Virgin Atlantic devalues ANA Business Class flight redemptions to Japan

In March 2023, Virgin Atlantic devalued First Class reward flights on ANA with no notice.

Last week, Virgin Atlantic devalued Business Class reward flights on ANA with no notice.

You may see a pattern here …..

If you are considering travelling to Japan the obvious options – especially if you want to earn Avios and British Airways tier points, or spend Avios – are British Airways and Japan Airlines.

(Japan Airlines is a member of the oneworld alliance, alongside BA, so you can earn Avios and Executive Club tier points, and spend Avios, on its flights.)

Qatar Airways is also an option, albeit indirect. If you are travelling for cash, the plane change in Doha means that you earn two lots of BA tier points in each direction – so 560 tier points (almost Silver) for a Business Class return flight.

If you are travelling for Avios, Qatar Airways need far fewer Avios (160,000 Avios return in Business) than British Airways (200,000 – 220,000 Avios return in Business) for a London to Tokyo trip. Qatar Airways also offers Osaka.

There is another option ….

There is a third airline flying directly from Heathrow to Tokyo – ANA.  ANA runs a daily service, departing at 7pm from Heathrow Terminal 2, to Tokyo Haneda, the nearest airport to the city.

ANA is a member of Star Alliance.  This means that you can credit ANA flights to Lufthansa Miles & More, United MileagePlus, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, ANA’s own Mileage Club or whichever other Star Alliance airline you prefer.  

How to use Virgin Points to fly ANA

You can obviously redeem miles from any of the Star Alliance airlines for reward tickets on ANA.

You may not know, however, that ANA is also a Virgin Atlantic partner.  You can redeem your Virgin Points for tickets on ANA. 

Even better, the rate has historically been VERY attractive, especially when compared to an Avios redemption.

You can also earn Virgin Points when booking cash tickets on ANA, if you want to steer your next business trip their way.

How many Virgin Points do you need to fly ANA?

You can see the Virgin Flying Club earning and spending chart for ANA on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Assuming you are based in the UK, these are the key numbers you need to know:

• Economy return flight (London to Tokyo) – 65,000 Virgin Points

• Business return flight (London to Tokyo) – 120,000 Virgin Points

• First return flight (London to Tokyo) – 170,000 Virgin Points

One way redemptions are possible for half of the above cost.

Hang on …. isn’t Business Class meant to be 95,000 Virgin Points?

Yes, it was. Until last week.

With no notice, Virgin Atlantic has increased the cost of Business Class redemptions on ANA from 95,000 Virgin Points to 120,000 Virgin Points.

That’s a generous 26% increase.

This is isn’t as bad as the change to First Class last year – up from 120,000 to 170,000 points overnight, with no notice – but still not ideal.

What about taxes and surcharges?

Historically there were no carrier surcharges added to ANA redemptions using Virgin Points which kept taxes and charges from the UK at around £250.

During covid the airline decided that it had been missing out on a good revenue stream and started imposing random surcharges.

I haven’t seen a recent example but you should expect to pay nearer £700-£800 return in taxes and charges in total.

Virgin Atlantic lets you book 331 days in advance

Virgin Atlantic only allows you book rewards 331 days in advance.

Whilst this does not sound like a problem, ANA itself opens up its flights for booking at 355 days before departure.

This puts an additional squeeze on reward availability using Virgin Points, since reward seats can be snapped up by ANA’s own frequent flyers or members of partner programmes which work on a 355 day basis before you have a chance to book.

You cannot book ANA redemptions online. You need to call Virgin Atlantic.

ANA has various European route options

If you can’t find availability on the ANA flights from London, they also flew – pre coronavirus – to Tokyo from Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Brussels, Vienna and Paris.  Dusseldorf and Vienna have yet to return.

The current European routes are (only Frankfurt and Heathrow have flights each day):

• Frankfurt – Boeing 787-9
• London Heathrow – Boeing 777-300ER
• Munich – Boeing 787-9
• Paris CDG – Boeing 787-9
• Brussels – Boeing 787-9

Virgin Flying Club appears to have access to the same availability as Star Alliance partners. The Aeroplan (Air Canada) and United Airlines websites are both decent places to search for seats before calling Virgin Flying Club to book.

Is ANA any good?

Oh yes.

In 2019, ANA launched a new Business and First Class seat on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, and the London route was the first to get it.  It looks rather good, to put it mildly.

The First Class suites, known as ‘THE Suite’, are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration.  Finished in dark woods, there are two only rows which make this an intimate cabin:

The seat almost takes the full width of the suite, with only a thin slither along the side given over to storage or as an armrest. There is also an exceptionally large 43” screen which has a 4K display.

THE Room is ANA’s new Businesss Class product.  Club World style, half of the seats face forwards and half face backwards.

If you look at the photo below the first thing that will strike you is how disproportionately wide the seat is.  Look at the head rest.  You can see the protective cover, which is about what you’d expect the seat width to be. THE Room looks like it is twice as wide – more sofa-like than a seat! ANA says that THE Room has twice the width of their old business class seat (click for Anika’s flight review) which is not hard to believe.

Of course, this is business class and the trade-off is that it does taper into a cubby hole where your feet end up.  Nonetheless, the extra width at torso and shoulder height makes sitting and sleeping in this seat feel a lot less cramped.  It is a very clever piece of design.

I haven’t flown THE Room but I have sat in the seat at a media event.  It is, genuinely, huge.  At one point there were two of us sat side by side on the seat and we were able to have a normal conversation, with a decent bit of space between us.

Not content with a sliding door, THE Room also has a second opening which slides up and down.  This allows the crew to pass food to you whilst the door is closed, getting around one of the biggest issues with Club Suite and Qsuite.  The 24 inch 4K TV also looked very impressive, although it was not operating.

Conclusion

Putting up the cost of Business Class redemptions on ANA by 26% – with no notice – is clearly not great. It doesn’t exactly do much for trust in Virgin Points and Virgin Flying Club either.

Of course, you should have known better after the 42% increase in First Class redemption pricing in March 2023.

That said:

• Economy Class redemptions are still unchanged from pre-pandemic

• it was always likely that Virgin Atlantic would drop ANA redemptions entirely once they joined SkyTeam, so if this is what it takes to keep them then it’s a good trade off

• 120,000 Virgin Points is still very acceptable value for Business Class on such a long route, especially when compared to the Avios required to redeem on British Airways

Remember that flying out of Frankfurt, Munich, Paris or Brussels may make it easier to find availability, but you won’t be able to experience the new Business Class and First Class suites this way.

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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):

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.

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.

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.