At TPG, we regularly reward Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club program as one of the vital underrated and high-powered frequent flyer packages. Flying Membership is a transfer partner of all main bank card packages, so Virgin factors are straightforward to earn.
Nevertheless, simply because the factors are straightforward to earn doesn’t imply they’re straightforward to make use of.
Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam alliance in 2023 and has a number of different nonalliance airline companions with which you’ll earn and redeem Virgin factors. Sadly, Virgin’s web site isn’t essentially the most user-friendly and has many limitations.
Some Flying Membership redemption companions will be booked on-line, whereas others require you to hunt for award area and name in to e book.
What are the Flying Membership airline companions?
You possibly can earn and redeem Virgin Atlantic factors on the next member airways of the SkyTeam alliance:
- Aerolinas Argentinas
- Aeromexico
- Air Europa
- Air France
- China Airways
- China Jap Airways
- Czech Airways
- Delta Air Traces
- Garuda Indonesia
- ITA Airways
- Kenya Airways
- KLM
- Korean Air
- Center East Airways
- Saudia
- TAROM
- Vietnam Airways
- Virgin Atlantic
- Xiamen Airways
Along with these airways, you may also e book award flights with the next non-SkyTeam airways utilizing Virgin factors:
You too can earn Virgin factors — however not redeem them — with companions Scandinavian Airways, IndiGo and LATAM.
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Which Flying Membership associate airways will be booked on-line?
Along with flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, Flying Membership members can redeem their Virgin factors on the next associate airways (for all different airways, you have to name 800-862-8621 to e book).
Associated: Is Virgin Atlantic premium economy worth it on the A330-900neo?
Air France-KLM
To keep away from the numerous surcharges Flying Membership imposes on flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, reserving flights operated by Air France-KLM will be an inexpensive manner to make use of Virgin factors to fly to Europe and past. Whereas premium economic system on these airways isn’t often obtainable to e book on-line or by telephone, economic system and enterprise class will be booked on-line on the following charges:
- One-way economic system flight to Europe from the West Coast for 15,000 factors
- One-way economic system flight to the Center East from the East Coast for 25,000 factors
- One-way business-class flight to Europe from the East Coast for 48,500 factors
- One-way business-class flight from the East Coast to North Africa for 66,500 factors
Associated: Private suites and high-tech touches: What it’s like flying Air France’s new business class
Delta Air Traces
With Delta taking dynamic pricing to the acute and charging 300,000-plus miles for one-way, worldwide, business-class awards, utilizing Virgin Atlantic to attain low cost awards will be nice.
Lengthy-haul flights to Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America are pretty straightforward to search out and will be booked on-line.
Associated: A review of Delta Air Lines economy on the Boeing 767 from London to New York
Sadly, Delta’s premium economic system product is unavailable to e book with Virgin factors, and whereas Delta One business-class seats can technically be booked on-line, they’re very not often obtainable and now come with huge surcharges.
Quick-haul flights operated by Delta are straightforward to e book on-line. Costs begin at an affordable 7,500 Virgin factors in economic system class or 21,000 factors in top notch.
Korean Air
Primarily based in Seoul’s Incheon Worldwide Airport (ICN), Korean Air flights will be booked with Virgin factors on-line, although availability outdoors of Asia is tough to search out.
ITA Airways
Rising from the ashes of the now-defunct Alitalia, ITA Airways has glorious award availability utilizing Virgin factors and will be booked on-line. ITA’s long-haul business-class product is superb, with a strong lounge in Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO), elaborate onboard meals and classy Italian finishes.
Associated: A review of ITA Airways business class on the A330neo from Rome
LATAM
South American service LATAM will be booked on-line with Virgin factors, and availability is mostly good between North America and South America, with business-class flights from Florida to Brazil costing simply 50,000 factors plus minimal charges and taxes.
El Al
Flying Membership quietly added Israel’s flag service El Al to its associate airline checklist earlier in 2024, and happily, these flights will be booked on-line, although the charges between the USA and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) are steep.
Associated: Inside El Al’s first retrofitted — and massively upgraded — Boeing 777
Center East Airways
One in all SkyTeam’s lesser-known airways, Center East Airways (generally known as MEA), is predicated in Lebanon’s Beirut-Rafic Hariri Worldwide Airport (BEY).
Whereas MEA doesn’t function long-haul flights, it has a good route community to Europe and will be booked on-line utilizing Virgin factors.
China Airways
Whereas Flying Membership insists that flights on Taiwanese service and SkyTeam member China Airways (to not be confused with China-based Star Alliance member Air China) will be booked on-line with Virgin factors, TPG has not discovered any availability on China Airways by means of Virgin’s web site.
Xiamen Airways
Primarily based in Xiamen, China, SkyTeam member Xiamen Airways operates quite a few flights inside Asia and a handful of routes to Australia and Europe. Its present North American locations embrace New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK), Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) and Vancouver Worldwide Airport (YVR).
You possibly can e book Xiamen Airways redemptions utilizing Virgin factors on-line.
Find out how to earn Virgin factors
It is easy to spice up your Virgin factors steadiness with the suitable bank card, as Flying Membership is a switch associate of each main program with a transferable currency, together with:
A few of the above packages provide common transfer bonuses to Flying Club, that means you would possibly want even fewer factors than you first thought.
Many of those packages provide playing cards that characteristic terrific welcome bonuses. Listed here are a few of our favourite travel rewards credit cards that earn transferable factors that may be transformed to Virgin factors:
Backside line
Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Membership program boasts a formidable checklist of redemption companions inside and outdoors of the SkyTeam alliance. Sadly, this system’s web site is much less spectacular, with most associate redemptions unavailable on-line, requiring a bit of further legwork and a telephone name to 800-862-8621.
You might want to use an exterior useful resource to examine award availability by means of different packages after which contact the Flying Membership program to e book the seats can be found.
There are some glorious offers available, so it is definitely worth the effort.
