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It’s an Easter miracle! Rather than making another unannounced instant devaluation, Virgin Atlantic has made their sweetest of sweet spots even sweeter than a Cadbury Creme Egg which has been smothered in frosting and rolled around in sugar.
That sweet spot is using Flying Club points to book flights to Japan on ANA. The reason it was so sweet is because it only cost 90,000-95,000 points to fly round-trip in business class, or 110,000-120,000 points to fly round-trip in first class.
The one slight downside to that great award pricing is that you could only book round-trip flights. That could prove to be particularly problematic if there was award availability in one direction but not the other.
That requirement has just changed for the better. Virgin Atlantic’s website now includes the following notice:
One-way trips are permitted at half of the round-trip mileage shown below.
That means a one-way flight in ANA business class can now be booked for only 45,000-47,500 miles (depending on where in the US you’re flying from) or 55,000-60,000 one-way in first class.
While this is fantastic news, the pessimist in me is a little concerned that this could presage a devaluation by Virgin Atlantic in terms of the number of miles you’ll need to redeem in the future. After their overnight devaluation of Delta awards a few months ago, they can’t be trusted to not increase the price of these ANA awards without notice.
That’s not to say that definitely will happen, but if you’ve had your eye on redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points for business or first class flights on ANA to Japan, it could be advisable to do that sooner rather than later, if for no other reason than the ability to book one-way awards will likely result in reduced award availability going forward due to increased competition for the space. Note that Japan has strict rules about overseas visitors right now due to COVID, but hopefully those restrictions will be lifted sooner rather than later for those who’ve been vaccinated.
Something else to bear in mind is that you can’t book these awards on Virgin Atlantic’s website – you have to call. I’ve never had to call Virgin Atlantic to make a reservation, but I believe Nick has mentioned in the past that it’s as pleasant of an experience as you can possibly have because their phone agents are far more competent than many other airlines.
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[…] ANA’s pricing sweet spots are decidedly skewed towards business class. First class pricing is most often less compelling. In fact, if you are interested in flying first class on ANA, the best deal using miles comes not from ANA Mileage Club but rather from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. That’s because Virgin Atlantic charges just 55K each way in first class from the west coast of the US to Japan on ANA or 60K each way for first class from the east coast to Japan on ANA. Booking directly through ANA would cost more miles and ANA would require a round trip booking, whereas Virgin Atlantic now allows one-way ANA first class awards. […]
But you still have to 1)find an award and 2)call/text Virgin to reserve it, right? IME, that’s pretty painful…..
Yep, those are both true. I meant to mention in the post that you have to call Virgin to book the award, so I’ll get that added in. At least it should be easier finding a one-way award than a round trip, unless this causes a lot more one-ways to be booked.
And also, when will Japan allow tourists again