Thanks to Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with Air France and KLM, it’s possible to book Air France and KLM flights with Virgin points. This is great because it dramatically increases options for flying cheaply between the US and Europe, within Europe, and between Europe and many other destinations.
Virgin Atlantic has reasonable award rates and their points are incredibly easy to get. In fact, you probably already have access to Virgin points indirectly. All major transferable points programs transfer one to one to Virgin Atlantic and/or Virgin Red. And transfer bonuses are common. See our Current Transfer Bonuses page for up-to-date information about which transfer bonuses are currently available and which ones have been available in the past.
Virgin Atlantic also has reasonably low award change and cancellation fees. Virgin Atlantic charges $50 per passenger. Even better, on awards that incur less than $50 in taxes and fees to book, you’ll lose those fees, but you won’t have to pay $50 to cancel and get your miles back.
Step by Step Guide to Finding Awards Online
Here’s how to find Air France and KLM flights bookable with Virgin Atlantic points:
Enter your search criteria
Browse to virginatlantic.com and enter your origin and destination airports; select “round trip” or “one way” (I recommend booking one-way awards); select your travel dates, and the number of passengers.
Set advanced search criteria
Click the “Advanced search” link, then select “Miles” under “How Are You Looking To Pay?” Then choose whether to search for Economy, Premium, or Upper Class seats. At the time of this writing, you can book Air France Premium Economy with Virgin Atlantic points, but not with Delta or KLM. With any of the three airlines, you can book economy or business class (Upper Class).
Find available award days
Not all flights and seats are available to partners, so there may be days with no seats available at all. Or, if you’re lucky, you may find the exact flights you need. Most often you’ll find a week long calendar view:
Switch to 5-week view
If your initial search doesn’t reveal useful results, switch to the full 5 week calendar view. Click “Calendar view” from the one-week result screen, to get to something like this:
If needed, use the filter drop-down to filter to only direct flights.
Select and (try to) book your flight
Once you find a date that has award availability, click the link within that date to see available flights. Here’s an example showing Air France flights from Atlanta to Paris:
Dealing with online bugs and limitations
“Sorry, there are no longer seats available on your chosen flight. Please try another search”
There is an exasperating bug when trying to book Air France or KLM flights online with Virgin points. Frequently, after entering your passenger and credit card information, the system will claim that there are no longer seats available. The work-around is to do an online chat to book the flight. Full details can be found here: Solved — Problem booking Air France/KLM with Virgin points.
Pay with Points is grayed out
If the website only lets you choose to show price in “Money” and not “Points,” the workaround is to temporarily change to a multi-city search, pick “Points” and then return to a one-way or round-trip search.
Destination doesn’t auto-complete
This problem used to happen regularly, but it seems to be mostly fixed. Still, if you type in your destination city and the text box doesn’t auto-complete, you have two options:
- Type the destination into the departure airport text box and then copy and paste it into the destination box.
- Use the map icon to find your destination from a drop-down list.
Airport not found
Some foreign airports aren’t loaded into the Virgin Atlantic system. If you want to book flights to one of these airports, it can’t be done online. You’ll have to contact Virgin Atlantic to book those flights.
Contact Virgin Atlantic to confirm and book
Before moving points from a transferable points program to Virgin Atlantic, I recommend contacting Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to confirm that the award you want is really available and to confirm what they’ll charge.
Below you’ll find Virgin Atlantic Flying Club’s contact information. :
Customer Centre: +1 800 862 8621
Reservations, Customer Service and Flying Club
Opening hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Award Charts
You can find Virgin Atlantic Flying Club partner information here. The partners listed as “Earn and Spend” are those where you can use Virgin Atlantic miles to book awards on the partner airline.
Standard vs Peak
Virgin Atlantic offers different award prices depending on whether you fly during standard or peak dates. Check Virgin Atlantic’s website for current standard and off-peak dates.
Short Haul
When flying Air France or KLM within Europe, the following short haul pricing applies. It’s great to see that you can fly one-way for as few as 4,000 miles (4,500 Peak):
North & Central America to/from Europe
Virgin Atlantic’s award charts for Air France and KLM are extensive. For those looking to fly between North or Central America and Europe, I pulled out the relevant award prices. Note that you can book Premium Economy on Air France flights, but not KLM.
