Virgin Atlantic currently has access to some great award availability in Delta One across the Atlantic. If you take advantage of the latest transfer bonus from Chase, that can reduce the cost to as low as ~38,500 points per person each way.
The Deal
- Book Delta One from the US to Europe for 50,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points per person one way.
- Direct link to search for availability.
Key Terms
- Routes include:
- JFK-FRA
- JFK-BRU
- JFK-ZRH
Quick Thoughts
50,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points is the standard award rate when booking Delta One flights across the Atlantic, but it can be hard to come by availability which is why this latest batch of seats is notable. It’s even more enticing if you’re able to take advantage of the latest transfer bonus from Chase which is giving 30% additional points. That makes the number of Ultimate Rewards points needed per person 38,462; you can only transfer in increments of 1,000 though, so for one person you’d need to transfer 39,000, but for two people you could transfer 77,000 Ultimate Rewards.
You don’t even have to restrict yourself to two business class seats though, as on several dates there’s availability for nine or more people. We were tipped off to this by Matt in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group this morning with regards to the JFK to Frankfurt route, with Thrifty Traveler Premium also finding availability from JFK to Zurich and Brussels.
There are several ways to find this availability. One is to use Seats.aero (which is what it looks like Matt used). You can use Virgin Atlantic’s calendar view (here’s an explainer for how to view that), as well as Virgin’s alternative tool for viewing award availability (here’s an explainer for that one too). On many dates – particularly from November onwards – there’s availability for at least two people, but in many cases nine or more people in business class.
There’s some good availability when heading back to JFK too, but beware of taxes and fees. While it’s only showing as $5.60 per person in taxes and fees when flying from JFK to Europe, it’s showing as EUR272.41 per person on the way back from Frankfurt.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this award availability dries up quite quickly, whether that’s from people booking it all or due to Delta pulling Virgin’s access to the seats, so it’d be best to book ASAP if you’re interested.
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Hi
I am seeing availability in February for 100K RT JFK/FRA plus only $136 in fees.
Is this unusual (error)?
If I have to cancel, I’ll get all the points (Virgin America) back?
Thanks
George
i think this is part of the Delta apology tour. The messed up the status and lounge thing. The still messed up on the redo. Now they are bring out the big guns, and releasing the Kracken (i.e. Delta One on VA, which has been closed off for the last 3 years?) to get their program some buzz. Don’t know, those routes are still too limited for me. Great for those who can take advantage of those dates and routes though.
I don’t see how making seats available for Virgin Atlantic loyalists would make Delta loyalists feel better.
Some of us actually like the Delta product, but not elite status program or what they did with the miles (ahem pesos). So we drifted to partner airlines like VA get access the loopholes in the Delta’s rediculous devaluations of their miles. If you are following news at all, you probably remembered 01/2021 the massacre job VA did on Delta flights (everything up 175%) overnight and with no warning. I think they did it on behest of their puppet master Delta (it owns 49% of VA). Sorry you Delta loyalist and stuck around and not looking for alternatives. Kudos to Greg the Frequent Miler who did for Alaska and JetBlue. I don’t have enough Delta status to do so, but then I got off of the Delta status train a long time ago and never looked back
it is great if you live in the NYC area. Otherwise, one has to make a connecting flight on a separate ticket and tolerate the risk of making the connection. I do not like those flights to Europe from JFK – the flying time is about 7 h 30 min and sometimes even shorter. There simply no time to sleep if you participate in the dinner.
If you have no mortgage or a job that requires you to attend meetings at certain times…and have virtually an unlimited amount of points so travel is always free, even more FREE when that time is on a free plane ride….then the opportunity costs for any deal like this is Zero. I LOVE FM… but thinking that for someone with any type of family and any type of job requirements, the ability to maximize on a lot of this stuff is unrealistic. Oh, How I wish I was Dean Moriatry (for those literary folks out there. lol)
Some of the best availability is over the Christmas/New Year period, then many other dates through March.
I agree I would prefer a longer flying time. Obviously if you are flying from the West coast or something it’s preferable not to stop in NYC.
But outside of that I’m not sure this is a fair critique. Sadly unless saver level domestic availability improves, positioning flights seem to be becoming more and more of a necessary evil. Of course everything about it is awful, rechecking the bags, worrying about a missed connection, etc but one just has to build in extra time and hope for the best. And of course not everyone reading is going to be able to take advantage of every deal, the availability would be gone in 2 minutes. But what should they do, not publish it? I like seeing the deals, at least it reminds you what’s out there, sometimes.