Fly to Europe In Business Class For $5.60 Using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
We all want to fly in business class to Europe. There is no denying that fact. Nobody really wants to go anywhere in Economy. Using the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club award chart, You can get a business class seat for $5.60 and 50,000 Miles, to Europe, while flying Delta One. Delta One, is Delta Airlines premium business class product featuring your own suite. It is superb according to reviews.
While there are more ways to fly to Europe in Business class, this is by far the cheapest method when it comes to using miles and points. It is also extremely easy to book so long as there is award availability.
What Is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club?
Virgin Atlantic Flying club is the frequent flier program attached to Virgin Atlantic. DUH! Virgin Atlantic is an airline based out of the UK. It is a unique airline in the way that it doesn’t belong to any airline alliance partner but rather, partners with different airlines that it can code share with or have joint ventures. This makes it possible to use their loyalty program to book some really great flights with other airlines from around the world. All while saving you a lot of miles.
Virgin Atlantic is a great program to use, however, it is not great for booking complicated itineraries. This is due to the fact that their award structure, while by region, is also segmented. That means, if you have a layover, you will be charged by segment of flight which will end up costing more miles in the end. The price will stay the same though.
How to Get Virgin Atlantic Miles
There are multiple ways to acquire Virgin Atlantic miles. The easiest way by far is through transferable points credit cards in which Virgin is a transfer parter with. Or the Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard. Below are the best cards to acquire miles.
Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard
The Virgin Atlantic World Elite Mastercard currently has a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Flying Club Miles when you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days of opening your account. This is Virgin’s Co-Branded card. It has an Annual fee of $90. Here’s some other bonuses with this card.
- 3 miles per dollar spent directly on Virgin Atlantic purchases;
- 1.5 miles per dollar spent on all other purchases;
- Earn 25 tier points per $2,500 in purchases (maximum 50 per month);
- Up to 15,000-anniversary bonus miles after qualifying purchases;
- Up to 5,000 bonus miles when you add additional cardholders to your account;
- Residents of the US and its territories only. See full disclosure for details.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve currently has a sign-up bonus of 50,000 UR points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. Ultimate Rewards transfer over to virgin atlantic.
Chase Sapphire Preffered
This is a excellent starter travel card. The Sapphire Preferred currently has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points. That is after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of opening your account. And with an annual fee of $95 its a bit more desirable for those not traveling as much and using the benefits of the Reserve card.
Citi Prestige Card
The Citi Prestige offers a sign-up bonus of 50,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within three months. Citi Earns 5x the points on Dining and Travel, its also a transfer partner of Virgin Atlantic. All ThankYou points transfer over to Virgin Atlantic.
Citi Premier Card
The Citi Premier has a welcome bonus of 60,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within three months. Combine either Citi Premier or Prestige card with the Citi Double Cash Card to boost your points even more.
AMEX Platinum
The Amex Platinum has a sign up bonus of 60,000 Membership Rewards Points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. It has a hefty fee of $550 a year. BLAH!
AMEX Gold
The Amex Gold Card offers a welcome bonus of 35,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $4,000 within three months. The card offers up to 4x points in categories like Dining and groceries, and offers up to $220 in annual credits that help offset the annual fee. Best of all, Membership Rewards with AMEX transfer to Virgin as well. Oh my gosh, what a surprise!
Taking Flights With Delta, Air France, KLM or Virgin Atlantic Flights
If you fly a ton with these airlines, you can always put in your frequent flyer account number for Virgin when booking our ticket. Then collect “Butt in the Seat” miles.
Booking Delta One Seats to Europe Using Virgin Atlantic
Delta One is a top tier business class seat that focuses on having your own private suite. Getting this niche spot is normally not cheap by any means. Nor is it usually a good deal to use Delta Sky Miles as Delta tends to charge and exuberant amount for these awards. While you will only pay something to the tune of $5.60 most of the time, you will be require to fork over, up to 300,000 or more Sky Miles. Full on Sky Pesos!
Enter Virgin Atlantic (Cue “Ah-HA!” moment music) to save the day. Virgin partners with Delta. You can find award availability for only 50,000 miles and $5.60 using Virgin Atlantic’s website.
Booking Process
This process is pretty easy. All you need to do is go to Virgin Atlantic’s website (sign up for a loyalty account if you haven’t, it’s free). Select advanced options and select your US City to your European city, avoiding the UK.
After you hit search, you should see a screen pop up that looks like this…
Select your date, Enter your info and pay using a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I say this because paying with this card will give you its built in travel protections that the card has. Also you get 3x the points. A measly 15 Chase UR points.
And if you want to see what plane you would be flying on, use Seatguru.com. This is a great tool to see the seating arrangement of the plane you are flying on as well as getting tips on seats to possibly avoid. simply put your airline and flight number along with the date into the Search tool and you are good to go!
Why You Shouldn’t Book Flights to The U.K.
The UK pushes fuel surcharges and other fees like taxes, off onto the paying customer. These are called Carrier Imposed Surcharges. You will get them when booking award travel to and from the UK on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, as well as other airline originating rom the UK. Often times, it is wise to just buy a ticket to the UK rather than use your Points and Miles.
Bottom Line
Virgin Atlantic is an extremely valuable tool to use when looking for award flights to many destinations in the world. It has to be the cheapest option (and way better than using United) for getting over to Europe. And while it won’t be the best option for segmented flights, It more than holds it’s weight in gold for direct flights from the United States to destinations that Delta Flies to.
Finance disclosure
Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
