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Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club until mid-June. This is a Chase bonus, so you will see it in the Ultimate Rewards transfer portal and will receive the additional miles when the transfer oocurs. By using this bonus, it’s possible to book Delta One flights from the US-Europe for 39,000 points each way.
The Deal
- Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club through 6/15/22.
Key Terms
- Bonus Virgin Flying Club offer is valid for Chase Ultimate Rewards® point transfers to Virgin Flying Club completed between 12:00AM ET on May 1, 2022 and 11:59PM ET on June 15, 2022.
- Minimum transfer is 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
- You will receive 30% Bonus Virgin Flying Club Miles for each Ultimate Rewards point transferred during the promotional period listed above. For example, if you transfer 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points, you will receive a total of 1,300 Virgin Flying Club Miles.
Quick Thoughts
Virgin Atlantic has long been loved for a couple of key sweet spots. Unfortunately, during the pandemic, they quietly took away many of the best opportunities for booking Delta award tickets. One key sweet spot for Delta flights remains: US cities to/from Europe cost just 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles in business class on Delta, which Nick was able to use earlier this year for four Delta One tickets to Amsterdam. The transfer bonus means that you only need 39,000 Chase points per ticket.
While it’s almost never a good idea to transfer speculatively, this bonus can create some terrific opportunities for European travel, so it would pay to look around at availability. If you’re not familiar with using Flying Club, see Greg’s excellent prime here.
- ANA First Class from the US for 72.5K (West Coast) - 85K (East Coast). For a long time, the sweetest of Virgin Points sweet spots was for First Class awards from the US to Japan on ANA. Unfortunately, Virgin devalued those awards in March 2023, but even with substantial increases these awards are still a solid value if not the amazing value they used to be. ANA has one of the best first class products around, often selling for over $20,000. This is an incredible points value...especially now that you can now book one-way awards for half the price shown above. It's worth noting that ANA flights can't be booked on the VA website, so you have to call or message via Twitter (see below).
- US to UK Economy for 10K (East Coast) - 15K (West Coast). Virgin Points can be used to fly to London at great value. Virgin Atlantic offers the same pricing whether flying Delta or Virgin Atlantic, but fees are higher when flying Delta. Flying from the US to London for 10K to 15K during standard season is a bargain even after accounting for moderate award fees ($150-225). Note that flights originating in the UK have considerably higher fees.
- Delta Business from US to Europe for 50K. Virgin Points can be used to book Delta business class from the US to Europe for only 50,000 points one way, with minimal surcharges when flying from the US. Flights to/from the UK and originating in Europe include extremely high award fees. Mixed Partner Awards can be an excellent value as well.
- Air France or KLM flights within Europe. Virgin Atlantic has great rates for nonstop flights within Europe on Air France or KLM. They charge between 4K and 8.5K for nonstop economy flights under 1250 miles in distance (which is most within Europe), and between 8K and 9K for business class flights under 600 miles in distance. Details here: Air France & KLM across Europe for less.
Things to know
- Virgin Points purchases are processed by points.com and DO NOT qualify as airfare.
- Virgin Points do not expire.
- Many itineraries can be booked online at virginatlantic.com. This includes some partner flights such as Delta, Air France, and KLM.
- For partner flights that cannot be booked online, it is sometimes possible book via Twitter by sending a direct message on Twitter to @VirginAtlantic. If they respond that they cannot sell any flights which do not fly via the UK, tell them that you are not looking to purchase a flight but rather to redeem points to book an award ticket.
- Virgin Atlantic charges separately for every leg of the trip. When multiple legs are required, it is often cheaper to book the same flights with Air France Flying Blue miles or (sometimes) Delta SkyMiles.
- Point transfers from Amex, Chase, or Citi to Virgin Atlantic are usually instantaneous. It's best to find available award space before transferring points and then transfer and book the award.
