The 5 Best Ways To Redeem Virgin Atlantic Miles
Intro
Virgin Atlantic is an extremely underrated program when it comes to redeeming points. This program represents my single favorite way to redeem points, even if it is extremely difficult.
Virgin Atlantic miles are easy to come by with Citi, Chase, Amex, and Bilt rewards all transferring over at a 1:1 ratio. Of course, you can also spend the hard-earned miles you earned flying with Skyteam.
In this post, we will look at my top 5 ways to redeem Virgin Atlantic Points, most of which are with Skyteam partners.
There are frequent transfer bonuses from the major credit cards offering 25-30% bonus miles, making these rewards even cheaper!
Number 1: ANA Business/First Class USA-Tokyo
This redemption used to be even better, but at least you can now book one-way tickets instead of only roundtrips. For this redemption, you can spend 45000-47,500 to fly business class from Japan to anywhere in America or Europe. For 72,500-85-000 miles, you can fly First Class from Japan to anywhere in Europe or Asia. With cash fares upwards of 3-5000$, this is terrific value.
Sounds too good to be true right? Just head online, look for availability, and transfer your points? Not quite. To find reward availability, head over to United.com and find the travel dates that work for you (I have most luck 2-14 days out from departure). Once you find space, call Virgin to make sure it's a valid award space, transfer your points, and book the tickets.
The good thing about booking ANA through Virgin Atlantic is having minimal surcharges when using your miles.
Number 2: Flying Garuda
Flying Around Asia in (5 star) premium carriers can be quite expensive, due to the market. However, with Virgin Atlantic points you can fly around Asia for a lot cheaper, and in style! You can fly from Singapore to Jakarta for only 15,500 miles and 111 Singapore Dollars. With cash prices upwards of 6-700$, this is fantastic value!
Perhaps you want a longer flight to experience the Garuda product. For 35,000 miles, you can fly from Jakarta to Hong Kong and vice versa. Taxes are relatively minimal (45 USD) and award space is wide open!
The last good redemption for Garuda lies within Tokyo to Jakarta. The A330neo regularly operates this route (be careful with last-minute swaps) and features a brand-new business-class product! For 60,000 miles+189$ you can spend 8 hours onboard Garuda! Flight prices on this route are upwards of 1900$😲.
Booking Delta One Suites
Delta One Suites are a staple American premium flying product. However, with the horrible Delta system, it can be difficult to fly in Delta One without paying the full cash fare. Delta even goes as far as to often not offer discounted upgrades at check-in. Don't even get me started on Delta. Anyway, for 77,500 Miles+413 GBP, you can fly from London to Seattle/LAX. I found two days in the next 12 calendar months where there were seats available through Virgin Atlantic...
There are other opportunities to book Delta One without the surcharges, such as to Asia. However, you must do the research and be patient if you are interested!
Booking South America LATAM & AeroMexico
Latam business class is expensive due to being the only big South American carrier offering a wide business class product around the continent. For 95,000 points+87$ you can fly to Santiago from Mexico City in Latam business class. Ordinarily, I wouldn't book this, unless there was a transfer bonus. Alaska Airlines charges a lot less but you can't transfer points over from Credit Cards to Alaska😪.
Aeromexico is another carrier that I have flown on in the 787-8. I booked a flight through Virgin Atlantic points for 35,000 before the transfer bonus. The total came out to 27,000 chase points for a lie flat seat on the 787 from Mexico City to Los Angeles. At the time of writing, I couldn't find any award space on these routes but they do pop up. Have hope!
Flying Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
Virgin Atlantic has a very decent business-class product (on their newer planes). However, the surcharges are vast ranging upwards of 600 GBP for a one-way business class ticket. Personally, I still think this is a fabulous deal because one-way business class tickets can be upwards of 6000$, especially last minute. For 47,500 miles and 622 GBP, you can fly from London to Boston/New York on their new A330-900neo!
Final Thoughts
These are my five top redemption opportunities within the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. There are plenty of great opportunities to fly in business class for limited miles if you put the time in with research. Garuda Indonesia offers the easiest product to book as dates aren't limited, but ANA would be your best bet for the best value!
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