Virgin Atlantic Flying Club introduces a substantial surcharge for Delta One redemptions to Europe, but this change is unlikely to affect most members.

The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program has unexpectedly devalued Delta One business-class redemptions for flights to and from Europe, but this alteration probably won't impact many users.

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

However, Virgin Atlantic has introduced peak award pricing, raising the cost to 57,500 points from the East Coast and central U.S. and 77,500 points from the West Coast to Europe (this excludes flights to and from the U.K., which already have peak and off-peak pricing).

Continue reading to learn more about Virgin's recent devaluation of Delta One award flights.

Virgin Flying Club raises Delta One award prices and imposes a significant surcharge.

If you're planning to book Delta One tickets via Virgin Atlantic, make sure to check the peak and off-peak travel dates.

The peak dates for 2024 and early 2025 are as follows:

• January 1-3, 2024
• March 22-April 15, 2024
• June 16-September 2, 2024
• October 25-November 5, 2024
• December 7, 2024-January 5, 2025

Implementing peak dates with an additional 10,000 miles for business-class tickets to select destinations within a region isn't an unreasonable devaluation and remains a competitive redemption option across the Atlantic.

What stands out is that Virgin is now applying a significant carrier surcharge, resulting in total fees, taxes, and surcharges exceeding $1,000 per person each way in business class.

Consequently, you can now anticipate paying over $2,000 in fees, taxes, and surcharges for a round-trip business-class flight on Delta booked with Virgin points. This aligns with the fees Virgin imposes on its own Flying Club redemptions. Prior to the devaluation, one-way Delta One flights to mainland Europe from the U.S. only cost $5.60 in taxes and fees.

This added surcharge appears to impact only business-class tickets, as economy award seats remain free of surcharges and can still be booked for just $5.60 in taxes and fees.

If you prefer to book a Delta One flight through the Delta SkyMiles program, which does not impose any surcharges, you can easily find business-class availability to Europe, with costs reaching up to 375,000 SkyMiles per person, per flight.

Why won't this devaluation affect most Flying Club members?

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club partners with all major transferable credit card currencies and frequently offers transfer bonuses and promotions for award flights. This means there are still excellent opportunities to use Virgin points for travel from the U.S. to Europe. For instance, I flew from New York to London in April for just 5,000 Virgin points.

However, when it comes to finding Delta One award availability through Virgin, options have been nearly nonexistent.

Over the past six months, I have consistently checked for Delta One availability using Virgin points for transatlantic flights. At best, I've found only a handful of dates across the entire year, with most openings from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Iceland's Keflavik Airport (KEF), which is a mere 5.5-hour flight.

This year, limited availability to the U.K. and mainland Europe has mainly been during (super) off-peak periods, such as the depths of winter, when you should easily find seats with other airlines, especially if you have transferable credit card points.

For instance, one of the few options I discovered while searching for Delta One availability to Europe in the next year is a flight from JFK to Lisbon Airport (LIS) in Portugal. Although it costs under 48,000 Virgin points, you'll incur over $1,000 in taxes, fees, and surcharges.

Alternatively, if you're looking to use Virgin points to travel to Portugal in January, you can save more than $700 in surcharges by choosing the Air France business-class option.

If you prefer flying with Delta instead of Air France, you could secure the same flight for 20,000 additional miles through the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program, saving around $1,000 in fees, taxes, and surcharges.

Once again, there are no alterations to the pricing for Delta-operated economy-class redemptions to the U.K. (which continue to be a fantastic use of Virgin points) or mainland Europe, as these can easily be booked online. Thankfully, economy awards have avoided this new surcharge, allowing you to generally expect to pay under $200 in total for fees, taxes, and surcharges when traveling to Europe in Delta economy through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Keep in mind that while Delta imposes $5.60 in taxes and fees for flights from the U.S. to Europe, there are additional country-specific taxes and fees for journeys from Europe back to the U.S.

Sadly, Delta's premium economy offering is still not available for booking with Virgin points.

In conclusion

Devaluations are an unfortunate aspect of the points and miles landscape. We advise redeeming your points and miles shortly after earning them instead of stockpiling them for a rainy day.

Typically, imposing a carrier surcharge exceeding $1,000 each way without prior notice would be unacceptable from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Nonetheless, the truth is this change will hardly impact 99% of Flying Club members, as there are virtually no Delta One flights available for booking with Virgin points. If you do happen to find an available seat, it will probably be on an off-peak date (making the new peak pricing irrelevant). Plus, you could likely book the same Delta flight through Flying Blue and save yourself hundreds of dollars.