It merits mentioning just what an incredible deal your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles are when redeeming on nonstop Delta flights, particularly in business class.
We are in an odd era in which an airline charges significantly more miles for its own flights than its partners charge for the same flight. Take Delta’s transatlantic service to Europe for example.
Delta wants 105K one-way as the “saver level” price for a trip from Los Angeles to Paris. Book it round-trip and you come to 128K…a far better deal…but what if you just want one-way?
Virgin Atlantic comes to the rescue. It charges 50K miles for a nonstop Delta flight in business class (Delta One) between the United States and Europe. Book one-way or round-trip from the United States and you will not even pay any fuel surcharges.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather pay 50K each way or 100K round-trip than 105K one-way or 128K round-trip. Virgin Atlantic also has a more flexible and cheaper change or cancellation policy than Delta.
And it’s not just Europe. Delta wants 200K for a “saver” award to Shanghai in business class. Virgin Atlantic will charge you only 60K for the same flight. Again, there will be no fuel surcharge.
Understand that as counterintuitive as it may seem, booking Delta awards on Virgin Atlantic simply makes a lot more sense than booking directly with Delta when saver space is available. You can check the award space directly on virginatlantic.com by inputting the city pairs and choosing “miles” as a form of payment.
CONCLUSION
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather send my AMEX or Chase points to Virgin and score premium cabin seats or suites on Delta for far cheaper than booking directly with Delta. Even better, you can call the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and place the space on hold before you even transfer the points. Virgin also has a more generous cancellation and redeposit policy than Delta and no excise tax when transferring from AMEX.
Virgin Atlantic teaches us that we don’t have to waste miles in order to fly premium cabins on Delta.
image: Delta
Anyone book a flight to Madrid as Spain is not in the country list on website? Must call in?
I booked ATL-CDG Delta one for Christmas. 200k Virgin + $250 in fees. I’m thrilled!
I’m new to these things. If you have Delta miles, you use Virgin Atlantic to book the flight or? Thanks in advance.
You cannot transfer Delta miles to Virgin Atlantic, but if you have AMEX, for example, you can transfer the points to Virgin instead Delta and spend fewer miles for the same flight(s).
Andreas, in other words, airlines that are part of the same alliance enable booking flights on their partner’s aircraft as well as their own; for instance, Airline ABC Flight 200 (operated by Airline XYZ as Flight 350) can be booked on ABC’s website OR on XYZ’s website. If you wanted to book an award flight, and XYZ’s price (in miles) is lower than ABC’s price, then you would simply make sure you are enrolled in XYZ’s loyalty program, where you could collect miles from flying, shopping, dining, etc. For the biggest bang, you want to also have a credit card that earns points transferable to the loyalty program(s) of your choice. These cards come from AMEX, Chase, Citi, and various other issuers. So when you spot an award flight you want on either ABC or XYZ, you have the ability to quickly transfer points you’ve earned on the card(s) to that airline in order to get the flight. (And if you already have some miles with that airline, you’re able to add in the credit card points, which become “miles.”) Transferable points give you more flexibility than, say, an airline card that only earns miles that are usable in that airline’s program.
Not exactly true on the taxes and fees statement. I booked Delta one from Lhr to Boston on Virgin. While ticket was under 50000 Virgin miles, the taxes and fees were over $400.
Not exactly true on the taxes and fees statement. I booked Delta one from Lhr to Boston on Virgin. While ticket was under 50000 Virgin miles, the taxes and fees were over $400.
Departing London, passengers must pay the APD (Air Passenger Duty) based on distance and class of service. That’s a British tax that’s incorporated into the fee and tax structure, for the westward portion of the ticket APD in business class can be $200-300 USD alone.
ATL-LHR on Delta has $400+ in fuel surcharges
Used this technique for my upcoming trip to Europe this year. Saved a lot of points, and changing flights was pretty painless (despite the $50 fee)
Works great though with some caveats: if you need connecting flights with DL to get to your outbound destination, pay more miles. Want to fly DL to London by booking through VS? Pay more in fees. Need to tack on a partner airline short-haul flight to get to your final destination? (the biggest disadvantage vs booking with DL) Nope, not possible.
Shhhhh, don’t tell anyone or else Delta will run screaming to Virgin:)
I did just this to get D1 this May to Milan. Delta wanted at least 280,000 SkyMIles r/t. Virgin was 100K.
Now if I can just keep producing MR’s with AMEX and then somehow find a use for my ever devaluing SkyMIles.
Unless Delta has one of their flash sales, SkyMiles are borderline useless. Delta’s incredible greed and arrogance are killing what little loyalty I have left for them(yes, I know they don’t care).
Any idea why some city pairs work while others don’t? For example, Virgin just won’t recognize ATL-FRA or ATL-ZRH using miles.
Or, in an alternate phrasing, anyone know of city pairs that DO work from the East Coast to Europe? I haven’t been able to find any city combination where Virgin finds Premium award seats available (though Delta’s website does).
There are a very few city pairs that do work. Basically, just keep trying. For instance, I found ATL-CDG. Granted, there was virtually no cheap seats available over the busy summer period, but the possibility does exist.