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 is about to devalue redemption rates for travel on Delta (thanks to reader Johan for flagging this).
In this post:
How Flying Club redemption rates on Delta are changing
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
Flying Club isn’t changing 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.
Flying Club also isn’t changing award pricing between the United States and the rest of Europe, which continues to have fixed pricing regardless of distance flown. These redemptions have carrier imposed surcharges when originating in Europe, but not when originating in the United States.
What Flying Club is updating is the distance based award chart that applies in all other regions. Pricing is changing for award flights taken as of January 1, 2024. Specifically, below you can find the current award chart, for flights through December 31, 2023.
Below you can find the new award chart, for flights as of January 1, 2024.
Here are the biggest changes:
- Shorter Delta first class and Delta One flights are increasing in cost considerably, while longer Delta One flights aren’t getting more expensive (though are already steeply priced)
- We’re seeing huge hikes to economy award costs on Delta, ranging from 501-1,000 mile flights going up in cost from 8,500 to 11,000 points, to 6,001+ mile flights going up in cost from 45,000 points to 65,500 points
As you can see, we’re not seeing any price drops here. All award costs are either staying the same or increasing in cost.
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
There are still some situations where redemptions through Flying Club on Delta represent a good deal. That’s especially true when you consider that Virgin Atlantic partners with all major transferable points currencies, and we often see transfer bonuses.
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is devaluing Delta awards significantly for travel as of January 1, 2024. While the cost of awards between the United States and Europe is staying the same, we’re seeing big changes to the distance based award chart that applies in all other regions.
Award costs are increasing in both economy and in premium cabins, and in some cases the increases are substantial. It’s disappointing to see these changes, though we had to assume that Delta was going to eventually go after any sort of arbitrage opportunity.
What do you make of these Virgin Atlantic Flying Club changes?
Looks like new rates are live now. US Domestic & Canada rates are still affordable given that VA get frequent 30% transfer bonus from Amex and Chase and you are booked into main cabin. Going to Aus/NZ or Asia from west cost kind of pricey you may be able to buy cheap economy class for cash.
I used to find Delta One flights on Virgin and haven't seen one for years other than to England with the huge discharges. Maybe Delta doesn't release any. But their new search tool doesn't even work for rest of Europe.
Appreciate the heads up Ben, but there's got to be some confusion about the dates.
I was just able to book a SFO-SEA May '24 RT for 17,000 points (the old amount).
I've been meaning to get rid of the last few miles in that account and this was the prod that got me to do it!
It's move / counter-move in the game. If you know that by now, you're in the wrong game. Get tough or die.
Incinerating your own loyalty program and then whining when your customers go elsewhere is the hallmark of a Premium Airline
So that's why you buy stakes in your competitors and then devalue their loyalty programs too. It's a win for investors, and that's all the matters at DL.
Are you sure the devaluation is starting Jan. 1? Everything I read was that it was devaluing as of Dec. 7. You better be sure. You may be telling people the wrong date.
It is, as Ben says, for "award flights taken" after Jan 1. If you'd like to fly before then, you can book at the old rates.
I'm still seeing current rates. @Ben, did you mean award flights "booked" after Jan. 1 and not "taken" after Jan. 1?
No, it is flights taken after Jan 1. The current rates have not updated yet when booking flights for departure after Jan 1 as far as I can tell, but they are expected to update for those 2024 flights in the coming days.
They haven't updated them yet. I was able to book a 2024 ticket at the "old" rates just now.
While any devaluation sucks, redeeming VS for DL still has some decent values in main cabin. Spot checking this, it looks like VS now is basically the same price as redeeming AF miles for DL for Y adjusting for the lower taxes/fees on VS. VS still looks to be about 1/2 the cost of redeeming Skypesos in Y, (which is up from an avg of 1/3 the mileage cost).
At least the 50k Delta 1 to Europe is sticking around. If you can find it it's a great deal. Haven't seen one available from SEA since Feb-March 2021 though.
They haven't been available for years. Doesn't matter what the price is.
yes you are right
I just booked AMS-DTW today for 12/24 for two people, 50k VS each
SEA and LAX-CDG still open up for 50k once in a while.
I’d say the biggest benefit VS miles provided were they always booked into main rather than basic (the way DL tries to bait people in with the flexible view calendar) economy. So no doubt at all Big Daddy D is behind this decision because of that caveat alone. ALOT of times VS was cheaper (booking into main) than SkyPesos booking into basic!
I burned through the last of my VS miles on DL flights for...
I’d say the biggest benefit VS miles provided were they always booked into main rather than basic (the way DL tries to bait people in with the flexible view calendar) economy. So no doubt at all Big Daddy D is behind this decision because of that caveat alone. ALOT of times VS was cheaper (booking into main) than SkyPesos booking into basic!
I burned through the last of my VS miles on DL flights for next year already, and will be the last flights that I’ll have to deal with DL. Good riddance.
It's not devaluation if we talk about the * most * Premium (Tm) airline this galaxy has even seen. Some call it the right to experience a Lifestyle Brand.