Last chance to book Virgin Atlantic’s best value Flying Club redemption – Air China to Beijing

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.

The bad news is that this redemption will cease to be a bargain on 1st May.  You have only three days to book if you want to take advantage.

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
• SAS (earning only)
• Singapore Airlines
• South African Airways
• Virgin Australia

… plus of course Delta.

One of these partners offers outstanding value – Air China.

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 is around £500 return.

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 (edit: this seems to have changed as the comments say recent one-way bookings have been made)

One of our readers recently flew this route in Business Class on Air China and we published his flight review here.

This flight stops being a great deal on Tuesday

From 1st May, Virgin Atlantic is repricing this award to bring it in line with its own redemptions. 

I am guessing that this is also driven by the introduction of KLM and Air France redemption availability, which should be bookable via Flying Club within the next 12 months once the new Virgin / Delta / KLM / Air France joint venture has Government approval.

This is how the pricing will change from Tuesday.  I must admit I did a double-take:

Air China London to Beijing redemption pricing:

Economy – today: 56,000 miles; from 1st May: 56,000 miles

Business – today: 63,000 miles; from 1st May: 135,000 miles

First – today: 75,000 miles; from 1st May:  200,000 miles

These are not modest changes, to put it mildly.  If you were interested in redeeming on this route, you should obviously be getting on the telephone to Virgin Atlantic before Monday night.

To put this redemption in context, British Airways Executive Club charges 170,000 Avios (off-peak) or 200,000 Avios (peak) 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 – before Monday night – to use 150,000 Flying Club miles for two people.

How to book this flight

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.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is one of the two Virgin Atlantic Reward credit cards.  These earn double miles (3 per £1 on the paid card or 1.5 per £1 on the free card) when you book at virginatlantic.com or via Virgin Holidays.  Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

How can I get any extra miles I need?

There are three ways of getting the miles you need before Monday evening.  Remember that none of these methods is guaranteed but I would expect them to work:

Transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic (1:1) – this is usually INSTANTANEOUS

Transfer Tesco Clubcard points to Virgin Atlantic (2:5) – this usually happens overnight

Buy Virgin Atlantic miles – I am not sure of the time frame but it should take under 24 hours

Be careful when picking your dates.  Whilst your booking is cancellable and refundable, I doubt that you would be able to change the date without it being repriced at the new higher rates.  I am not saying that it is impossible, since the Virgin Atlantic call centre team are generally very amenable, but you should certainly not expect it.

Conclusion

It is sad to see this excellent deal go away.  If you had been thinking of booking it, I recommend getting your diary out and then getting on the telephone to Virgin Atlantic ASAP.

You can find out more about the Virgin / Air China partnership on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

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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 15,000 Virgin Points):

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.

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

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

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.)