we've become a really solid business carrier too, of course, in line with Delta and Air France KLM.”
I'm guessing this applies to all award tickets through VS, regardless of the actual carrier? Or would it not apply to VS awards booked on Delta, AF/KLM, ANA, etc?
Doesn't apply to other carriers. Virgin miles are usually best redeemed on other airlines. Here's hoping that Mr Weiss will be leaving those redemptions well alone.
Applies to Delta redemptions as VS has increased fees/surcharges on those to somewhat insane levels; not to other partners.
Good to know, thanks!
I think it's only transatlantic DL awards. Earlier today I was looking at using VS miles for an one-way from ATL to the Caribbean connecting from a larger trip and it was like $8 each way.
Funny thing is I was tracking some dates for next Spring ex-LAX in J (where Saver availability tends to be scarcer than to say, JFK). All of a sudden, after the higher surcharges were introduced, I now actually see some scattered Saver availability. Coincidence?
Yeah, this happened at least a couple days ago. But... it's still better than before they updated the rewards system, and certainly not a deal breaker for me. VS still has the better overall point/fee profile to BA, for the most part.
I will mentally conceptualize this fee hike as the cost of admission to Delta One Lounges ;)