Yesterday I compared the loyalty program of Virgin Atlantic with British Airways. In that post I focused on the number of points required, and cost for a long-haul flight redemption in economy and business class . Virgin Atlantic was the clear winner, therefore I thought I should continue to talk about some of the great ways to use your Virgin Atlantic Flying club miles.
For UK readers, Virgin Atlantic is a good loyalty program to get involved in because it is easy to build up your miles, without actually ever flying with them. That’s because, they are a American Express Membership Rewards partner which offers a sign-up bonus of 22,000 miles. In addition they have their own Virgin Atlantic MBNA card, which previously offered a sign-up bonus of 30,000 miles (at the time of writing the sign up bonus was 18,500). Therefore just through sign-up bonus you would have got over 50,000 miles.
This post will analyse all the airline partners of Virgin Atlantic in which you can use your Flying Club miles to redeem flights, and highlight some of the ‘sweet spots’.
Air China
First Class , London – Beijing Roundtrip, just 75,000 miles
Air China rewards is only for available for flights between London and Beijing, and the number of mileage varies between the class.
Economy Class – 56,000
Business Class – 63,000
First Class – 75,000.
note: the tax and surcharge is pretty high for the First class flight, but still a lot cheaper than a first class ticket.
Air New Zealand
The Business Class awards between LA – UK roundtrip at 75,000 miles, and New Zealand – Asia are my picks for using your Flying Club miles on Air New Zealand.
ANA
You can use your Flying Club Miles on ANA for Japanese domestic travel and International travel.
For Japanese domestic travel you can only use your miles for economy class flights, but the required miles is set to 15,000 regardless is you fly 500 miles or 4,000 miles. Therefore flying 4,000 miles for 15,000 miles is the best use of miles on ANA Japanese domestic travel.
For international travel on ANA, I would say the best use of miles would be for distances of 11,001 – 14,000 in First Class which requires 120,000 miles or 18,001 – 20,000 in business which also requires 120,000. The latter could see you fly London – Tokyo – Singapore return in business class.
Cyprus Airways
There isn’t really any good use on Cyprus Airways with maybe the exception of an economy roundtrip flight from Cyprus to Beirut or Cyprus to Tel-Aviv at 5,000 miles.
Delta
There are no real exciting redemptions with Delta.
Gulf Air
Redemption with Gulf Air is only available for flights out of Bahrain, but nothing worth mentioning.
Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian Airlines offer flight redemptions within Hawaii and between Hawaii and mainland USA. Between Hawaii and Mainland USA roundtrip is 40,000 miles in economy class and 80,000 in business class, which is the same as most major airlines.
Jet Airways
Avoid using your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles here. It’s not a pretty site.
Malaysian Airlines
Once again, I would probably avoid using my Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles on Malaysian Airlines.
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines is one of my favourite airlines. Using your Virgin miles to redeem here is a tad expensive, but as mentioned above, for UK residents it’s easier to build your Virgin Atlantic miles than you Singapore Airlines miles, therefore you might want to consider this option.
South Africa Airways
If you’re flying around Africa then a good use of your miles is on South Africa Airways. Travel within South Africa as well as between South Africa & Beira, Blantyre, Bulawayo, Gaborone, Harare, Lilongwe, Livingstone, Lusaka, Maputo, Maseru, Matsapa, Ndola, Victoria Falls, Walvis Bay and Winhoe – round trip is 20,000 miles in economy class and 30,000 in business class.
Virgin America
Previously I wrote a post about using your British Airways Avios for cheap redemptions domestically in the US. Virgin America also offers a very good option for redeeming miles for domestic US flights. A roundtrip Los Angeles – San Francisco in economy class is 10,000 miles and 20,000 miles in first class.
Virgin Australia
Virgin Australia offers good value for rewards in domestic Australia. While I would redeeming my Virgin Atlantic miles on Virgin Australia for international flight redemptions.
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