While not for everyone, the current Virgin Atlantic redemption sale stacked with the Flying Club transfer bonus from Chase means that economy class tickets are little as 6,000 Ultimate Rewards points each way or 27,500 points for business class. Even with relatively high redemption fees, that is a deal worth considering.
Stack Award Sale + Transfer Bonus On Virgin Atlantic
There are two deals going on right now with Virgin Atlantic:
- 25% off on all Virgin Atlantic Flying Club redemptions – valid on bookings made through October 3, 2023 for travel through December 31, 2023 operated by Virgin Atlantic
- 30% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, though November 15, 2023
Virgin Atlantic does better than many carriers in releasing award space in all three cabins of service (economy class, premium economy class, “Upper Class” business class). Even its normal rates are competitive. The downside is that the fees are high. Virgin adds carrier-imposed charges (formerly called fuel charges) to all tickets and there are also high taxes for tickets originating in the United Kingdom.
But considering the stackable discounts currently available now, it still may make sense to redeem your miles for Virgin Atlantic. Take a one-way ticket from New York to London. It is currently pricing at 7,500 miles one-way (6,000 Chase points) plus $151.70 in taxes and fees. I value Chase points at two cents each, which means that the points are worth $120 and wtih the taxes/fees, a one-way ticket costs $271.70. That’s excellent, especially considering the high-cost of a last-minute ticket.
Last-minute business class tickets can run up to $8,000 round-trip. But spending 35,600 Virgin miles (27,500 Chase points) each way, even with the $976 in taxes and fees, can represent a very good deal.
If you busy in advance, you may be able to do better just paying cash for the ticket. But if you need a last-minute ticket, this is a great option.
I flew Virgin Atlantic economy class last year from Los Angeles to London and though the experience was just fine. I have also flown in Upper Class on the A350, 787-9, and A340 (now retired). Virgin is not my favorite business class products, but it is a solid product.
CONCLUSION
Through tomorrow, you can stack two promos to score some rather cheap transatlantic tickets on Virgin Atlantic. While I prefer to use my miles for premium cabin redemption, the economy class pricing is quite compelling and I am considering booking our post-Christmas trip for my family to London.
image: Virgin Atlantic
The correct title would be … 6,000 Chase points + Taxes …
$152 is not a small amount to discard, for 3 people it amounts for $455 out of pocket!!
Otherwise a good advise for people to utilize both promos.
On top of that, $976 in taxes for Upper Class is ludicrous when you can fly into CDG or AMS for 56k-ish miles in J from US Midwest and East Coast with 1/4 or so of that in taxes, and then just hop across the channel, either by plane or train for sub-$200. Unless you really hate logistics of getting from France back to London, there is nothing Virgin does that makes it worth the taxes to fly into LHR. Yeah, they have an amazing lounge experience at LHR, but that’s absolutely not worth $1000 in taxes *and* whatever miles you lose.
VS needs to double down on this gotcha more, so it’s even funnier. They need to advertise an Upper Class Promo that costs 1000 Virgin pts +$3000 in taxes and “other fees”