The following are one-way prices:
Complete award charts can be found towards the end of this post.
Award Taxes & Fees
Fuel surcharges are imposed along with other standard fees (such as airport departure fees). Fortunately, these fees are far lower than what Virgin Atlantic charges for flights to and from London.
Through a number of award searches I found the following fees between the US and Europe. Note the the actual fees will vary depending upon the route you fly. Also note that I’ve estimated some of the fees based on current Euro to US Dollar exchange rates…
Here are a few award results showing these fees:
Complete Zone Based Award Charts
The following are the complete zone based award prices for using Virgin Atlantic miles to fly Air France and KLM. All prices are one-way. Note that Premium Economy awards are not available on KLM.
Zones: 1) Western and Central Europe; 2) Eastern Europe and North Africa; 3) Middle East and Russia; 4) Central Africa; 5) Southern Africa, Indian Ocean and Indian Subcontinent; 6) East Coast North America & Caribbean; 7) West & Central North America and Central America; 8) South America; 9) Far Eastern Asia and Eastern Russia; 10) Oceania;
Zone Definitions
Flights that don’t qualify for short haul pricing are priced based on zone to zone award prices. Virgin Atlantic defines the following award zones for Air France and KLM flights:
- Zone 1 (Western and Central Europe) includes:
UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Ireland, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Denmark, Balearic Islands, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway and Sweden. - Zone 2 (Eastern Europe and North Africa) includes:
Albania, Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Canary Islands, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Libya, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Madeira, Moldavia, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, West Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Tunisia, Ukraine, Montenegro, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. West Russia includes the following Federal Districts – Central Federal District, North-western Federal District, Volga Federal District, Southern Federal District and North Caucasian Federal District. - Zone 3 (Middle East and Russia) includes:
Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Central Russia, Egypt, UAE, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Syria, Qatar, Uzbekistan and Djibouti. Central Russia to include the following Federal Districts – Urais Federal District and Siberian Federal District. - Zone 4 (Central Africa) includes:
Benin, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, Republic of South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Chad, Zambia and Sierra Leone. - Zone 5 (Southern Africa, Indian Ocean and Indian Subcontinent) includes:
Angola, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Reunion Island, Seychelles, Mayotte, Comoros, Madagascar, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. - Zone 6 (East Coast North America & Caribbean) includes:
East Coast USA, East Canada, Antigua, Barbados, Bahamas, Cuba, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, French Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Caiman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Virgin Islands, Jamaica, Martinique, Haiti, Porto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago and Saint Marteen. Includes the following US states – Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida. Includes the following Canadian provinces – Ontario, Quebec, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island - Zone 7 (West & Central North America and Central America) includes:
Central & West USA, Hawaii, Central & West Canada, Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Nicaragua. Includes the following US states – Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, California, Hawaii and Alaska. Includes the following Canadian provinces – Nunavut, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Northwest Territories, British Colombia and Yukon. - Zone 8 (South America) includes:
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. - Zone 9 (Far Eastern Asia and Eastern Russia) includes:
China, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, East Russia (& Siberia), Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. Eastern Russia to include the following Federal Districts – Far Eastern Federal District. - Zone 10 (Oceania) includes:
Australia, Fiji, Guam, Marianas Islands, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, New Zealand, Palau Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
I can’t believe that 2 years later, it’s still necessary to use the “Multi-City” trick to bypass grayed-out “Points” option. Mon dieu!
I recently booked IAD-CDG. Is there a way to find your Air France confirmation number?
Pay with Miles is grayed outThe trick does not work, for example, ATL/JFK-ATH. Does expertflyer show award availability of DL flights?
Oh, that’s weird. I just tried it and you’re right. I can’t find a way to get that to work. I can’t remember if expert flyer shows Delta availability. I think so. You can also try searching on Air France but you’ll have to check day by day because the Air France award calendar doesn’t show Delta availability
I found a work-around! Switch to Multi-city, that un-grays “Points”. Select “Points”. Switch back to “One way”. Search. I’ve updated the post with this work-around
[…] Book Air France & KLM with Virgin Atlantic Miles […]
So what zone is Germany in? It’s not listed in any of the above zones that you provided. I’m seeing some weird pricing for 16k one way from the east coast
Thanks for pointing that out. I fixed the zone list. Germany is in Zone 1.
