Virgin Atlantic long ago added big time surcharges on Delta One business class awards from the US to Europe (around $1,000 in taxes and fees one way!). Surcharges on flights departing Europe had been much milder (as low as around €400 in taxes and fees depending on departure point). Unfortunately, Virgin Atlantic sharply increased surcharges near the end of last week and they now charge more than $1,000 one-way in taxes and fees on Delta awards departing Europe as well.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club massively devalued Delta awards last year (See: Virgin Atlantic devalues Delta, destroying deal). Flights had previously included just $5.60 in taxes and fees one-way when departing the US in any cabin:
But then, last year, taxes and fees were jacked up as high as $1,027.80 departing the US in Delta One business class.
At the time, I believe that flights from Europe to the United States “only” carried around €400 in surcharges. That continued to be true until as recently as early last week.
Unfortunately, by the end of last week, Virgin Atlantic had massively increased the surcharges departing Europe. We’re now seeing taxes & fees in excess of $1,000 one-way departing Europe. The exact price depends on the taxes of the country you’re departing, but we’re seeing award pricing of 57,500 miles and €1,103 one-way from Amsterdam (AMS) to New York (JFK) for a Delta One (business class) award ticket.
Paris (CDG) to Detroit (DTW) is ringing in at 57,500 miles and a whopping €1,195.
Luckily, taxes and fees on Economy and Premium Economy redemptions are still less than €300 one-way, making Premium economy perhaps a “sweet spot”, though it doesn’t always present a terrific value as compared to purchasing a ticket outright.
This represents a further huge devaluation of Delta One partner awards and a huge hit in particular to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program. I’m currently in the midst of trying to resolve a (completely unrelated) problem with a Virgin Atlantic booking and I’m praying that I don’t need to cancel it. That’s obviously in part because I want the trip I booked, but almost equally important is the fact that I just don’t want to be stuck with Virgin Atlantic miles. Virgin has proven again and again that they can and will destroy their value proposition without notice or notification. There are still a few great uses of Virgin points, but as those options continue to wane and disappear without notice, my faith in Virgin as a good place to collect points is waning as well.
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Virgin indeed is a niche program and therefore does not have incentive in selling partner award space on their own points. So they most likely trying to recover the cost of issuing Delta One award seats by charging $1,000+ upfront from the flyers plus a small portion from Delta. That’s how economics work for it.
They also appeal more to British-base flyers and American “freeloaders” are mostly an annoyance to their operations (in points matters). Virgin has only a small share of transatlantic flights and compete with bigger carriers by offering partner awards and connections via Delta and others in North America.
Major competitor is BA – and they charge similar “fees” on their awards in upper class. It’s most likely they jacked up “fuel surcharges” just like BA – otherwise it’s not legal to charge higher taxes on out of USA flights ($5.60 plus few other small taxes).
Happy travel!!
[…] Virgin Atlantic jacks up Delta One surcharges departing Europe to more than $1,000 one-way: Oof! Those surcharges are ridiculous, and now they’re on both ways to/from Europe. See this post on Frequent Miler. […]
It’s almost like Delta gets 49¢ of every dollar Virgin generates… Oh wait, they do.
Seems like the US carrier (or, DL and UA anyway) are really putting pressure on their partners to make redemptions via partners on DL/UA metal less attractive. Aeroplan dynamically pricing UA awards to be more in line with what UA itself charges, DL lowering surcharges for SkyMiles redemption ex-EU at the same time VS hikes them. These programs aren’t interested in making their programs better, so they’ll just try to make everyone else’s program worse 🙁
Same with AA too. Qatar and Finnair avios were both devalued as an exception to the standard award chart for all OW partners.
Ouch! Delta’s ownership stake is really asserting itself here in The War On Value.
Nothing will stop Delta until the job is done 🙁