Get A 30% Bonus When You Transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points To Virgin Atlantic
This offer expires 9/12/18. Virgin Atlantic miles never expire as long as you redeem or earn at least 1 mile every 36 months.
In general, Virgin Atlantic charges high fuel surcharges that kill the value of many of their awards. For example a round-trip coach ticket from JFK to London is just 20K miles (under 16K AMEX points), but the taxes and fuel surcharges add $470. Business class is 95K miles and you’ll also owe $1,328 in taxes and fuel surcharges. Ouch.
If you only need a one-way ticket from NYC to London it’s not as bad. 10K miles+$148 in coach or 47.5K miles+$526 in business class. You may save some money by booking a ticket as a one-way to and from London rather than a round-trip.
However there are some notable sweet spots on partner airlines:
Flying on Delta:
Virgin Atlantic miles can be a bargain for flying on Delta. They often have saver award space, even when there’s none available on Delta.com!
You can even book Delta awards on Virgin Atlantic’s website, but they don’t make it easy.
Step 1: Click here to access the Virgin Atlantic award booking page.
Step 2: When entering your departure airport, be sure to choose the region and not an individual airport. For example you need to search for New York Area Airports to Los Angeles instead of JFK to Los Angeles as it won’t allow you to search for miles if you type in JFK.
Step 3: It probably won’t let you type in your desired destination airport. If it says “no matches found” you will need to click the location icon as shown below and manually search for your destination by country and state. If your destination still isn’t available you will have to call Virgin Atlantic to book award travel to that destination.
If the option to search for miles isn’t available you also may need to try selecting another airport, click on pay with miles, and then switch the airport. For example NYC to LAX didn’t work for me at first, but I switched the destination to San Francisco, clicked on pay with miles, and then switched back to Los Angeles.
On the search page you can select one-way or round-trip, exact dates, flexible within 1 week, or within 5 weeks. You can also change the class of service by clicking on “Show advanced options.”
Here’s what’s fascinating. In general, partner airlines can only book saver awards.
If you search for JFK to LAX on 12/10 on Delta.com you’ll see that the award costs 14.5K miles, which is not technically a saver award:
However on Virgin Atlantic you can book that flight for just 12.5K miles! Thanks to the 30% bonus from AMEX that’s like paying under 10K points:
Want to fly business class nonstop from Newark to Paris?
It’s an insane 280K miles if you Delta Skypesos:
But you can book it with Virgin Atlantic for just 50K miles. That’s under 39K AMEX points thanks to the 30% bonus!
Unfortunately, there are fuel surcharges to fly on Delta to London, but other destinations should have no fuel surcharges.
Note that the website charges extra for flights with connections. You may want to call Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500 to get them to price the award without the extra pricing for taking a connecting flight.
Flying on ANA:
ANA is an incredible Japanese airline with great first class suites that have very comfortable beds and amazing service. I reviewed them here towards the end of the 4th part of my Island Hopper adventure.
You only need 110K miles to fly round-trip from the west coast to Japan or 120K miles to fly round-trip from the east coast to Japan in first class. That’s under 85K AMEX points or under 93K AMEX points respectively, thanks to the 30% bonus.
Best off all there are no fuel surcharges on ANA!
Here is the Virgin Atlantic award chart for travel on ANA:
Unfortunately, you do need to call Virgin Atlantic to book travel on ANA at 800-365-9500. You can search for ANA award space on United.com.
United charges a whopping 220K miles to fly round-trip from the US to Japan in ANA first class, but you can call Virgin Atlantic to book travel for under 93K AMEX points!
Will you transfer points from AMEX to Virgin Atlantic to take advantage of this bonus? What other award sweet spots do you take advantage of?
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59 Comments On "Transfer AMEX Points To Virgin Atlantic And Get A 30% Bonus: Expanded Delta Award Space, Cheap First Class Redemptions, And More!"
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Elal sent out an Email about there new FF program. are these thee “new” changes?
Also, any word from elal about the disclosure of your conversation with them?
How come when i ask Virgin to book JFK-VCE they say that they dont have an agreement on that route. Does that make sense or is this a HUCA situation?
HUCA I’d say.
Happened to me in the past with DTW-FCO.
Discussed in DDF here:
https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=53495.0
I don’t think it’s just a HUCA issue.
The info tge agent gave you is incorrect. If Delta made ‘O’ fare available (in Delta One), then you will be able to book with VS flying club miles. Perhaps the agent you spoke to, misread the info and the real reason you couldn’t book is because delta hasn’t released the fare class for that date. I checked expert flyer for DL ‘O’ fare and called VS and booked JFK-VCE for the date that I found ‘O’ fare availality.
will this work to TLV?
You would have to call.
I know you can’t get Delta business class to TLV with Virgin Atlantic, but what route to Europe do you recommend if I want to manually assemble such a flight from DC, and buy the last leg (somewhere in Europe to TLV) separately?
@Dan I Can’t figure out how to book a flight to Miami- what location should I be searching for?
