Hello, all,

This is my first thread on the forum, so I apologize if I'm doing anything newbie-ish.

I've got more than 500,000 Flying Club points and I've been using them to travel to and from the UK from the US East Coast.

The surcharges and taxes are getting hilariously painful, but when I try and use these points for Delta One (such as BOS->LHR) with much less surcharges/taxes as TPG suggests, I have no luck - I still get hit with the surcharges. And if I attempt to fly using ITA routes (JFK-MXP), I have no options whatsoever.

Am I being stupid or is it just a fact of life that going through the Virgin site will never really do anything but provide access to their options?