When Virgin Atlantic introduced dynamic award pricing in October 2024, I assumed that award charts for their own flights had gone away. I knew that they still had partner award charts showing the prices for booking partner awards with Virgin Atlantic points, but I figured that they no longer had award charts for their own flights. I was wrong. And a simple read through Virgin’s own website shows how wrong I was. Award charts are very much still alive and well for Virgin’s own flights, but with a few caveats: 1) the award charts only apply when Saver reward seats are available; 2) The award charts show the maximum price for Saver seats (in practice, the price is often less); and 3) When Saver seats aren’t available, the price is fully dynamic.
Virgin Atlantic used to only have award pricing for Saver awards. If a Saver award wasn’t available then you couldn’t book the flight with points. Now, when a Saver award is available, the price is, at most, the price found on the award chart. However, Virgin often charges less. And when a Saver award isn’t available, Virgin prices the award however they want to. Sometimes the prices are astronomically high, but sometimes they’re reasonable.
US-Centric Saver Reward Chart
Once you understand that the award charts shown on Virgin’s website only apply to Saver awards and that the actual pricing may be lower, I find that they’re easy to absorb. However, for North American readers, a US-centric award chart may be even easier to read. Remember that the following award prices are maximums. Actual pricing may be less:
| One-Way Between UK and… | Economy | Premium Economy | Business/Upper Class | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | Peak | Standard | Peak | Standard | Peak | |
| USA – Northeast | 10,000 | 20,000 | 17,500 | 27,500 | 47,500 | 57,500 |
| USA – Midwest & South | 12,500 | 22,500 | 22,500 | 32,500 | 47,500 | 57,500 |
| USA – West | 15,000 | 25,000 | 27,500 | 37,500 | 67,500 | 77,500 |
Peak season dates in 2025 (all other dates are Standard priced):
- 28 March 2025 – 21 April 2025
- 15 June 2025 – 02 September 2025
- 24 October 2025 – 04 November 2025
- 06 December 2025 – 04 January 2026
Finding Saver Awards
Virgin Atlantic has an easy to use tool that shows award prices across an entire month: virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder. Here’s an example of using that tool to look at flights from Seattle to London in October 2025. Wherever they display a little red price-tag, at least one Saver award is available:
Let’s examine different parts of the above display:
- Economy prices: Even though the award chart shows economy prices from West coast USA can be max 15,000 Standard or 25,000 Peak, economy is available on most days for only 9,000 points. Peak season starts October 24th, but Virgin prices economy at only 15,000 points on those days.
- Premium Economy: The award chart shows that max prices should be 27,500 Standard or 37,500 points Peak. In practice we see Standard dates pricing from 16,500 to 27,500 points; and Peak date pricing is 23,000 points from October 25 to 28.
- Business/Upper Class: When Standard awards are available for Upper Class, we’re seeing the pricing at the maximum level across the board. I don’t know if that means that people have already snapped up lower priced awards or if Virgin usually defaults these to the maximum price. One interesting finding here is that when Saver awards aren’t available you can still sometimes get a good price. For example, on October 16th Virgin wants 76,000 points for Upper Class; and on October 25th they want 84,000 points. In both cases those prices are only slightly above the award chart maximum.
Good News & Bad News
The good news is that Virgin Atlantic still has award charts for Saver awards. Even better, actual pricing is often less than the published award chart maximum. The bad news is that Virgin used to promise a set number of Saver award seats on every flight. That promise is gone.
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I’m not that familiar with Virgin Atlantic awards but just as a simple hypothetical example, if ABC-XYZ AF J flight used to cost 50k using VS saver awards but now costs 50k or less AND the number of saver award seats is not affected at all by VS going dynamic on non saver, then the new system is strictly better than the old one and Greg would be right. However, if the number of saver awards seats is reduced with say, half of it becoming dynamic non saver awards, then the new system is probably worse which is what Nick is arguing. Greg did say at the end of this post that “(t)he bad news is that Virgin used to promise a set number of Saver award seats on every flight. That promise is gone.” which suggests to me that the number of saver award flights is going to be less than it otherwise would have been under the old system, making Nick’s argument valid.
I enjoyed hearing the debate on which I think Greg clearly has the right take. The point is that Virgin is saying there will be at least some guaranteed ability at fixed GOOD rates, as opposed to Nick’s Delta example where nothing is guaranteed and a moderate occasional sale is meant to feel like a win. Apples to oranges.
I’ve found generally the lowest I’ve seen is 6k for economy, 10.5k for premium, and 29k for upperclass. I’ve seen these pretty regularly from many destinations in the US on their LHR routes.
Every time I use this “virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder“, it shows that “Hmm, something’s not working. Looks like we’re having trouble finding that info right now. If it happens again, try a bit later when we should be back on course.” Do you have any idea how to solve it? Thanks!
I paid 29k plus $240 for Business class BOS to LHR, so awards can be bought for way less than the standard prices. My son also paid 10.5k plus 109 for Premium economy from IAD to LHR .All of the travel dates were May 2025
No mention of surcharges? I assume this is because they vary quite a lot. Would be nice to have a range mentioned anyway for at least the routes you looked at.
That’s a good idea! I’ll see if I can add that in a future version
Very timely this post. This morning I found 3 one way Upper Class tickets for December 2025, SEA-LHR for 55k points
what were surcharges
$232
I paid 16.5k points $103 x 4 people LAX-LHR on VA metal for a late May flight. So to echo Greg, the price is often less (in my case, much less). Took advantage of the December transfer bonus (40%) on top of it.
What I couldn’t seem to figure out is the taxes and fees. Looking at the exact same flight, same day, same class, the fees fluctuated by maybe $30-50/pp.
What’s a “metal”
VA’s physical planes vs a partner’s
Huge fuel surcharges from MIA-LHR.