cmustudent

Wouldn't fuel surcharge prices come down after Sept 30 since fuel prices have been steadily coming down these past few months?

Tofino87

Logically, you’d assume so. But I recall seeing in the last week or so someone said that YQ was due to INCREASE again in October?!! The world has gone mad.

Side note/Warning - I have had a booking HND-LHR in F, for what seems like for ever. I have just seen an article on Head for Points this morning saying that the 77W is due to return to LHR.

It was news to me that it had even stopped!!

Have had no information from NH or VS regarding this at any point and they’ve also changed the flight departure time to circa 2 hours earlier - which, by the mercy of Christ, my connection still allows me to make. Really shoddy communication though - be sure to periodically check your bookings!!

CPH-Flyer

Currently the LHR route is a mix of 787-9 and 777-300ER. What ANA announced is that all flights would be with the new config with The Room and The Suite. For the 77W flights in the past period, I am not sure if they have all been in the new config, but they will be again.

VS does not seem very keen on communicating changes to the bookings that their customers hold. They are not the only airline where communications about partner bookings are spotty, but they do seem to be in the worst possible category of spotty.

BBonly

Alright so the take here is to check often and book super far in advance (up to around a year). Just out of curiosity, I assume it's a dumb idea and a waste of points to book economy with my Chase points? Are the surcharges going to be roughly the same no matter what class you book? If this is the case, I might as well just wait for a Scott's flights deal with cash.

seigex

FYI - Amex has their 30% bonus going on right for MR points to VS miles.

aquanine

Very likely to be a waste of time, but it depends on the specific route because cash prices are all over the place.

mrjohn128

Currently thinking of making the transfer. What are people's thoughts in the current state of the program? Is it still worth having points with Virigin?

Swatson181

I think it depends. If you already have a redemption in mind and can book it immediately, then go for it. Otherwise it might be better to use other redemptions (i.e. United, Aeroplan). I was able to book a one-way for next year to NRT but still have the other half I transferred waiting to be used for another redemption which could've been better spent staying in MR and transferring to other carriers.

BBonly

I actually looked into it and decided to answer my own question. I called Virgin to get information going in with the parameters of being non-stop, LAX to TYO, and economy because that was the only ticket that's only available that I can book right now. The cost would be 60,000 round trip and the surcharges will vary on the day of booking. I based this off of a mid November in 2022. This was a morning flight from LAX with an arrival afternoon the next day. The return was early evening two weeks later. It's already known on the cost matrix goes, but I'll just post it here

(Round trip cost)
Economy - 60,000
Business - 90,000
First - 110,000

After looking into this as a newbie, I now understand why people aren't using their points for economy. For the cost of points vs what you get, the value is not there. Economy should be 35,000-45,000 instead of the 60,000 for better value. Skyscanner showed me a flight via ANA in the same period for around $970. A side note, I checked out ZIP AIR which isn't talked about too much. A flight from them was around $700 and I was curious on why the difference. As with most budget airlines, they charge you for everything. The long flight of 12 hours leaves with no food, no entertainment unless you fly business (around $1,100) and anal baggage rules.

Anh Nguyen

Did things change for 2023? I called into Virgin to get pricing from Lax to Tokyo (Haneda) and for 2 economy tickets with tax it was going to be 85K points per person with tax/fees being around 400 dollars. Not new with this system because we booked the first class rewards back in 2021 with 110K per person and I think taxes was maybe like $500 total? But that was during Covid and shutdowns.

Thanks in advance.

Edit - I think I was looking at UA flights instead of ANA flights. Time to call again tomorrow.

seigex

Just an FYI, I booked ANA F from LAX-HND-LAX through VS for late December/early January and the taxes/fees were $825.67.

I heard fuel charges went up, but wow. A booking I made towards the end of last year was $300, when I moved that flight in April it was $500, now it's $825. Still worth it, but just an FYI for anyone else who is looking to book a flight to prepare yourself for the fees.

BBonly

I actually found one first class and another business for a quick preliminary search. Thanks for the info!

seigex

they're hard to find right now, but this one just kinda showed up out of the blue, just when I was looking to book travel

BBonly

I actually found 5+ first class ones, non-stop from LAX to TYO. I found out why it was somewhat available, you leave LAX 12:05 AM the following day and arriving in Tokyo 5:30 AM. I don't know what you guys would do arriving that early.

mrjohn128

Are there any other good redemptions other than ANA F? I’m open to travelling anywhere around the world.