This is a reminder that today, January 27, 2014, is the last day you can get a 25% discount when redeeming your Virgin Atlantic miles. This is a great opportunity to fly to Europe!
Through January 27, 2014 you can fly to Europe with a 25% discount when redeeming your Virgin Atlantic miles. This is a great opportunity for those looking to fly to Europe at a reasonable rate. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work out as well flying from Europe back home to the US as the fees Virgin Atlantic tacks on are not worth it (I will get to this in a moment).Â
My assumption is the average traveler does not have a stack of Virgin Atlantic miles, but you can transfer American Express Membership Reward points to Virgin Atlantic at a 1:1 ratio which is great. So as long as you have Amex MR points you are able to take advantage of this deal.
If you are looking to go to the UK, the only way to really make this into a good “deal” is by redeeming your miles for a one way ticket from the US to London, and then booking another carrier for the flight home (i.e., United). Or to fly into the UK on Virgin Atlantic and fly out of somewhere else, Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, etc. on another carrier. The fees on award tickets leaving the UK on Virgin Atlantic are astronomical costing close to $300!
Here are some sample flights from the US to London:
- Boston to London – 13,125 miles + $131.50
- New York to London – 13,125 miles + $131.50
- Chicago to London – 13,125 miles + $131.50
- Miami – 15,938 miles + $131.50
- Los Angeles to London – 15,938 miles + $131.50
- San Francisco to London – 15,938 miles + $131.50
Typically, a one way flight on an airline from the US to Europe will cost you 30,000 miles (although some have off season awards for less), so being able to go for 13,000-16,000 miles is great! While the fees on the way there are slightly more than some of the other airlines, it is not significantly more and being able to redeem about half of the miles is worthwhile. I personally checked out many of the US to London routes and availability was great.
The 25% off discount is for all economy seats, which also includes routes to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Dubai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney, etc.
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Have you had any success pulling up flights to Sydney with them? I have tried various dates and have never found availability. Would love to make this work with the promo as my husband is a huge fan of Virgin Atlantic!