Virgin Atlantic Flying Club’s pesky surcharges are again within the information — and never in a great way.
After introducing dynamic award pricing in late 2024, this system slashed costs and charges on some award tickets. This resulted in business-class fares to Europe for as little as 29,000 factors and roughly $250 in charges. In reality, one TPG staffer and constant Virgin Atlantic flyer thought many of the changes had been for the higher.
But these offers had been short-lived, because the service’s charges have now spiked. Here’s every part it is advisable to find out about Virgin Atlantic’s newest devaluation.
Devaluation particulars
Since Virgin Atlantic’s change to dynamic pricing, award charges have diverse by route, date and fare class. You might anticipate to pay roughly $250 on a business-class flight to Europe throughout low-demand dates — a steal in comparison with the $1,000-plus charges that was commonplace.
Now, Virgin Atlantic is charging as much as $586 one-way for business-class redemptions from the U.S. to the U.Okay., together with to Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Manchester Airport (MAN) — greater than doubling these charges in a single day. Thrifty Traveler first broke this information.
Similarly, one-way charges from the U.S. to the U.Okay. have elevated from round $75 to $111 for economic system redemptions and from roughly $106 to $240 for premium economic system. That may not appear unreasonable, however keep in mind that you must pay charges on the return journey as properly.
These return charges have not modified (but), however they’re already steep, particularly whenever you issue within the present alternate fee. For occasion, the business-class fee is 672 British kilos, which at the moment quantities to $924. Yikes.
The vibrant aspect? Even after the current spike, Virgin Atlantic’s transatlantic charges are nonetheless properly under their pre-dynamic-pricing days. As for whether or not they’ll keep that means or proceed to rise, solely time will inform.
For now, we’ll be watching this area intently to see if Flying Club implements any additional changes.
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Bottom line
Despite this adverse change, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club nonetheless presents some nice offers, particularly when you can journey on off-peak dates. (You cannot actually beat 6,000 factors for a transatlantic flight.)
And since Flying Club companions with many of the main rewards packages with transferable currencies — together with American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards — Virgin factors are extraordinarily straightforward to earn.
However, it is at all times essential to test the taxes and charges earlier than you e-book an award ticket by means of any airline program, as these can shortly eat into your journey price range.
