Virgin Atlantic Awards Can Look Very Different Through Each Partner

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Booking a Virgin Atlantic award flight used to involve a relatively straightforward comparison. Find a flight with award availability, check the price through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Delta SkyMiles and Air France/KLM Flying Blue, and decide whether you would rather spend more miles or pay higher fees.

That comparison has become considerably more complicated.

Virgin Atlantic now allows Flying Club members to use points for every available seat on its flights. However, prices vary with demand, much like paid tickets. Lower-priced Saver reward seats are still available on selected flights, but other seats can cost far more.

That does not mean those same flights will be available through Virgin Atlantic’s partners.

Delta and Flying Blue may receive access to different flights, cabins or award inventory. Sometimes one partner can book a seat that another cannot see at all.

I recently found two examples that show how inconsistent those results can be.

Two Searches, Two Very Different Results

The difficulty is that there is no consistent pattern showing which Virgin Atlantic flights will be available through its partners.

I found two examples that demonstrate how differently the programs can behave.

Example 1: Washington Dulles To London

I first searched for Virgin Atlantic Flight VS22 from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow.

Virgin Atlantic displayed the flight with the following prices:

Delta also displayed the same flight, but with different availability and much higher mileage prices:

Flying Blue did not display the flight at all.

This was not simply a case of three programs charging different amounts for the same award. Virgin Atlantic offered all three cabins, Delta offered two and Flying Blue did not offer the flight.

Example 2: San Francisco To London

I then found a Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award from San Francisco to London Heathrow that appeared through all three programs.

This time, Flying Blue offered the best overall deal.

It required 25,000 fewer points than Virgin Atlantic and charged approximately $460 less in taxes and carrier-imposed fees. Delta charged almost no cash, but its mileage price was more than three times the Flying Blue price.

Someone with a large SkyMiles balance may still prefer Delta to avoid the cash charges. However, I would have difficulty spending an additional 234,500 miles to save about $234 compared with Flying Blue.

Partner Availability Has Become More Opaque

These searches demonstrate why comparing Virgin Atlantic awards has become more difficult.

On one flight, Flying Blue showed nothing. On another, Flying Blue offered the best price.

Delta had access to Economy and Premium on the Washington flight but not Upper Class. On the San Francisco flight, Delta offered Upper Class, although at a very high mileage price.

Virgin Atlantic showed every cabin on both flights, but its dynamic pricing and substantial surcharges meant that booking directly was not always the best choice.

There is no longer a dependable rule such as:

• Find the flight on Virgin Atlantic and book it more cheaply through Flying Blue.
• Use Delta whenever you want to avoid surcharges.
• Assume all SkyTeam programs can access the same Virgin Atlantic award seats.

Any of those ideas may work for a particular flight, but none can be assumed before searching.

Search Tools Help, But Verify Everything

Award search services such as point.me and PointsYeah can make it easier to identify potential booking options. They are especially useful when a flight might be available through several programs.

However, the results should be treated as a starting point rather than the final answer.

Award prices and availability can change quickly. A search tool may also show a different price than the airline displays when you click through. Also, not all programs are searchable by every website.

For example, point.me showed the San Francisco flight through Delta for 364,500 SkyMiles, while Delta displayed a price of 339,500 SkyMiles when I searched directly.

Before transferring any points, I would always repeat the search on the airline’s own website and confirm:

1. The exact flight is still available.
2. The correct cabin is displayed.
3. There are enough seats for everyone traveling.
4. The mileage price has not changed.
5. The full taxes and carrier charges are acceptable.

Transfers generally cannot be reversed, so finding a flight through one program does not justify moving points to another program and hoping it sees the same award.

Final Thoughts

Booking Virgin Atlantic award flights now requires more work than comparing mileage prices in a single chart.

The Washington-to-London flight appeared on Virgin Atlantic and Delta, but not on Flying Blue. The San Francisco-to-London flight appeared through all three programs, with Flying Blue offering the best combination of points and fees.

That makes the biggest lesson relatively simple: search every program before transferring points.

Virgin Atlantic may offer the lowest mileage price, particularly when Saver rewards are available. Delta may require far more miles but charge almost nothing in cash. Flying Blue may offer the best middle ground, or it may not show the flight at all.

The best option depends not only on the price each program charges, but on whether the program can access the award in the first place.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary