Virgin Atlantic Flying Club adds huge surcharge for Delta One redemptions to Europe, but it won't impact most members

13.07.2024 - 00:26 / thepointsguy.com / Delta I (I)

The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program has devalued Delta One business-class redemptions to and from Europe without notice, but this move will unlikely impact many members.

Delta One awards booked through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club on most dates will still cost 47,500 Virgin points from the East Coast and central U.S. to Europe and 67,500 Virgin points from the West Coast to Europe.

However, Virgin Atlantic has now implemented peak award pricing, increasing awards to 57,500 points from the East Coast and central U.S. and 77,500 points from the West Coast to Europe (excluding flights to and from the U.K. that are already subject to this peak and off-peak pricing).

Keep reading to find out more about Virgin's latest devaluation of Delta One award flights.

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If you're looking to book Delta One tickets through Virgin Atlantic, be aware of the peak and off-peak dates.

Peak dates for 2024 and early 2025 are:

Adding peak dates with a price increase of 10,000 miles for a business-class ticket to select destinations within a single region is not an unreasonable devaluation and is still a competitive redemption price across the Atlantic.

What is eyebrow-raising is that Virgin is now imposing a large carrier surcharge, with total fees, taxes and surcharges adding up to over $1,000 per person each way in business class.

Therefore, you can now expect to pay over $2,000 in fees, taxes and surcharges for a round-trip business-class flight on Delta booked with Virgin points. This is right in line with what Virgin imposes on Flying Club redemptions it operates itself. Before the devaluation, one-way Delta One flights to mainland Europe from the U.S. cost customers just $5.60 in taxes and fees.

This additional surcharge seems to only affect business-class tickets, as economy award seats still do not have a surcharge and can be booked for $5.60 in taxes and fees.

If you want to book a Delta One flight through the Delta SkyMiles program, which does not charge any surcharges, you can readily find business-class availability to Europe. You can expect to pay up to 375,000 SkyMiles per person, per flight.

Related: Dynamic pricing vs. fuel surcharges — which is the lesser of 2 evils for your next redemption?

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is a transfer partner of all major transferable credit card currencies and often offers transfer bonuses and award flight promotions. Thus, there are some great deals to be found when using Virgin points to fly from the U.S. to Europe. For example, I flew from New York to London in April for just 5,000 Virgin points.

But when it comes to finding Delta One award availability on Virgin, award flights have been nonexistent.

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