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Virgin Atlantic drops Austin flights but boosts Miami, Barbados and Dubai

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18 months after Rhys headed out to Texas for Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural Austin flight, the airline will pull the plug on the route.

The last flight will take place on 7th January 2024. If you have a ticket booked, the airline will be in touch about a refund or a rerouting.

The good news is that the aircraft freed up will be used to expand services to Miami, Barbados and Dubai.

Virgin Atlantic drops Austin flights

The tech bubble burst, and so did Austin

Austin had been one of the fastest growing cities in the US for a number of years on the back of a booming technology sector. Cheaper than the west coast, it got into a virtuous circle with more and more companies moving in as the pool of qualified employees to hire from grew.

The tech bubble has now burst with most major players making substantial redundancies this year. It has hit traffic on the London to Austin route, leading to this announcement. Virgin Atlantic said that total international travel from Austin is at just 70% of its 2019 level.

British Airways will continue with its Austin service. It can’t have helped Virgin Atlantic that it put its worst Upper Class seat on the route (see our review) when British Airways had a more frequent service and was sending over an A350 with Club Suite. I would have been giving Virgin Atlantic a miss myself purely on this basis if I’d needed to visit. British Airways will also benefit from connecting traffic as there are few other European flights to Austin.

Virgin Atlantic drops Austin flights

The aircraft is moving to routes with strong premium leisure demand

With business travel volumes remaining weak, Virgin Atlantic is moving the freed up Boeing 787-9 to expand three routes with strong leisure traffic:

  • Barbados will increase from 11 flights per week to 14 flights per week between 10th January 2024 and 29th March 2024
  • Miami will increase from 11 flights per week to 14 flights per week between 30th March 2024 and 25th October 2024
  • Dubai will increase from four flights per week to seven flights per week from 26th October 2024 to late March 2025

It goes without saying that this is a good time to look for Virgin Flying Club reward seats to Barbados and Miami on these additional services. Virgin Atlantic guarantees at least 12 reward seats per flight – two in Upper Class, two in Premium and eight in Economy.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 50,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 50,000 Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 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.

American Express Business Platinum

50,000 points when you sign-up 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. 

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (68)

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

  • Chris W says:
    28 Oct28 October 10:28

    I don’t understand what Virgins plan is for the 787s.

    Unless they run them solely on Caribbean and Orlando routes, why would anyone choose them in business class on a premium route?

    • Rob says:
      28 Oct28 October 11:52

      I was very annoyed at them last week for swapping my JFK flight to a 787 from a neo with no notice (we were even given boarding passes for a neo, but that’s another story). I – and only myself, because I complained to the crew manager – was offered 10,000 points as compensation but they haven’t appeared yet.

      • ChasP says:
        28 Oct28 October 14:06

        but a change to the old BA club seat would be a much much greater change – and you’d get sweet FA from BA !

      • Mikeact says:
        28 Oct28 October 17:34

        Surely any airline reserves the right to change equipment at a moments notice,
        regardless. Disappointing, but that’s the terms and conditions. Life’s too short to worry about something like that in my opinion…just get me there safely is all I ask.

        • Rob says:
          28 Oct28 October 18:41

          This is why airlines think they can walk all over passengers. If I adjust my schedule specifically to avoid a certain aircraft AND the airline knows 36 hours in advance that it will be swapped out but fails to inform passengers (which was the case here, as the ground staff admitted) then I think I’ve been had.

      • Anonymous P says:
        31 Oct31 October 17:33

        You’re complaining about an equipment change to a B787? Really? The Dreamliner is a great aircraft.

    • pigeon says:
      28 Oct28 October 13:45

      Corporate travellers who are both fortunate to be in business, but have no airline choice. Once off business class travellers who don’t know the product. Folks who like the other bits of the VS experience (lounge, seat selection, bar area).

      Fact is, airline seats are insanely expensive. Easily $100k for a market leading seat. Even if they wanted to upgrade, they probably can’t afford it.

      • Dan says:
        28 Oct28 October 15:26

        The seat really isn’t as terrible as people say. Of course I’d choose a new VS seat over an old one, but for overall experience I’d still take old VS over new BA any day

        • Chris W says:
          28 Oct28 October 15:56

          That’s absolutely nonsense. BA Club Suite is significantly better than the Virgin old Upper, which has no storage or privacy and everyone faces the aisle.

        • Jim Utd says:
          28 Oct28 October 17:59

          Exactly Dan. BA this, BA that. 🥱 Virgin everytime, love the bar, clubhouse and the staff, seat is fine for what it is, premium seats are really comfy on the 789 as well,

          • Rob says:
            28 Oct28 October 18:31

            It really is as bad. I flew it last week and it was my 2nd time this year. It’s probably easier if you are short (I’m 6’2′) or slim (I am slim, admittedly).

          • Mark says:
            28 Oct28 October 21:01

            Each to their own… Personally I prefer the old BA CW seat over the old Virgin UC seat, both being far behind Club Suite.

            For several reasons… I like a window seat where I can actually see out, I like to sleep slightly inclined / sit with a greater degree of recline than the UC class seat allows and the CW window seats are far more private.

            And the UC seats do feel very narrow.

            Never tried the A350 or neo seats – hopefully they are much better.

          • Rob says:
            29 Oct29 October 04:44

            Agree. I flew old CW and old UC last week (yes, crazy week) and old CW was better. Still bad, but better. You can at least move.

        • Rob says:
          28 Oct28 October 18:34

          Absolute nonsense.

  • Adam says:
    28 Oct28 October 18:17

    Why have Virgin not started their Dubai trips for people with two weeks October half terms? So odd. Next year ours starts on 19/20th

    • Rob says:
      28 Oct28 October 18:30

      Yes, it’s weird. They insist on operating to the IATA timetable summer / winter timetable swaps, which happen on the same day as the GMT / BST clock changes.

  • AL says:
    29 Oct29 October 01:35

    I’d like to see them re-open historic routes, like ORD. I think they’d do well out of BNA, too, although it might be too close to ATL. It is at least quite Virgin a destination.

  • Ivanka says:
    29 Oct29 October 07:49

    I prefer Virgin because of the clubhouse and ground service is generally far superior. I don’t mind the old UC cabin although it is behind the times. The issue I have had is connectivity on Delta seems limited and even phoning virgin cannot always find routings that should be available. They need to strengthen their US partnerships and IT to make it more seamless

  • Akhil Gupta says:
    29 Oct29 October 09:02

    When you say virgin guarantee seats. Are these released 355 days before like BA and can you call and book at midnight?

  • Douglas says:
    29 Oct29 October 14:43

    I often fly LHR to AUS when visiting family in Dallas and I choose to fly BA. From AUS, I take a coach or a connecting flight(AA) to DFW. Why? It’s a lot less costly than flying direct to DFW. Recently, the cost has been almost half when flying to Austin compared to Dallas Fort Worth. I had assumed that this was because BA had competition from VS on the AUS route whereas they had none (other than codeshare AA flights) to DFW. I’d hate to think the costs will increase once the competition has been removed.

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

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