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I finally book the UK’s best value – by far – frequent flyer redemption

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There is one redemption opportunity via a UK frequent flyer programme which – in terms of flights departing the UK – is head and shoulders about the rest in terms of value.

Even more amazingly, availability for this redemption is very easy to find.

Until yesterday, I had never booked it.  Even now, I have booked it but someone else will be flying.

air-china-first-2

Virgin Atlantic is not in a major airline alliance, despite Delta Air Lines – a core plank of the Skyteam alliance – being a 49% shareholder.

Despite that, the airline does have a number of airline partners with whom you can earn and redeem Flying Club miles.  These include :

  • Air China
  • Air New Zealand
  • All Nippon Airways
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • Jet Airways
  • Malaysia Airlines
  • SAS (earning only)
  • Singapore Airlines
  • South African Airways
  • Virgin Australia

… plus of course Delta.

One of these partners offers outstanding value – Air China.

air-china-first

You can fly First Class from London to Beijing on Air China for just 75,000 Virgin Flying Club miles return.  Business Class is just 63,000 miles, although you’d be silly not to pay the extra 12,000 miles if you can.

The tax, as I found out yesterday, is £508.75.

There are two caveats to the Air China deal, but these are minor:

You can only book London to Beijing.  No other routes are possible, no add-on connections are possible.

You can only book return flights

You can check availability online.  The easiest place to look is the United Airlines website.  United lets you search for redemption availability even if you don’t have a United MileagePlus account – you don’t even need to log in.

If you can see ‘First Class Saver’ space showing for Air China, Virgin Flying Club should be able to book it.

The booking process took 20 minutes but that was mainly due to the agent – who knew exactly what she had to do – waiting for Air China to approve the seat.  It was a longer wait (25 minutes) to get to the front of the Virgin phone queue, as many people are currently calling up with problems following the botched relaunch of the Virgin Atlantic website.

To put this redemption in context, British Airways Executive Club charges 170,000 (off-peak) or 200,000 (peak) Avios points plus £550 for London to Beijing in First Class.

Even if you have a BA Amex 2-4-1 voucher, it is STILL better value to use 150,000 Flying Club miles for two people.

The eight-seat Air China First Class seat doesn’t look too bad either as the photos in the article show.  It is not on a par with Etihad or Emirates (the food seems to be especially weak) but for 75,000 Virgin Flying Club miles return …..?  I don’t think anyone will complain.

As I said, this ticket was not for me but I will try to get a review done.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (101)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Polly says:
    15 Dec15 December 07:50

    Remind me please if there is a family option with VS , like the baec. This is the best thing about the baec. Am thinking of starting a VS transfer with MRs from our plat card. Their F cabin does look good, but think we prefer to spend some more and get BA F with our 241, or wait for QR J sale.

    • Anon says:
      15 Dec15 December 08:54

      There isn’t a household account but you can have authority to spend miles on spouse (& I think children’s) accounts for a single sector.

      Ie. I booked 2x outbound Upper Class for myself and my wife only using her miles (2x 50k), did the return in PE using Economy miles (2x 22.5k) + PE upgrade vouchers off my account.

  • Rob says:
    15 Dec15 December 08:30

    Even if you don’t want to see Beijing (and the Forbidden City is cool) you can easily fly elsewhere, using Avios for Cathay / Cathay Dragon / JAL if required.

    • John says:
      15 Dec15 December 18:50

      And get stuck in the terminal waiting for military planes to finish using the airspace for the entire day???

  • Anon says:
    15 Dec15 December 08:32

    Rob – apologises for my grumpiness above (must of got out of wrong side if bed)

    Can you specify the criteria that you’ve used to calculate Value, as I’m sure we’ll all agree its potentislly very subjective.

    After reconsidering I would be inclined to agree its probably the best value first class direct redemption to Beijing from the UK for a solo traveller.

    However why does that make it the best overall value out of all the destinations available to UK residents travelling alone or as a couple?

  • Borathuk says:
    15 Dec15 December 08:33

    A couple of things to note if you go via Air China or Chinese Airlines at the moment

    1) No phones or tablets can be used during the flight even if it is in flight mode
    2) Can be very few staff who can speak English even in first or business class
    3) they are very strict on carrying batteries in your luggage so don’t.

    Not being able to use a phone or tablet is very difficult during a long flight

    • Graeme says:
      15 Dec15 December 09:31

      I used my tablet on an Air China flight two weeks ago in economy. Staff didn’t say a word.

    • Yan says:
      15 Dec15 December 12:18

      Tablet/laptop is definitely allowed after take-off and before landing, in fact some are rolling out onboard Wi-Fi for tablet use)

  • Crankyfly says:
    15 Dec15 December 08:38

    You do realise that Air China’s soft product is closer to BA Economy than to BA Club (not mentioning BA First, because it is not even close)

    • Trvlr says:
      15 Dec15 December 09:12

      Exactly, and Air China’s first class is overall probably worse than CX J…

      I flew Air China in J to Beijing a few years ago and it was a horrible experience and had nothing in common with “business class” aside from the name.

      • Susan says:
        15 Dec15 December 11:20

        My experience was very different – comfortable seats (not CW’s bed but very far from Y), super service, tasty food. Would happily travel them again.

        • Sophie says:
          15 Dec15 December 16:09

          My mom flew London-Bejing First Class via Air China a few years back. She absolutely loved it.

  • aliks says:
    15 Dec15 December 09:16

    I loved China both times I visited – when I was working in HK it was easy to do the short hop across the border.

    First time, I went over to Guang Zhou to give some training courses. I met 200 IT workers and I have to say they were all super keen and great people to work with. I didnt see anyone spitting on the floor, the food was fairly bland (they like it plain in South China) and noone was rude to me.

    Second time was a long weekend in Shanghai. Again, no spitting, no rudeness, but lots of spicy food – although nothing you wouldnt see in any English ChinaTown.

    I have piled up a lot of Virgin points, so this opportunity is actually quite interesting.

    One question, if you use VIrgin miles to book it, can you still use the Virgin Clubhouse???

    • Lumma says:
      15 Dec15 December 09:39

      Air China fly out of terminal 2 at Heathrow

    • John says:
      15 Dec15 December 18:54

      Guangzhou is very different from most of China, it’s a bit like California or Texas or even the UK versus continental Europe.

      Guangdong province would do well as an independent country, but the people have been brainwashed for the past 2000 years so wouldn’t even consider it.

      • Kai says:
        15 Dec15 December 20:56

        As the most developed city of Guangdong, Shenzhen has more than 70% of its inhabitants coming from other provinces. Do you seriously think Guangdong would have been how it is today without being a part of China? Guess you are one of those who voted Brexit.

        Remember that like the Chinese, yoru impressions on other countries are given by your country’s media, and China is not a friend of the West – would be interesting to find out who is the one being brainwashed.

  • PT says:
    15 Dec15 December 11:21

    O/T but slightly related!! I recall someone posted a link to their blog when they travelled by train from the UK to HK, it may have been last year, and I have searched for it but just can’t find it. Does anyone else recall the item or perhaps could point me in the right direction?

  • Zander says:
    15 Dec15 December 11:35

    Air China is cheap for a reason, it is a dreadful airline and I’d never go back to China if I can help it.

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