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SKYTEAM LAUNCH: How to spend Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights – costs and process

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Today, 2nd March, is the day that Virgin Atlantic joins the SkyTeam airline alliance.

This means, in theory, that today is also the day that you can spend your Virgin Points on flights on any airline in the SkyTeam alliance.

Is it that simple? No, of course not 🙂

How to spend Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights

This article should give you a good introduction to what you need to know to make a redemption booking with Virgin Points on a SkyTeam partner.

If you want to earn more Virgin Points, our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard credit card is here (15,000 bonus points) and our review of the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card is here.

Which SkyTeam airlines can now be booked BY TELEPHONE with Virgin Points?

  • Aerolíneas Argentinas
  • Aeromexico
  • Air Europa
  • China Airlines
  • Czech Airlines
  • Garuda Indonesia
  • Kenya Airways
  • Korean Air
  • Middle East Airlines
  • SAUDIA
  • TAROM
  • Vietnam Airlines
  • Xiamen Air

Delta Air Lines, Air France and KLM could already be booked with Virgin Points before today as part of the transatlantic joint venture agreement.

Which SkyTeam airlines can now be booked ONLINE with Virgin Points?

It’s not a very impressive list unfortunately:

  • China Airlines
  • Korean Air
  • Middle East Airlines
  • Xiamen Air

Delta Air Lines, Air France and KLM could already be booked online with Virgin Points before today as part of the transatlantic joint venture agreement.

How to spend Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights

Which SkyTeam airlines CANNOT be booked with Virgin Points?

  • China Eastern – earn and spend coming later in 2023
  • ITA Airways – redemptions coming later in 2023, earning already available

What elite benefits do you get on SkyTeam airlines?

This article looks at the SkyTeam benefits you get if you are Virgin Flying Club Gold.

This article looks at the SkyTeam benefits you get if you are Virgin Flying Club Silver.

How many Virgin Points will I need for a SkyTeam redemption?

Here are the basic rules as we understand them:

  • the pricing below is by sector – if you need to connect, each flight will be priced separately based on the distance of each leg. Pricing is NOT based on the total distance flown.
  • the pricing charts below are one-way – for a return flight, you do NOT add up the total distance and price from that. Each flight must be priced individually based on its own distance.
  • First Class redemptions are not possible on those airlines which offer it
  • you can mix different partners on the same booking online but the call centre agents are encouraged to book each carrier separately to make changes easier to process. I am assuming that you can still interline baggage even though your connecting flight wil be on a separate ticket – SkyTeam is more flexible than oneworld.
  • the website is not able to show all possible permutations of connecting flights but, if you can see a flight combination via the reward booking website of any SkyTeam carrier, the Virgin Atlantic call centre should be able to book it
Skyteam tailfins

The Virgin Atlantic SkyTeam partner reward pricing chart:

This chart shows the number of Virgin Points required for a one way flight. Pricing is per sector if you have connecting flights.

DistanceEconomyPremiumBusiness
0 – 500 miles5,5009,00014,500
501 – 1,000 miles7,00012,50015,500
1,001 – 1,500 miles10,00016,00021,500
1,501 – 2,250 miles11,50022,00035,000
2,251 – 3,000 miles15,50026,50040,000
3,001 – 4,000 miles20,50037,50060,000
4,001 – 5,000 miles25,50047,50075,000
5,001 – 6,000 miles31,00057,50085,000
6,001 – 7,000 miles37,00070,000100,000
7,001 – 12,000 miles50,00095,000140,000

Infants under two are charged at 1,000 / 2,000 / 5,000 points

The small print:

  • Aerlineas Argentinas – all flights within Argentina or South America are priced at Premium levels
  • Aeromexico, AIr Europa, Czech Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, SAUDIA, TAROM, Xiamen Air – Premium is not available

We hope you find this useful. We literally have no more information at this stage beyond what is shown here. Feel free to ask comments in the questions for the benefit of any Virgin Atlantic staff who may read them, but we won’t be answering them!

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (September 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 great travel benefits – for a large fee Read our full review

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

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Virgin Points. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Virgin Points. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

American Express Business Platinum

Up to 80,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

Get up to 40,000 points as a sign-up offer 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

SkyTeam alliance partners, Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (100)

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

  • Wenby says:
    2 Mar2 March 11:16

    Leo is probably the systems guy who put his name in as the test and it stayed haha

  • mnlbay says:
    2 Mar2 March 11:38

    Have been waiting to see options for return leg from Asia this summer. Note that China Airlines seems a bit patchy at showing up on VS. Attempted to try Garuda on live chat for availability but they noted that it is due to come soon – some difference from what the article and press release is saying.

  • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
    2 Mar2 March 11:52

    Based on Europe to DXB via CDG/AMS being 50K each way up till yesterday, this looks like a devaluation.

  • BJ says:
    2 Mar2 March 11:56

    Almost no experience with Virgin FC except Hilton transfers and limited earnings. However, I’m curious if the reward table applies to all ST members including AF/KLM? I ask as I recently redeemed only 8000+£40pp for business class seats from CDG-BCN which should be 14, 500 according to the award chart reported here.

    • Ryan says:
      2 Mar2 March 12:06

      #metoo

      My return from AMS to LHR was only 8000, and I was planning on burning a few more trips like that to rack up the tier points. Hopefully they don’t change it!

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      2 Mar2 March 12:19

      I believe there’s been a significant devaluation

      • Rob says:
        2 Mar2 March 12:34

        We haven’t published an AF/KLM chart – nnot sure what you’re looking at?

        • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
          2 Mar2 March 12:49

          The partner reward chart that is distance based. I can’t see AF, KL and DL working off a separate pricing structure. I haven’t live priced though; I’m just catastrophising as is my wont

          • BJ says:
            2 Mar2 March 13:23

            Just had a look, EDI-AMS on KL in Y is still 4k, and CDG-BCN on AF in J is still 8k so looks line different chart for them. What I did notice was that cash element had increased 20% in both cases since I booked a few months ago.

        • BJ says:
          2 Mar2 March 12:52

          The chart in the article, I took it that it applied to all SkyTeam members including AF/KLM but based on your comment this does not seem to be the case?

  • Pogonation says:
    2 Mar2 March 12:26

    Yawn! Super expensive redemption rates. May have just about been acceptable if connecting flights included. SYD 150k miles via asia one way J vs Delta 90k, Asiamiles 85k or Avios (QR) 90k. Can’t see many other areas to get value from them.

  • gerjomarty says:
    2 Mar2 March 12:39

    Any downsides to booking two one-way flights instead of a return? There’s some availability on my return flight that I’d like to lock in sooner. Thanks!

  • ChrisA says:
    2 Mar2 March 12:40

    Just tried to book a Kenyan Airways flight over the phone. They said it hadn’t launched yet. Will try another agent just to be sure, as they didn’t sound completely confident when I questioned it.

    • Jonathan says:
      2 Mar2 March 13:11

      I once had a rather incompetent agent who could tell that one of my flights had been cancelled, thus I’m legally entitled to a refund, it’s a bit hard to explain, but I could tell by talking to her that she definitely wasn’t strongest spark in the room…

      I called back another time to request the refund from a different agent another time, and he processed my request without any problems at all

  • Littlefish says:
    2 Mar2 March 13:06

    A major question that I’m curious about before dipping my toes in the Partner award shark pool, is whether Sky Team are requiring their partners to release space if/when cancellations occur. Without that it feels too risky a proposition to simply have Flying Club refund your points and be stuck with a late purchase cash fare.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      2 Mar2 March 13:46

      261 rights though?

      • Mark says:
        2 Mar2 March 13:55

        Only for flights from the UK, or flights operated by an EU airline and I suspect the latter is harder to enforce since Brexit.

    • Jonathan says:
      2 Mar2 March 14:03

      You still get 261 protection, an airline is legally required to reroute you, people having problems due to no reward seat availability wouldn’t be a solid defence for an airline if you had to play hardball and use legal action to get then to comply with your rights

      • Mark says:
        2 Mar2 March 15:13

        But, as above, that only applies to flights from the UK/EU or operated by an EU airline. It wouldn’t, for example, provide you with any protection for a Korean Airlines flight from Seoul to London unless an equivalent exists in South Korean law.

        The other possibility is that you attempt a Section 75 claim for an equivalent replacement flight if you’ve paid taxes and fees by credit card. I’m not aware of any cases though where that has been attempted.

        • Mark says:
          2 Mar2 March 17:26

          Thinking about it, Section 75 probably wouldn’t get you anywhere either as the purchase would be via Virgin Atlantic not direct to the operating airline….

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

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