deker0

Hi all,


First time posting on this forum, so please bear with me and my newbie questions. Just starting out with trying to use some points for travel. Thinking to check out Rome next year, but unsure of my best redemption options.

I have Amex MR (80K) and Chase UR (40K) points. I see on the AwardHacker website that Virgin Atlantic has a good redemption rate. But when I go to Virgin's website, it just keeps stating no seats are available. So as someone who's never done this before, how does it work? Do I need a Virgin Fly Club membership before I can see redemption dates? I prefer a non-stop flight.

Thanks in advance for your help on figuring this out.

Yoshi212

As VS does not fly nonstop between NYC & Rome you you need to confirm availability on the partners that do. VS is not part of a traditional alliances the searches are a bit different.
Use the DL website to find/confirm availability at low level, I believe these will be listed between 25-30k miles each way, and then call VS if that availability doesn't show online on the VS website.

deker0

Thanks for this information. So, since DL is a partner with VS, I'd go to the DL website and find available flights? And since nothing is showing up on the VS website, I'd need to call VS and give them the DL flights I've found and ask to redeem points towards that flight? Sorry for the newbie questions, I've just never done this before.

I also see a chart on this page - https://www.virginatlantic.com/us/en...air-lines.html


From Europe to US
From US to Europe

60,000 100,000

So 40K more miles to go into Business/First. Seems like it may be worth it. What's the difference between Business and First? I'd have to pay the taxes for this as well? How much would that be I wonder?


Thanks in advance for all of your help!

Yoshi212

Neither VS nor DL operate an international First Class product. Their highest level is a business class product. Depending on the plane it can be quite a nice experience or a just ok. IMO it's a relatively short flight with poor timing to actually get sleep on. You may wish to consider booking Norwegian's PE product instead.

deker0

Thanks for all of the helpful info. Is Norwegian partnered with Virgin? Or would this be a completely separate system/alliance? I'm fine either way as long as I can move both Amex and Chase points over to it. And as long as we're looking around the same 100K round-trip mark that Virgin offers for their Delta redemption. Thanks again for all of the help.

perkerkeem

So if I understand correctly you wish to fly business class round trip, nonstop from JFK to FCO. You will do this by flying Delta booked with Virgin miles.

Go to Delta's website and look at an award search JFK-FCO + shop with miles. If the mileage price is showing 80k delta miles for business class each way, that means virgin can book that space. Make a flying club account, call virgin, tell them your dates and flight numbers and ask them to confirm they can see business class availability for 50k miles each way on your desired flights, then transfer the miles to your flying club account. If Delta is showing that the tickets on your desired flight costs more than 80k in business per person each way, that means Virgin cannot book that, period. You will need to transfer all 80k of your amex points + 20k of your chase points (or some other combination) to have 100k in order to book a round trip from JFK to FCO. In my experience, transfers take ~2 minutes but there are websites out there that can give you the latest time estimate for how long it takes your points to move over. (PS I think amex is running a 30% bonus on transfer to virgin so it would actually only cost 77k points from amex)

If you google "book delta to europe with virgin atlantic miles" there are quite a few articles explaining in greater detail how to do this.

Delta only operates business, premium economy, and coach classes on their international flights. The display of "first class" is either because they're selling you an Air France ticket (which does have business AND first or because they sometimes call domestic's highest class of service "first" instead of "business" (confusing i know)). You will be booking business class for this itinerary.

deker0

Yes, that's correct. Looking for essentially the best redemption value for my existing points.


Thank you! This is a very useful bit of information. So business class has to show up as 80K in Delta miles in order for Virgin to be able to book it for 50K of their miles. Very interesting and I'll go do that search right now.


Ah ok, good to know this as well. I'm guessing business class is alot better than economy? I feel it would be worth spending the additional 40K towards that. But, I also know that Yoshi felt Norwegian may offer better options in that regard. What are your thoughts?

Yoshi212

DY doesn't belong to any of the 3 big alliances either.

If you wanted to use all your miles, this is not the trip I'd do this for, I'd recommend using the 40k UR via the Chase Travel Portal, requiring a call to book DY, to purchase the revenue ticket for JFK-FCO in PE. then use MR to fly back from FCO in Business to get the full experience. The flight is almost 90-120 minutes longer on the return allowing you to enjoy a nap, full meals and the entertainment.

deker0

Thank you for this advice. It does seem that DY is much more affordable. I'd be open to using my UR points to offset the cost of a one-way PE ticket on DY. I took a quick look at the portal and no DY flights are listed there. So I'd need to call in to make that reservation?

And I do agree, it is best to get the full experience on the longer flight back home. Thank you for all of this insight - I don't have any dates picked out yet, this is all in the very initial stages, but I hope to learn alot more on this forum.

JPG3392

There is more involved in this decision than judging that flying business class is worth the additional 40k miles. Availability of award tickets in the different classes at the time you wish to travel also needs to be taken into consideration.

deker0

Yes, I completely agree. Biggest factor is ability to transfer points from both MR and UR. Want to get the best redemption value possible. Timing is still flexible at the moment - this is in the very initial planning stages. Looking closely at VS miles used towards DL partner flight - that seems to require least points. But I am open to any and all options from people more experienced than me. I'm a completely newbie to "award hacking". Thanks very much for all of your help.

LondonElite

Be aware that in the time it takes Amex to transfer the points, that award availability could vanish.

deker0

Thank you for that information. How long does it take for Amex to transfer MR points to VS normally?

Yoshi212

With VS it's nearly instant (under 5 minutes in my experiences). Logging out and logging back in a minute after the transfer is confirmed by Amex usually yields the desired result.