The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program has devalued Delta One business-class redemptions to and from Europe without notice, but the move is unlikely to affect many members.
Delta One awards booked through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club on most dates will still cost 47,500 Virgin points from the East Coast and Central US to Europe and 67,500 Virgin points from the West Coast to Europe.
However, Virgin Atlantic has now implemented peak award pricing, increasing awards to 57,500 points from the East Coast and Central US and 77,500 points from the West Coast to Europe (except for flights to and from the UK which are already subject to this peak and out-of-peak price).
Keep reading to learn more about Virgin’s latest devaluation of Delta One award flights.
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Virgin Flying Club raises Delta One award prices, adds huge surcharge
If you want to book Delta One tickets through Virgin Atlantic, be aware of peak and off-peak dates.
The peak start dates for 2024 and 2025 are:
- January 1-3, 2024
- March 22-April 15, 2024
- June 16-Sept. 2, 2024
- Oct. 25-Nov. 5, 2024
- Dec. 7, 2024-Jan. 5, 2025
Adding peak dates with a price increase of 10,000 miles for a business-class ticket to select destinations in the same region isn’t an unreasonable depreciation, and it’s still a competitive redemption price across the Atlantic.
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Raising eyebrows is that Virgin is now imposing a hefty carrier surcharge, with total fees, taxes and surcharges adding up to more than $1,000 per person each way in business class.
So, now you can expect to pay more than $2,000 in fees, taxes and surcharges for a round-trip business-class flight on Delta booked with Virgin Points. This is in line with what Virgin Flying Club imposes on redemptions. Before the devaluation, one-way Delta One flights from the US to mainland Europe cost customers just $5.60 in taxes and fees.
This additional surcharge appears to only affect business-class tickets, as economy award seats still have no surcharge and can be booked for $5.60 plus taxes and fees.
If you want to book a Delta One flight With the Delta SkyMiles program, which does not charge any surcharge, you can easily find business-class availability in Europe. You can expect to pay 375,000 SkyMiles per person per flight.
Related: Dynamic Pricing Vs. Fuel surcharges — which is the lesser of 2 evils for your next redemption?
Why would most flying club members not be affected by this devaluation?
Virgin Atlantic is the transfer partner of Flying Club All major transferable credit card currencies and often offer transfer bonuses and award flight promotions. Thus, some great deals can be found when using Virgin Points to fly from the US to Europe. For example, I flew from New York to London in April for just 5,000 Virgin points.
But when it comes to finding Delta One award availability on Virgin, award flights are non-existent.
I’ve regularly monitored Delta One’s availability using Virgin points for transatlantic flights over the past six months. John F. of New York. Flights from Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Iceland’s Keflavik Airport (KEF) are available on at most a handful of dates throughout the 12-month schedule, with peak availability of just 5 1/. 2 hours.
This year, the rare availability in the UK and mainland Europe is mainly on (super) off-peak dates, such as late winter when you should have no problem finding availability on other carriers, especially if you have transferable credit card points. .
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For example, during my search for Delta One availability in Europe in the next 12 months the only option I found was JFK to Portugal’s Lisbon Airport (LIS). Although it will cost you less than 48,000 Virgin points, you’ll pay over $1,000 in taxes, fees and surcharges.
Instead, if you want to use Virgin points to fly to Portugal in January, you can save more than $700 in surcharges by booking the Air France business-class option.
If you choose Delta over Air France, you can book the same flight for 20,000 more miles through the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program to save nearly $1,000 in fees, taxes and surcharges.
Again, prices for Delta-operated economy-class redemptions to the UK (which remains a major use of Virgin Points) or mainland Europe have not been changed, as these are readily available to book online. Fortunately, economy awards are exempt from these new surcharges, so you can typically expect to pay less than $200 total in fees, taxes and surcharges when flying Delta Economy to Europe through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
Note that while Delta charges $5.60 in taxes and fees when flying from the US to Europe, there are taxes and fees imposed by the country when flying from Europe to the US.
Unfortunately, Delta’s Premium Economy product is still unavailable to book with Virgin Points.
Bottom line
Depreciation is an unfortunate reality of the points and miles industry. We recommend redeeming points and miles immediately after earning them Store them for a rainy day.
Generally, carrier-imposed surcharges in excess of $1,000 each way will be waived without notice by Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
However, the reality is that this change will not affect 99% of Flying Club members, as there are virtually no Delta One flights available to book with Virgin Points. In the unlikely event that you do find a seat available, it will likely be on an off-peak date (so the newly increased peak prices don’t matter). Not to mention, you could probably book the same Delta flight through Flying Blue to save hundreds of dollars.