How to redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points for Delta award flights

While Virgin Atlantic became a member of SkyTeam in early 2023, its Flying Club loyalty program may not be as familiar as some other programs in the alliance, particularly Delta Air Lines' SkyMiles.

Nonetheless, Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club offers numerous excellent partner redemption options, making it worthwhile to explore if you're after value-packed award flights.

Given Delta's dynamic pricing approach, it can demand over 350,000 SkyMiles for a single premium award flight. Although Delta isn't known for readily offering premium-cabin awards to partner airlines, there are still valuable deals available.

Whether you're planning a domestic or international trip, here’s how to use your Virgin points to book Delta-operated flights while conserving your Delta SkyMiles.

How to accumulate Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

Before diving into their usage, it’s crucial to recognize how simple it is to earn Virgin points — even without flying with Virgin Atlantic or its partners.

The Flying Club is a transfer partner for nearly every major program that offers a transferable currency:

• American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 ratio)
• Bilt Rewards (1:1)
• Capital One (1:1)
• Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1)
• Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1)
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1, plus a 5,000-point bonus for transferring 60,000 points; 48-hour transfer period)

It’s important to note that Capital One miles convert to Virgin Red instead of directly to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. However, you can easily utilize your Virgin Red account points with Flying Club.

Moreover, some of the aforementioned programs frequently provide transfer bonuses to Flying Club, allowing you to need even fewer points than anticipated.

This means you have numerous card options for accumulating rewards to transfer to Flying Club, many of which offer excellent welcome bonuses. Here’s a selection of travel rewards credit cards that earn transferable points convertible to Virgin points:

• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
• The Platinum Card® from American Express
• American Express® Gold Card
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Virgin Atlantic's Delta award pricing structure

Although Delta eliminated its award charts years ago and now features some staggeringly high dynamic prices, Flying Club has maintained set award rates for Delta-operated flights, albeit with some unique rules and exceptions.

You will now find three Delta award pricing charts on the Flying Club website.

• Direct flights between the U.S. and the U.K.
• Direct flights between the U.S. and Europe (excluding the U.K.)
• All other Delta reward flights

Here’s the award chart for one-way, direct flights between the U.S. and the U.K.:

On the other hand, the award chart for flights between the U.S. and Europe is as follows:

For all other Delta flights — including those within North America and routes to Asia, Australia, and South America — Virgin Atlantic applies a distance-based award chart. Each segment is priced individually according to the following table:

Thanks to SkyMiles' dynamic pricing, Flying Club often requires fewer points than Delta's SkyMiles program for many of the same flights. Thus, it’s advisable to compare the prices of both programs if you hold transferable credit card points, as there are still good deals to be found.

As mentioned earlier, points are redeemed for each segment separately. Consequently, flying from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) will require extra points if you connect through a Delta hub like Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), even if the total distance is only slightly longer.

Additionally, Flying Club members are unable to book Delta Premium Select (premium economy) awards on any route.

While it is technically possible to book Delta One business-class flights to Europe using Virgin points for as little as 47,500 points each way, availability is nearly nonexistent, and Flying Club has recently introduced a significant carrier surcharge exceeding $1,000 each way, making this a poor use of Virgin points.

Sweet spots for booking Delta flights

There are several fantastic sweet spots where you can utilize Virgin points for Delta flights. Main Cabin economy awards are frequently available to London-area airports and can offer excellent value, particularly on off-peak days, for a quality product.

While Delta flights to London generally start at 15,000 Virgin points each way, we have observed some dates priced as low as 10,000 points; however, be prepared to pay carrier-imposed surcharges.

Given that Delta charges 58,000 SkyMiles for the same Main Cabin flight, securing this flight for just 10,000 Virgin points is fantastic.

You can also utilize the convenient reward-seat search tool to quickly verify the availability of Delta flights, month by month, on routes to and from the U.K.

While you’ll require more Virgin points to fly Delta from the U.S. to European destinations beyond the U.K., the advantage is that the fees and taxes are almost nonexistent, with no annoying surcharges.

Booking the same Delta flight through SkyMiles would cost you a staggering 115,000 miles, so if you have credit card points, using Flying Club is a far better option than SkyMiles.

Despite the recent price hike for most non-European Delta flights, the distance-based chart for other Delta-operated routes can still offer good value. Flights under 500 miles in length avoided devaluation and are still priced at just 7,500 Virgin points per flight, which is an excellent bargain.

We recommend concentrating on routes up to 2,000 miles, particularly for domestic Delta-operated flights. You might find a Delta reward flight for less than what you’d pay using Delta's SkyMiles program.

Aim for nonstop flights, as itineraries with connections will be priced segment by segment (resulting in a higher overall cost).

For long-haul Delta flights to destinations outside of the U.K. and Europe, we’ve observed Main Cabin availability on only a few routes.

How to search for Delta flights using Virgin Atlantic

You can easily search for and book Delta flights on the Virgin Atlantic website.

Begin your search here by entering the necessary details. Remember to switch the "Show Price In" option from "Money" to "Points." If you can be flexible, I suggest checking the "Show flexible dates" box.

When using Virgin Atlantic's website, entering a three-digit airport code may not display all airports. If this occurs, click on "Full Airport List" to choose your desired airport.

By selecting "Show flexible dates," you will see a brief range of dates along with their corresponding prices.

Clicking on a specific date will take you to a screen where you can choose from available flights.

Once you've verified your flight information, log into your Flying Club account. If your points are insufficient for the booking, a notification will appear at this stage.

As mentioned, you can transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou Rewards to your Flying Club account. Typically, these points will be credited immediately.

You may need to log out and log back in to see your updated points balance.

The main takeaway

Since Delta eliminated its award charts in 2015, award ticket prices have soared. Nevertheless, there are often strategies to secure these flights for far fewer points than what Delta typically demands.

For certain routes, consider Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Always check Virgin Atlantic's website before finalizing a Delta award ticket; you might save a significant amount of points.