I wanted to take an in-depth look at what I consider to be the best sweet spot award redemption in the world, which involves Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points.
We are going to look at how to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points, how Virgin Atlantic redemptions on ANA work, and whether this redemption is even useful anymore.
If you don't currently have Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points, don't fret, there are lots of ways to earn them with transferrable points currencies.
Transfer bonuses from these programs can stretch your points even further, if you really want to maximize value. Transfer bonuses are usually in the range of 25%.
Points are sold directly by the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program, and there are even bonuses.
Flying Club has some amazing niche redemptions that you won't find through other programs, that can make accruing Flying Club points with a specific use in mind an excellent idea.
Flying Club points can be used to redeem on All Nippon Airways.
The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a zone based award chart for travel on ANA, and the redemption rates are as follows.
If you want to connect beyond Japan, you will need to book your tickets as separate awards. Since you can book one-ways for half the price of a roundtrip, you can easily mix and match options. It's for example:
I want to make a statement about that.
Virgin Atlantic points can't be used to book ANA awards, but the program should have access to the same award availability as all of ANA's other partner airlines.
You can choose which website to use to find availability. All Star Alliance award availability can be found on aircanada.com or united.com.
The major catch with this redemption option is that ANA doesn't give out awards often. Many flights don't have any first class award availability as the airline releases only one seat per flight.
It is difficult to find ANA first class award space at the moment. Sometimes ANA has offered better award availability, and I am sure that will happen again in the future.
It will be difficult to find ANA award space in first class. Business class award space is often more accessible.
The good news is that Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club agents are the most competent in the industry. They are actually really great. Flying Club is located in the US and you can call them.
You can give the representative the exact flights and class of service you want by calling Virgin Atlantic. The space will be looked up by the agent.
After a few minutes, they will usually tell you that the space confirmed. Though the space should match what other partners see, they won't get an immediate response from ANA.
You will be given a confirmation number and told to call back in a few hours to confirm the space. You should be good if you did your research right.
If you want to book, just call back later.
Virgin Atlantic does not pass on ANA's revenue ticket surcharges. If you want to see these up, you can just look up the itinerary for the cabin you are travelling in, look at the fare breakdown, and expect to pay everything except the base fare.
The current state of oil prices has led ANA to raise their fuel surcharge. I would expect ANA's surcharges to decrease as the price of oil goes down. The price for a one-way ticket from Tokyo to New York in first class is $400 at the moment, with $343.60 of that being fuel surcharges.
The ANA awards can be held for up to 48 hours. It's 48 hours before the flights drop out of the record if they request the space. It will take you up to 48 hours to transfer points.
Transferring points from Amex, Capital One, Chase, and Citi to Virgin Atlantic is very easy.
If you want to change or cancel an ANA award ticket booked with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points there is a $50 fee and you have to make the change at least 24 hours before departure.
If you can find award availability, you can redeem Virgin Atlantic points on All Nippon Airways for free. It's amazing to be able to redeem just 55,000-60,000 points for a one-way ticket between the US and Japan. When there's a transfer bonus, it only gets better.
Here is how much other programs cost for the same award.
First class and business class products are available on certain long haul routes. I found the products to be amazing.
When you combine ANA's new hard products with great service, food, and drinks, you can see why ANA is so special.
You will have a great experience even if you end up in ANA's old first class. The same great food, drinks, and service will be available even though the hard product isn't as good.
The biggest roadblock to taking advantage of this redemption opportunity is that Japan's borders are still closed to a large number of visitors. As the rest of the world has largely reopened, there is no indication that Japan will follow suit. Japan is in no rush to open because this policy is popular with citizens.
There are limited opportunities to redeem the world's best award right now.
The best value for Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points is to redeem them for travel in ANA first class. Award availability can be hard to come by, so it takes some effort to find it.
If you want to redeem your Flying Club points for a trip to Japan in the future, this is a good option. The ANA products are excellent and the icing on the cake.
Virgin Atlantic points can be redeemed for travel on ANA.
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