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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 (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):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 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

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.

  • Paul says:
    3 Mar3 March 12:00

    As above I’ve tried boking AF redemption with y points and keeps failing at payment page. Why is this not sorted out!

  • Thahanif says:
    3 Mar3 March 12:08

    Called to book some Aeromexico internal Mexico flights for August, told not available to book till 9th May.

    • JDB says:
      3 Mar3 March 15:35

      I’d be amazed if AM domestic flights were good value on points. They have incredibly competitive fares if you go onto the domestic site to book and Premium can be cheaper than Economy, which gives you extra luggage and avoids what can be horrendous queues unless you have Skyteam status anyway.

  • Estelle says:
    4 Mar4 March 11:35

    Can I ask about availability – certainly the VA website is not showing all Delta reward seats at the moment – should they be able to book any reward seat that is available on the phone or will it still be restricted?

    • Rob says:
      4 Mar4 March 11:43

      Delta releases virtually nothing in international business class to partners. Revenue based pricing means 500,000 mile tickets are common – https://viewfromthewing.com/useless-delta-now-charges-over-500000-skymiles-one-way-for-some-economy-travel/ – so they aren’t going to give them to Virgin to sell for a fraction of that.

      Delta mgmt have publicly said that, de facto, Skymiles members are too dim to know what is good value so they are going to screw them over at every opportunity.

      • Estelle says:
        5 Mar5 March 11:36

        Wow, this is a pain. Have just looked at a few dates for a forthcoming connection in the US, and VA want a lot fewer points than Delta but are only showing certain flights, not all, with just one showing availability for first. I guess it may work out sometimes but it still isn’t quite the benefit that Virgin are suggesting on their website!

  • Jamie says:
    6 Mar6 March 07:15

    Managed to book MME-AMS-FCO through the app.

    Just called Virgin to book LHR-JED/RUH or ABZ-AMS-JED/RUH and they said they can’t ticket any Saudia flights yet as they don’t have a partnership.

  • cin2 says:
    6 Mar6 March 15:40

    Article misses the only information that would be useful – the taxes/fees! Giving us only half the equation doesn’t allow for any comparison whatsoever unfortunately.

    • Rob says:
      6 Mar6 March 16:03

      Totally agree but clearly this will take time to emerge.

    • Rhys says:
      6 Mar6 March 16:09

      How would we do that? Each SkyTeam member flies to hundreds of destinations from many different hubs worldwide. It would be virtually impossible and fundamentally unusable.

      This is one of those occasions where you just have to do your own research 😉

  • James says:
    9 Mar9 March 09:51

    Which major destinations (or regions) fall into each distance range from the UK ?
    That would be a very interesting addition to the chart.

  • Jonathan Bennett says:
    9 Mar9 March 17:42

    I’ve just tried to book Delta to Salt Lake City with virgin points. Virgin call centre saying it’s not available with virgin points. Even though it’s available with delta points a line direct with delta. . Any thoughts.

    • Rob says:
      9 Mar9 March 20:15

      Is it available via Delta for the rock bottom points price on that route? If not, VS won’t see it.

  • Sam says:
    11 Mar11 March 02:16

    China Airlines’ availabilities are not showing up on VS website but on Delta’s so I am not sure if this is really bookable online

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

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