[…] on Delta. My bet is that those award prices won’t change materially any time soon. Plus, Virgin Atlantic recently added the ability to use miles on Air France and KLM. I found that Air France Premium Economy awards can be booked very cheaply with Virgin Atlantic […]
I like Air France Premium Economy, however I have never been able to find any dates/times on which I can fly it SFO-FCO using Virgin Atlantic miles. Is it because it is a popular routing? I can always find it using UR/AF points at 72,000 ow.
[…] Book Air France & KLM with Virgin Atlantic Miles […]
I thought I stumbled on a great deal using Virgin Atlantic miles: OPO – MSP, 15K+EUR43 in economy, two legs on KLM via AMS. Unfortunately errored out during booking.
I did a little more digging. This flight is available at 33.5K + $120 on Flying Blue – not the cheapest level on the calendar. It is however available on Delta at 25K + EUR169 and is the cheapest option on Delta calendar. So this brings up a few questions:
1. Why is it cheapest option on delta.com if it’s not the cheapest at KLM (both legs are KLM)?
2. If Virgin Atlantic finds this flight in Delta inventory – why is the mileage lower than Delta’s and lower than Virgin Atlantic’s own normal saver mileage from Europe to NA?
3. Why is Virgin Atlantic displayed surcharges are different from Delta’s?
That’s great that you found that departing from OPO on KLM results in such low surcharges when booked with Virgin Atlantic miles!
1. Delta’s award pricing changes regularly. They don’t publish an award chart and so they charge whatever they want. Sometimes that’s good for us and sometimes bad. In this case it looks good since Delta usually charges at least 30K for an economy transatlantic flight.
2. Virgin Atlantic has separate award charts for Air France & KLM than they do for their own flights and different from booking Delta flights as well. For flights on AF/KLM to central US, they charge 15K miles.
3. I don’t know why each of these airlines charge different surcharges for the same routes, but they do. That’s common. You’ll often see that with other alliances as well.
[…] Virgin Atlantic Miles Just Got More Valuable!: Virgin Atlantic just partnered with Air France and KLM. What does that mean? Virgin Atlantic has good award rates and this opens up more options for award flights to Europe. […]
That YQ is a real ouch……
And is downplayed. The YQ is what kills all of these. Of course, bloggers gotta push credit cards…
You don’t know our blog well if you think that we post content for the purpose of pushing credit cards. If that practice bothers you (and it should), then consider subscribing to Frequent Miler. The content of our posts is never motivated by credit card sales. And we always publish the best public credit card offers even if it means (and it often does) that we won’t get a commission for that offer.
In the case of this post, I wrote about the issue with high taxes and pointed out that Premium Economy seems to be the sweet spot with relatively low fees and very low mileage requirements.
Just remember before u book the French love to go on strike . Almost cost me a bundle.
CHEERs
The Virgin Atlantic online search has had more destinations added to it as well. For example, I’ve been looking at a Delta ATL to EZE flight, Argentina was never an option in online searches before with VA’s website (you had to use KLM to search & then call in to VA), now it’s there.
Yes they have! Thanks for pointing this out. I wonder if they now cover ALL airports that Delta, KLM, and Air France fly to?
If not all then very close to it. There are some small domestic airports with like one or two Delta flights per day loaded in. All the major German airports have been added.
Can confirm it’s not. Air France flies to Male, but MLE doesn’t come up on VS.
Good to know. Thanks!
It’s a shame the Virgin website is so awful to find awards on
Another great benefit of this is the ability to add a connection with no worry about connection time/positioning to a Delta redemption across the Atlantic.
Maybe niche but I live near Indianapolis and our only European route is to CDG on Delta. I can now book 1 award to go to almost anywhere in Europe for cheaper and more convenient then a lot of Star Alliance or Oneworld awards that always need a domestic connection for me.
I checked online and I can book IND to MUN with a connection in CDG and it adds the short haul AF fare to single award.
1 caveat is it only adds business class seat online. I’m sure you could call in and get economy ticket for short leg at cheaper price. Gets me an extra day in actual destination because I dont have to overnight in Paris (first world problems having to spend an extra day in Paris I know but want to maximize vacation days)
Excellent info, thanks for the post! Do you know if these awards show up yet in Juicy Miles, Award Nexus, Expert Flyer, etc?
Great & very useful information.