Update 8/15/24: On 8/13/24, I (Tim) was able to successfully complete an Air France booking using Virgin points. The website gave me an error and a booking reference, but I was then able to complete it over the phone…despite a recorded message in the phone tree telling me that it still wasn’t possible. Yesterday, Virgin told us that the issue has been resolved and it appears that folks are now able to go through the whole booking process online. Let us know in the comments about positive or negative data points.
~~~Original Post Follows~~~
Last month, we reported about booking Air France and KLM flights through Virgin Atlantic by using the airline’s chat feature. Within a couple of days, readers started reporting that they were being told that Virgin Atlantic had a known problem booking Air France and Virgin Atlantic flights and those bookings would be unavailable until July 9th. We received one reader success report around the 9th, but then more recently readers have been told that Air France and KLM bookings would be unavailable until “the start of August” — and Virgin Atlantic has added messaging to its website to reflect the same.
This is a really unfortunate development. The timing of this issue roughly lined up with when Virgin Atlantic devalued Delta awards and added ridiculous surcharges to them (in the realm of $1,000 each way). When some readers were told that there was a “known issue” with Air France and KLM and that bookings would be down until July 9th, I feared that Virgin Atlantic was planning to increase award rates (and perhaps surcharges) on those flights as well.
I had some renewed hope when we got a reader success report from someone who booked on July 9th or July 10th, but then more reports followed of readers being told that awards wouldn’t be available until the “start of August”. That’s clear as mud since it’s anyone’s guess as to whether that means August 1st or early August or how strongly they “expect” this to be the case.
Sadly, there just doesn’t appear to be a way to book Air France or KLM flights through Virgin Atlantic for the time being. Virgin has even pulled the Air France and KLM inventory from its website, so you won’t even see those seats show up in searches now. I certainly hope that this will not precipitate yet another unannounced devaluation.
If and when bookings do come back up, I would strongly suggest verifying availability via phone or chat before transferring points to Virgin Atlantic. Indeed that’s what I had done when I reported my experience booking through chat — since most transfers are instant, I wanted to first verify that they could see the space and put together the booking, then I transferred the points to Virgin Atlantic while the agent was putting everything together.
One final note that might be helpful for anyone looking to book for next summer — I’ve seen a lot of availability via the Air France website for low-priced awards next year. I had previously reported on booking flights to Europe on Air France via Virgin Atlantic. I then proceeded to book the flights home for 8 passengers in business class on the same flight for 50K per passenger (actually a bit less since kids age 2-12 get a 25% discount, so it came out to an average of just under 47K per passenger). I saw 8 seats available from numerous cities over the couple of days I checked next summer. That’s not helpful if you’ve already transferred points to Virgin Atlantic, but if you hadn’t yet transferred it may be worth checking the Air France website if you were looking to book near the end of the schedule.
H/T: Tim in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group
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Not working completely correctly. It is pulling availability segment by segment.
Trying to go JFK — MAD with AF. There is regular O class available in ExpertFlyer when searching JFK-MAD (comes up JFK-CDG-MAD); however, when searching JFK-CDG alone comes up with a 0 inventory.
Because of that, the flight isn’t showing up on Virgin.
Terrible
Availability seems super low compared to before the IT issue. Do you think it’s still being fixed or this was part of the “issue” with them getting rid of a lot of availability ?
Seems like they had a ton of trouble with phantom availability before so part of the “fix” was probably straightening out their availability (which is unfortunate but hopefully leads to a better user experience booking). Hope I’m wrong though.
I think it was actually the opposite of phantom availability, where Virgin was successfully booking flights that shouldn’t have been available for partner awards. They took it offline to resolve, and now you’re seeing the availability that was intended all along.
Agree with Kevin that the availability is way lower now. If this is the availability that was intended all along, then I’m confused because it seems like there’s literally zero business availability now. At least for my route NYC – MXP or MXP – NYC, I can find zero business for any date – either super far out or close in. Pre-issue, there was plenty.
Now I have transferred points stuck with Virgin…very irritating.
This looks like errors to me based on what I’m seeing as availability on ExpertFlyer
You’re right, looks like some business for that route is back now. But less than before and not on the dates I originally wanted.
Any updates on this situation?
As of today sporadic AF Business class originating in Europe and some KL economy class from the US is bookable on the website so seems like they are getting close to a solution. But the notice at the top was changed to “mid August.”
Timing 2 weeks ago was the killer for me. Stranded 97k in virgin thinking I was going to get the flights I wanted. I gave up (maybe too easily) after 1 call and 1 chat with the “wait till July 9” as this all went down the rabbit hole. Hope I can use them at a later point.
I stranded 450k cap one miles there. I’m beside myself. Totally ruined planning for a family of 4. VS wont transfer them back and just keeps saying “sorry for the inconvenience.” It’s criminal really.
What a frustration. I was philosophical and knowing all the help from Nick and FM over the years, I just took the long view. And wouldn’t you know it but my granddaughter got stranded at LHR 2 weeks ago on an Expedia ticket and I was able to get her a 1 day advance premium economy for 27k. Hope to use the other 70k some day.
Finally got the hat tip lets goooooo
Hey Nick! Thanks for the post. Honestly, I lucked out with the chat feature you had posted about ( it didn’t work the first time, but lucked out later). There’s definitely like one special agent that has made it work. I had called for weeks prior over the phone to no avail. It does make me concerned about my tickets that I had booked through the chat feature. I see them in the Air France app and I have a seat, but it’s crazy that one agent has the power to do this, but meanwhile Virgin has shut down their Air France tickets.
Any word on booking ANA via calling Virgin? I am seeing different data points all over the place some saying it still works and some saying it does not, does anyone here have any recent experience? TYIA
Saw a comment today that VS IT recently goofed by assigning FB revenue flights as awards, inflating the award availability. I recall the abundant FB awards not too long ago. If so, maybe this delay is to fix that.
I’m not even seeing KLM flights for booking at all on their app or website this morning. ORD and IAD usually have nonstops on KLM to AMS, and there are none, no matter if I search with points or cash.
Yes, that’s right – Virgin Atlantic has removed Air France / KLM inventory from the site, so you won’t even see those flights available. I just added a sentence to the post mentioning that you won’t see any of those awards (but you’re right, I think they also got rid of them for cash bookings for now).
It’s weird… not least given their website showed availability just a few weeks back when they were running their redemption discount offer and booked a KLM and Virgin flight (albeit had to do a HUCA as they first told me after consulting a supervisor that it wasn’t possible)