In sadly unsurprising news, Virgin Atlantic has finally done the seeming inevitable and devalued one of its few remaining sweet spots. Thrifty Traveler has spotted that if you’d like to book Delta flights to Europe in business class, those will now require more miles in most cases.
That’s not the truly bad news though. The biggest hit comes in the form of increased taxes, fees and surcharges which are now a whopping $1,000+, not to mention the fact that this was an unannounced overnight devaluation.
As a recap, when there was award availability on Delta you could book one-way business class flights to Europe for 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles + only $5.60 in taxes and fees.
The pricing will now vary depending on the length of the flight and whether you’re traveling at standard or peak times.
On the low end of pricing, the east coast to/from Europe will now cost 47,500 miles each way at standard pricing, so a slight reduction from before. However, in the past the pricing was the same wherever you were flying to/from in the US. It’ll now be more expensive if flying to/from the west coast as you’re looking at 67,500 miles if flying from, say, Los Angeles. That’s a 35% increase, but that’s not the worst of it.
There’s a new peak rate which costs 57,500 miles each way between the east coast and Europe and 77,500 miles between the west coast and Europe – increases of 15% and 55% respectively. But even that’s not the worst of it.
The truly awful part of all of this is that taxes, fees and surcharges now top $1,000.
While mileage increases can be somewhat mitigated by taking advantage of transfer bonuses, that’s not going to help much when you have a $1k+ copay.
Thankfully economy award pricing between the US and Europe for Delta flights booked via Virgin Atlantic hasn’t changed – that’s still at 30,000 miles +$5.60. That said, that’s still quite a few miles versus what’s sometimes charged via other programs to/from Europe.
If it’s any consolation, finding award availability on Delta via Virgin can often be an exercise in futility, so actually seeing this devaluation in the wild might not be too common depending on where you want to fly and your dates. I had the hardest time finding any availability to obtain a screenshot for this post. As Nick noted this morning though, there’s currently a ton of award availability to Europe on Air France and KLM when using Virgin Atlantic miles. While the taxes, fees and surcharges on those flights aren’t as low as one might like, at ~$300 it’s much more reasonable than the $1k to fly on Delta. Plus you’d get a Delft house by flying with KLM.
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Are Delta miles transferable to KLM/Air France?? Is this what you are saying is the better route for Delta miles transfer now for Europe Biz class seats?
No, they are not but Air France/KLM is a transferrable partner for every major bank’s travel cards (Amex/Chase/Citi/Capital One/Bilt/Wells Fargo) so points are very easy to acquire and often times booking Europe business class seats with Air France/KLM miles is a better deal than Delta Skymiles.
It was fun while it lasted. I was fortunate to find flights to London using this sweet spot over a year ago. It was impossible to find the deal again so I just assumed they got rid of it.
On the bright side, taxes and fees aren’t bad for the return from Europe
how much more or less?
It’s the same as before so it’ll depend on departure airport. For example MAD-JFK on 1/14 on DeltaOne is 47,500 miles and 152 Euro in fees
Virgin Atlantic , Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards etc…. I see these and other programs devaluing premium cabins but leaving economy flights alone – or even lowering redemption rates. 2024 may turn out to be the year of the economy flyer.
That’s nice, but taking an 8+ hour flight in economy is more an act of endurance than enjoyment.
Enjoy the destination. Sure it’s an act of endurance, but I’ll enjoy myself in Europe. Going to Paris for the Olympics for 27k AA miles in economy.
It gets harder for most people as they get older. And shorter folks have an easier time in coach than 6ft+ folks.
True. But to some, all the things we go through to earn the extra points and find premium cabin award availability is an act of endurance. Just ask my P2!
And those are one-way costs…
No problem. Don’t fly Delta or Virgin.
On the bright side, wasn’t this one of Nick’s 2024 predictions?
It was – I meant to mention that in the post but got sidetracked trying to find a real-life example of the crazy fees!
Anyone looking to fly delta one on an award is just wasting their time and has been for quite some time.
Nah, last summer there was wide availability for this spring/smmer. FM even had a post about it
My wife flew delta one JFK to Munich RT last week. When we booked earlier this January there was tons of European availability all over the summer (as FM alerted me to). It did dry up quickly though. Admittedly outside of that it always has seemed difficult to come by.
I still sometimes see 7500 mile economy awards on virgin for short hop delta flights but that’s about all I plan to use their miles for anymore. Sad to see the 50k European flights go.
Shouldn’t Greg be covering this topic? Does he even still work with you guys?
He’s overseas at the moment