Earlier in the week I reported how Delta SkyMiles didn’t have access to Virgin Australia award space. This seemed to be an issue regardless of whether you tried to book online or by phone. That was pretty unfortunate, given that Virgin Australia is the airline which releases the most premium cabin saver level award space between the US and Australia, making it one of the best uses of SkyMiles.
The good news is that this was apparently due to an IT glitch, and Virgin Australia awards using SkyMiles were supposed to return this weekend.
And they have indeed — Virgin Australia awards are now once again bookable on delta.com.
Awards can be booked on delta.com regardless of whether you’re looking for a longhaul redemption, or just looking for a redemption within Australia/New Zealand.
As a reminder, Delta SkyMiles charges 80,000 miles for a one-way business class award on Virgin Australia between the US and Australia. Award space is excellent, even in peak season, when it’s otherwise almost impossible to find a saver level award seat to Australia.
Also keep in mind that Virgin Australia is in the process of installing a new reverse herringbone business class seat, which should be available on US routes by next year. That will be a substantial improvement, given that their 777 business class is presently in a 2-3-2 configuration. The new configuration will feature reverse herringbone seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, meaning every business class seat will have direct aisle access.
It’s also worth pointing out that Virgin America Elevate recently substantially improved their value proposition for redemptions on Virgin Australia, as they eliminated fuel surcharges on those redemptions. So Elevate is now also a great option for awards on Virgin Australia. Elevate is presently offering an 80% bonus on purchased points, which can be a great value for this award.
Happy redeeming!
Well, it looks like the Delta website is no longer giving business Skymiles availability for Virgin Australia. Any idea if they will open it up again? Currently they show 90,000 miles for economy.
Hi
Can i book this using the Virgin Website? Not sure if this deal applies any more.
Thanks
Sam
Can only fine one business class seat for oct 2016 travel lax to bne using delta miles. When will VA release more seats.
Hi there-
Is it better to search and book on Delta's website directly or to use the Virgin Australia site?
I have Skymiles to use, so ultimately I will call Delta to book, but wondering where it's better to search?
Thanks
Hi Ben - I'm reading your blog regarding Virgin Australia awards from LAX - SYD in Feb/Mar 2016. I would like to use Skymiles for a round-trip ticket. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though there are any Business Saver awards available on either the Virgin Australia or Delta website. Do you know if the Business Saver tickets are still available? I wonder if they have changed given Delta's change to Skymiles or because of the...
Hi Ben - I'm reading your blog regarding Virgin Australia awards from LAX - SYD in Feb/Mar 2016. I would like to use Skymiles for a round-trip ticket. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though there are any Business Saver awards available on either the Virgin Australia or Delta website. Do you know if the Business Saver tickets are still available? I wonder if they have changed given Delta's change to Skymiles or because of the new seating configurations on VA's 777's? Thanks in advance for any input/advice you can provide!
@ Ben - it shows 100k for me for the entire month of January for LAX-BNE for me in "main cabin" - how did you get 80k?
@ Bryan -- Are you looking at the one-way or roundtrip price? Take a look at business class one-way and you should see the 80K price.
Hi Ben - any experience in booking these awards with Virgin Atlantic miles? Do they have the same availability and cost?
@ Alan -- They should indeed have access to the same availability, and I don't believe there would be fuel surcharges.
Thanks, Ben.
Will be interesting to see what the new cabin layouts coming on stream at the end of this year do to award availability.
Shows as 100k from LAX-AKL in Economy when I search for the same dates, no C... what are the origin and destinations for the screenshots shown in this post? How many seats are typically available? TIA! =)
@ Bryan -- That's for LAX-BNE. It's not unusual to see several business saver seats per flight.
Hopefully Alaska can sort out their Emirates "glitch" too........