Virgin: “25% of flights will not have any Saver seats available”

By now, the roll out of Virgin Atlantic’s new reward pricing should be complete.

As Rhys and I are both away there is no-one around to analyse what has appeared.

I’m sure our readers have been discussing it in our forum and I suspect the comments to this article will be interesting. The highest price we’ve spotted so far is 690,000 Virgin Points return to Los Angeles in Upper Class, plus £995 of taxes and charges.

We do have some details on ‘Saver’ pricing.

We already knew that ‘Saver’ seat pricing caps would be the same as the old peak season reward pricing. This means we can map out a pricing range based on the minimum points pricing that Virgin has provided.

Here is Saver pricing for some key routes:

London to New York (one way)

• Economy – 6,000 to 20,000 points
• Premium – 10,500 to 27,500 points
• Upper – 28,500 to 57,500 points

London to Miami / Manchester to Orlando (one way)

• Economy – 7,500 to 22,500 points
• Premium – 13,500 to 32,500 points
• Upper – 28,500 to 57,500 points

London to Los Angeles (one way)

• Economy – 9,000 to 25,500 points
• Premium – 16,500 to 37,500 points
• Upper – 40,500 to 77,500 points

Whilst, in theory, this looks like points pricing has come down, you need to remember that the airline has been running 25%, 30% and 50% ‘redemption sales’ on a very regular basis in recent years.

The lowest prices above are roughly what you would have paid in a ‘50% off redemption sale’ off-peak.

How many seats will be available at Saver pricing?

On any particular day, not many. It may look different today because a lot will have been loaded in advance for the open schedule but don’t expect those seats to be replaced.

25% of flights will have NO Saver seats at all at any point over the 11 month booking period. Full credit to Virgin Atlantic for admitting this up front.

Obviously we don’t know where we will find these 25% of flights, but you can take a guess. I suspect we will see a few routes or time periods with effectively zero Saver availability.

The airline expects that the remaining 75% of flights will – at some point during the 11 month booking window – have at least one Saver seat bookable for at least one day.

When will Saver seats open up?

We don’t know. Because Saver availability is triggered by low cash prices, I doubt that you will see them 11 months in advance. Cash prices bottom out 3-4 months before travel so I suspect this is when you will need to book.

What is happening to cancellation fees?

Because dynamic pricing means that flight pricing will change daily, it makes sense to rebook your flight every time that the price drops.

To get around this, Virgin Atlantic has increased change fees to £70 per person. This means that, realistically, it’s not worth rebooking unless your flight drops by 10,000 points.

What about taxes and charges?

We are told that taxes and charges will become variable. We don’t have much in the way of detail but in some cases they will be lower than previously.

What happens to seats which were previously available for redemption?

This is an interesting one. It’s not clear if Virgin Atlantic intended to remove existing reward inventory last night (generated under the old ‘guaranteed seats’ rule) or let it remain there and simply not add any more.

What we DO know is that 40% of seats which were bookable as reward seats yesterday were due to go up in price today. Again, we should give the airline some credit for coming clean on this.

What happens if I change an existing booking?

Don’t do it, if at all possible, unless you will save points. Any change to an existing booking will result in it repricing at the new levels which is likely to mean a substantial increase.

You can, however, still change existing bookings for the old change fee of £30 per person. I suspect subsequent changes may be charged at £70.

What does dynamic pricing look like?

We’ll let you know when we’ve had time to take a look.

However, as I have stressed in other articles this week, dynamic pricing is a smokescreen to hide the scrapping of the 12 guaranteed reward seats per flight.

You don’t need to waste time thinking about the dynamically priced seats. They are only there to satisfy the US credit card market. Yesterday there were lots of Virgin Atlantic flights without reward seats. Today the same flights have reward seats but at points prices which you will never be able to afford. Nothing has changed in terms of your ability to get on those flights.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 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):

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 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Virgin Points. 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 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Virgin Points! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. 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. 

(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.)