Did you click on the location image and then select Florida?
Some destinations you need to call in Virgin I believe, like Athens and Tel Aviv
Hi Dan – The pay with miles option disappears once i change the city back to my desired destination. any other ideas to work around this?
Also- can Virgin book Delta domestic awards?
thanks
Try calling Virgin. The number is in the post.
Yes, just look at my screenshot. Did you click on pay with miles and then switch the destination?
I clicked on pay with miles when searching to London for example, then changed London back to my desired destination of NYC, then the option auto changes to pay with card. I’ll call Virgin. Thank you for all the excellent work.
Do you need to be logged-in to get the option of Pay with Miles? I tried departing NY Area to several destinations, all options returned “This route is not eligible for miles or miles plus money payment.”
Why do they make it so complicated
93k Amex for ANA F sure sounds tempting! Have a few questions:
1. What east coast gateways offer the best F product?
2. Would VS allow me to tack on a DL domestic segment so I can begin/terminate in PIT?
3. Bookable 1 way for half the price?
4. Looks like the award chart for ANA only includes travel to/from Japan. What if I wanted to book something like JFK-HND-SYD? Would that require 2 separate award tickets?
1. The 77W should be available from JFK, IAD, ORD, and more.
2. I don’t think so.
3. No.
4. 2 awards AFAIK.
But try and report back 🙂
Any way to take advantage to Hawaii?
Sure.
For Delta flights between Canada and the U.S., it looks like Virgin charges 25,000 for a connecting flight. Sort of like an Avios situation.
“Note that the website charges extra for flights with connections. You may want to call Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500 to get them to price the award without the extra pricing for taking a connecting flight.”
Dan, can you PLEASE answer this question? What magic words do we need to say to get them to not price it segment by segment? I’ve tried calling with no luck. I see this question asked on the Citi transfer post 2 and no answer there. Please help!
Has anyone actually had real-world success getting virgin call center to tack on a DL positioning segment when redeeming for DL TATL J?
I.e. Lets say i am redeeming 50k miles for JFK-AMS on DL…can I add a positioning flight from DCA-JFK at no further cost to me?
one more thing to note about virgin is, that often even when it shows no availability on their website they have it over the phone! tried and tested multiple times
Nice!
are you referring to virgin operated flights with this comment? or DL? or some other partner? can you be more specific
Both!
Good to know – thx.
Best way in first to HK?
ANA to Japan wit Virgin Atlantic miles and then use Avios from Japan to Hong Kong on JAL or Cathay.
if Virgin shares with delta, why dont i see TLV?
Because their website is primitive.
“If your destination still isn’t available you will have to call Virgin Atlantic to book award travel to that destination.”
How is it that they could price it for saver when delta is not?
Because.
The same reason Delta with Dan are…..
What about flights to Australia using Virgin points any recommendations
@Dan does it make sense to transfer to either this or JetBlue with no planned travel but wishlists for Caribbean islands, Israel, Hawaii?
Or anyone else have thoughts on this?
Bloggers keep saying they have access to expanded saver availability, but it’s really the same as other partners. Delta recently has priced some “saver” awards at outrageously high levels despite O class being available.
i did what you showed, was able to pull up jfk-lax but only see coach and it says that only offer upper class for virgin operated flights?
Is the offer for amex UK too?
Are the ANA flights limited to Japan? Trying to get to Phuket from NY, looking into redemption nearby and buying flight to Phuket, but nothing direct from Tokyo to Phuket. Was planning on using Alaska miles, but this is a better redemption if I can make it work. Any ideas? Thx
What is Virgin Atlantic’s policy with canceling award tickets?
I cant get this to work..i need a flight from fll, pbi or mia to NYC on April 28th or 29th everything is showing not avail..for fun tried others months the same,,any ideas? works by anyone for this date?
Call!
are the taxes minimal when flying to Japan in first class? I know you aid no fuel surcharges but what about the taxes? than
The Bookings work for me when Searching for a one way, then switch it to round trip…Hatzlacha!
I’m looing at booking with virgin on Delta, does it makes sense that it’s often less miles when booking with delta?
Would any of these transfer bonuses help me now have MR would like to go from NY to TLV ? Maybe business if possible, thanks.
hi why do i see a one way to london only for 20000 miles?
Can anyone recommend a good way to get to Thailand with miles? I have avios, delta, amex, and marriot.
Hi Dan,
Does this work for AMEX SPG points or only AMEX points from AMEX alone?
AMEX MR only.
Hi Dan, do you know if Virgin will allow me to hold an award ticket while I’m waiting for Amex points to transfer? I’m looking at some JAL flights from the Bay Area to Tokyo that are tempting at these prices. If not, are Amex transfers usually quick?
Should be instant, but they should hold it too.
Can I open a new ff acct with Virgin, transfer amex points in, and use them to fly Delta biz from ny to tlv?
If there’s award space, sure.
Call Virgin to check availability to TLV.