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I am overseas with the military in Japan, and would love to know how I can search for deals flying from OKA or NRT airport. Thank you
Unicorn sighting: just booked PDX–>AMS (direct flight) Delta One, x 5 seats. This is a route I have searched a few thousand times at least
Terrific! 5 seats….wow.
Hi Tim, I am also based in SEA. I’m in the situation where I booked 6 Delta one ticket pre-covid and got cancelled, so sitting on a pile of points now. Do you know which routes does Delta one serve from SEA, in addition to CDG? It’s really hard to search for award tickets on VA website. Thanks!
It’s always good to hear from another PNWer! The only non-stops that Delta flies from SEA are to London, CDG and Amsterdam, although there’s constantly talk of adding Frankfurt and Rome.
I had 5 people booked on delta one MSP-AMS pre-covid. Flights cancelled, rebooked, cancelled again.
Now I’m sitting on 500,000 virgin atlantic miles and I cannot find a single Delta One seat out of MSP on any route. neat.
Brutal! I feel your pain, COVID has left a lot of us with stack of orphaned miles in programs all over the world.
I used to be able to find some availability for Delta One for 50K between DTW and AMS, but last few weeks I have searched different cities, different dates, simply just trying to find any date on the Virgin website within the last month or so and I have come up empty across the board. Makes me wonder if Delta is restricting it so you cannot book it through Virgin anymore
It does seem much more restricted this year than it used to be.
I’ve been trying to find any Premium (preferred Delta One) availability from US to Europe through the end of the year and can’t find anything on the website. Is this another one where a call is necessary? VA is no longer accepting texts by the way — received this in response to mine: “Hello. We’re very sorry to inform you that since 18th of February 2022 we have ceased offering SMS messaging and WhatsApp as a contact channel. Following the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic and changing travel restrictions, our resources need to be utilised to support on other channels that can assist you in a more efficient manner. This will, in turn, mean that urgent support is ultimately provided faster. This unfortunately means that the team has not received your message, so will be unable to respond. But please don’t worry; we have a better, faster way to help you.”
That’s a bummer, thanks for letting us know about the demise of WhatsApp, that was convenient. Delta shouldn’t be necessary to call, it “should” normally show up on the website, although there are some cities that seem to require a call. What’s the origin city you’re trying to book from?
I tried several including JFK and Atlanta to cities like Paris, Madrid, and Amsterdam. Eventually found one economy Delta but still never found any of the 50,000 delta one options.
Search Aug 22nd, there’s space for delta one – JFK to FRA
Thanks! That one worked and there was other availability on the Price Calendar once I could get to it. I tried so many combinations last night without success though — any tips?
Honestly it’s just luck. I search one day of each week and so on. If there is availability on any day during that week it will show up and at that point you can open up the monthly calendar.
Thank you! Didn’t realize it was a week thing, will look weekly not daily then 🙂
I found 6 seats available for 50K on (I think?) Delta One from MSP-CDG on either Oct 24 or Dec 06. Maybe I should yank the kids from school and lux it up for a week …
Can you use Virgin Atlantic to book the ANA around the world award?
Unfortunately no, but that’s a great idea!
This is nice – but i cant find a single flight available to be booked to europe from JFK, ATL or MSP.
Just an FYI. The text/WhatsApp no longer work
Thanks, I’ll uodate
This is fixed.
The bonus could certainly help on some Delta flights but how realistic is the ANA first class option? I just ran a quick check and saw zero dates with availability for two people through the end of schedule from JFK or Chicago. A great deal that’s never available isn’t such a deal.
You can do it, but you can’t do it online, only over the phone or WhatsApp. The easiest way to find availability is by searching via United (one-way, non-stop) and then take those dates and flight numbers and call Virgin. There’s never a ton of availability but people do book them successfully.
My search for award space was on United, one way. I didn’t expect a lot of space but zero for both cities was disappointing.
ANA has moved a lot of their US flights to 787s with no first class. I am hoping once Japan opens to foreigners, this will change.
That’s a great point. I hadn’t caught that, but there are a lot for business-only 787’s on these routes than there used to be.