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Booking a Delta One business class seat between the U.S. and Europe for a flat 50,000 points has been the gold standard, even though Virgin Atlantic has eliminated other sweet spots that let you book a Delta flight for fewer points. Finding award availability that you can actually book at these super-cheap rates can be difficult, but it’s possible if you have some flexibility.
Those days are over now.
Without any prior notice, Virgin Atlantic has quietly increased the award price for Delta One tickets to Europe by up to 77,500 points by adding peak and off-peak pricing. To make matters worse, airlines Delta Airlines added a cash surcharge of over $1,000 to every business class ticket redemption.
So instead of paying a flat 50,000 points plus $5.60 in tax, you get this (and sometimes more).
Only Delta economy class tickets to Europe were unaffected, which cost 30,000 Virgin points one-way plus a flat $5.60 tax no matter when or where you travel.
But if you’re booking business class, the $1,000+ cash fee to book a Delta business class award is obviously too high and negates much of the value of using transferable credit card points to book Delta One seats overseas. This applies to all international Delta One redemptions.
This used to be the best way to book business class on Delta and one of the best deals in the points and miles world, but considering Delta was often charging over 400,000 SkyMiles for these very same lie-flat seats, it was unfortunately only a matter of time before this loophole that allowed you to book them for 50,000 points was eventually closed.
Still, this hurts: Although Virgin Atlantic confirmed the change on Tuesday morning, it did not directly notify customers before making this significant change, giving them no opportunity to book before the change took effect.
“We regularly evaluate our pricing and, from July 2, we have updated the price of reward tickets using Virgin Points in business class cabins to align with the joint venture’s pricing,” a spokesperson for the airline said in a statement. “Virgin Atlantic remains committed to offering our loyal members the most competitive prices on reward tickets across our partner airline network.”
Yesterday, you could book a summer flight in a Delta One Suite from Seattle (SEA) to Amsterdam (AMS) or Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) for just 50,000 points plus $5.60 in taxes and fees. Today, that same redemption would cost 77,500 points and $1,032.
All of these changes are outlined in Virgin’s new award chart for flights between the US and Europe (excluding the UK). Take a look.
The award chart doesn’t specify transatlantic flights to/from Midwest hubs like Minneapolis-Saint Paul (MSP) or Detroit (DTW), but the airline confirmed that they will be priced at the lower East Coast fares. And, as noted above, The price for booking Delta Economy to or from Europe remains unchanged: it remains a flat rate of 30,000 points one-way, with no hassle-free extra fees.
For years, Virgin has used a separate award chart for Delta flights to and from London Heathrow (LHR) and other U.K. cities. The change will bring its flights to and from the rest of Europe more in line with its flights to the U.K., including those that incur larger surcharges.
The introduction of peak and off-peak pricing complicates things further, meaning you’ll need even more points to book Delta One Business Class overseas during busy periods like summer, Christmas and New Year. Here’s the breakdown:
- standard price Includes January 4th to March 21st, April 16th to June 15th, September 3rd to October 24th, November 6th to December 6th.
- Peak Price The dates are January 1st to January 3rd, March 22nd to April 15th, June 16th to September 2nd, October 25th to November 5th, and December 7th to January 5th, 2025.
There’s one silver lining: Standard season one-way fares for the fastest flights from the East Coast to Europe drop to 47,500 points, but even those flights come with fees of more than $1,000, so it’s still not a good deal.
Virgin didn’t come up with this $1,000 figure out of thin air: It’s exactly the amount Delta charges for one-way business class flights between the US and Europe, as you can see from the fare breakdown on ITA Matrix. Delta doesn’t charge this steep fee when using SkyMiles, and neither has Virgin Atlantic ever done so.
Add in a few small taxes and fees and your total bill comes to $1,032 on top of the points you spent. Ouch!
With Virgin officially eliminating the 50,000 points/$5 business class redemption, Air France/KLM Flying Blue is by far the best way to book Delta business class to Europe. The airline charges between 59,000 and 98,000 miles for a one-way ticket between the US and Europe. The longer the flight, the higher the price, but it still adds up to a reasonable out-of-pocket cost.
Admittedly, in recent years, it’s been a pain to get these cheap Delta One award tickets: To book this low on Virgin, you have to find award availability, and Delta is very stingy about allowing that.
But not always. Over the past few months we have Thrifty Traveler Premium Members will see several alerts that allow them to book Delta One to Europe for under 50,000 points. For example, earlier this year there were tons of Delta One seats available to book through Virgin Atlantic on many nonstop flights to Amsterdam (AMS), Dublin (DUB), Frankfurt (FRA), Lisbon (LIS), Munich (MUC), and more.
With its high redemption rates and hefty cash surcharges, Virgin Airlines is hardly worth considering.
It’s the end of an era. For nearly a decade, Virgin Atlantic was the go-to way for travelers to book Delta flights for a fraction of the SkyMiles that Delta itself charged.
While Delta’s SkyMiles fees are constantly changing (and often prohibitively expensive), Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers a much more stable (and often much cheaper) alternative to booking the same flights thanks to these separate award tables, which made it possible to book Delta Business Class to Europe for just 50,000 points when Delta was charging over 400,000 SkyMiles for the exact same flight.
Plus, these points are easier to earn than Delta SkyMiles: Virgin partners with the major travel credit card companies, so you can transfer points from cards like: *Venture X*, *Chase Sapphire Recommended*, *Amex Gold*and many more services to book flights within the U.S., Europe, and beyond and enjoy big savings.
But over the last few years, Virgin has eliminated nearly all of the workarounds for saving tons of miles on Delta flights.
It started in early 2021, when Virgin Atlantic dramatically increased the award price to book many of Delta’s long-haul flights… by as much as 175% in some cases. A Delta One Suite to Tokyo-Haneda (HND) that previously could be booked through Virgin for just 60,000 points now costs 130,000 or even 160,000 points one-way.
Then late last year, Delta again increased the award prices for many Delta Award Tickets, eliminating the savings when booking many domestic and short-haul tickets. Long gone are the days when you could book a round-trip Delta flight to Hawaii for 45,000 points or a round-trip flight to Mexico for under 25,000 points.
Meanwhile, most flights to Europe remained unchanged, but Virgin Atlantic came back to finish the job, putting the final nail in the coffin for those excellent Delta award tickets.
Why? Consider this: Delta Air Lines owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic Airways, and time and again the Atlanta-based airline has done much to shake off the impression that it is manipulating its British partner with these changes.
Either way, this is just the latest painful warning to spend your points as quickly as possible instead of just watching them grow. It only takes an overnight change for points to become less valuable or worthless altogether.