Virgin Clubhouse Special Seating
I recently wrote about Virgin Atlantic moving to dynamic pricing for redemption seats. Whilst that move has largely been negative for those that like to plan ahead/have to travel in specific dates, minimum “saver” guarantee being scrapped, and some destinations having almost no award seats, for some circumstances, there are bargains to be had !
Virgin Points offer a multitude of redemption opportunities, from luxurious flights to unique experiences. Here are, in my view, ten of the best value Virgin Points redemptions
Note: required miles are per one-way sector for flights. Returns would be double.
It is now possible to book Upper Class flights to/from Boston/New York and Delhi as low as 23,000 Virgin Points, these are the lowest Saver level pricing we can see through to end of current schedule !
You are more likely to find these routes at 29,000 point – in what the dynamic system deems to be off-peak/low demand times. Whichever way you look at it, these are very attractive redemption options and cheaper than they’ve ever been historically.
Note however, you are still on the hook for paying taxes and surcharges which come at over £670+ on the route from London but on way back, if you found availability is can be as low as $250 dollars.
The catch here is that, it can be very difficult to plan these trips at that saver level as availability is extremely limited and scattered. If you found one-way out, you might not have a return that works !
I’m a fan of Virgin Premium product, I think it is one of a few out there that manages to achieve the closest you can get to a half way house between Economy and Business. You can find Premium Saver rates for as little as 10,500 miles – less than half what most other programmes charges for transcontinental flights in Economy !
If you can score this for a route and date you actually need – you are truly winning!
Again, taxes/fees would add a little sting in that tail but it’s less than Upper Class level so much more palatable, especially when one-way cash fares can be very high for outright cash fares anyway – you’d most likely still be ahead.
Bare in mind, the same limited availability caveat applies as Upper Class !
You don’t have to fly Virgin to use your Virgin points, if you are unable to find Reward/Saver seats for your dates or destinations, you can always look to Air France KLM for one of both of your ways.
This can be particularly useful when Virgin might not even fly to your destination such as various Caribbean islands..
One good thing about this is the points required does not increase if you need the additional connection to/from London or anywhere else in Europe for that matter. However, this off-course will affect taxes component !
If you are unsure here is what Air France Business Class & KLM World Business Class is like.
What is even more lucrative here is if you actually wanted to fly Air France or KLM, Flying Blue programme recently increased these Business redemption costs from 50,000 to 60,000 Points with it’s own miles but Virgin still charges 48,500 !
If you fancy flying Delta One Suites this can also be a very attractive option at 50,000 miles, particularly in the USA – Europe ( excluding UK ) direction where taxes are just $5!
It’s hard to say Delta One is noteworthy in any particular way in 2025 – the Suites hard product is great if you can book it on an A350 but Delta’s A350 destinations seems to change like the wind ! The A330neos Delta Suite are ok but you’d probably just have a better experience overall with Air France or Virgin itself.
The great thing here is that you could simply mix-and-match different airlines and redemptions for one trip!
This is one of the things I love about Virgin, despite the fact that Virgin Atlantic is now a fully fledged member of the SkyTeam alliance – it still maintains partnerships with various other airlines in other alliances altogether !
You can fly the uber spacious The Room Business Class product featuring on their newer/updated 777s from London. From Europe it will be 787 with the standard business class seat, which is more average.
Note: It is super difficult to score these awards seats from London !
If you are planning a trip down under but want to break your journey via Japan rather than the more typical South East Asia routing, this could be of great interest !
These flights are 10 hour + and with fantastic service you can expect from a Japanese carrier.
Flights within Oceana and the Pacific Islands can be quite pricey, thus being able to score a business class seat for 20,000 miles on some of those routes is great value!
You can fly from Auckland to Fiji which is just over 3 hours or Tahiti or French Polynesia – over 5 hour flights!
These Delta flights will be nothing fancy but it will be a true upgrade seat-wise compared to Economy. You will only be offered lights snacks/drinks for these flights under 2 hours.
What makes this a good redemption is when cash prices are expense for certain routes/dates even in Economy and even Delta itself can charge over 50,000 Skymiles for them, you know you are getting a good value !
Another continent where flight prices are notoriously expenses even for short economy flights, so you may be glad to part with some miles of same value as these economy flight prices but in Business instead!
Specific examples? Well, you can fly Kenya Airways Business from Johannesburg to Nairobi !
This may not be for everyone, but you can sail away on a luxurious Virgin Voyages cruise by redeeming your Virgin Points.
Sometimes, Virgin Red offers superb deals, such as a seven-night Mediterranean cruise for two for 120,000 points. These offers are subject to availability and can provide outsized value. Some 5 night Caribbean cruises can be booked for 160,000 starting in Miami.
Keep an eye on the Virgin Red app or website for the latest deals and booking instructions.
RIP All Nippon Airways (ANA) First Class to Japan. It used to be possible to book ANA’s awesome First Class from London to Japan for just 60,000 Virgin Points.
It required finding availability and then calling Virgin Atlantic to book them. But at that price it was worth the hassle.
It is still possible to book this for 85,000 Points now. However, with availability almost non-existent, I do not think it is even worth the chase, hence why I decided not to include them in my list !
Until 2022 it was also possible to book above Virgin seven-night Mediterranean cruises for just 80,000. But the prices have since hiked multiple times !
There you go, these are broadly some of the best value Virgin Points Redemptions out there. There are naturally many other sweet spots that will be impossible to include in one post. To get the most value from your Virgin Points and make your life as easy as possible, you can sign up for up for paid alert services such as SeatSpy or regularly check the Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Red websites or apps for the latest offers and availability.
Some redemptions involving partner airlines—may require booking by phone, so be prepared for that. Also, keep an eye out for transfer bonuses from credit card partners, which can help boost your Virgin Points balance before making a redemption.
However, booking award flights on Virgin Atlantic’s website can be frustrating. While British Airways is known for its poor IT systems, Virgin Atlantic isn’t without it’s own issues.
Their booking tool often struggles with major cities—not recognising them in the autosuggest feature, even when you type the full airport name or code. Instead, you’re forced to manually navigate a long dropdown list, first selecting a country, then drilling down to specific airports— with sometimes hundreds of options!
Incredibly, if you’re searching for flights arriving in London, in some flows the system may not recognise “London” or even “LHR”—despite Heathrow being Virgin Atlantic’s home base. That’s plain embarrassing!
To make matters worse, the website frequently forces you to log in for every award search. With multi-factor authentication in place, this turns what should be a simple process into a slow and tedious experience.
Alas, booking award seats always requires serious patience!
Faze, founder of Wander Up Front and Elevate Your Stay, is a London-based travel specialist with a deep passion for aviation. With over 2 million miles flown, he has spent the last 7 years focusing on First and Business class experiences.
Faze provides straightforward, no-frills insights into premium airline products and services, sharing what matters to help travellers make informed choices.
Follow him on his adventures and behind the scene stories on Instagram !
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