Virgin news: what’s up with Seoul?, big rise in redemption taxes for US members

Two bits of Virgin Atlantic news:

What’s happening to the Seoul route?

Odd things are happening with Virgin Atlantic’s long promised route to Seoul.

As we covered here, tickets went on sale in May 2025 with flights scheduled from next March.

However, the Virgin Atlantic website now says:

“Seoul’s calling – just not quite yet. We’re gearing up to launch new flights to Seoul from 29th March 2026. While we’re putting the final touches in place, sales are on pause. We’ll be up and running again soon, and can’t wait to welcome you onboard.”

We asked Virgin Atlantic and it told us that ticket sales had been temporarily suspended whilst they seek the necessary South Korean permit approvals and that they would be back shortly.

Even without this assurance, the chance that Virgin Atlantic is going to pull this route before it launches is slim (unlike Accra, Sao Paulo ….), purely because it is an opportunity to pick up valuable Heathrow slots.

In March 2023 Virgin Atlantic gave a binding agreement to the UK Competition & Markets Authority to launch flights to Seoul. This was part of a deal to allow UK Government approval of the Korean Air and Asiana merger.

The route MUST launch or Korean Air and Asiana are in breach of their merger obligations. If Virgin Atlantic does pull out, Korean Air will need to offer generous incentives to other airlines to launch flights. Korean Air will provide the necessary slots at Heathrow and Incheon.

If Virgin Atlantic operates the remedy flights to Seoul for the next three years, as it has agreed to, it will be gifted the Heathrow slots to use as it wishes. However much money it might lose flying to Seoul for three years, it should be less than the value of a Heathrow slot pair.

The bottom line is that these flights are likely to stick around for at least three years.

Assuming there is no change to the previously announced times, flights will start on 29th March 2026 with a daily service operating on a Boeing 787-9 (still with the old 2003-vintage Upper Class cabins….). The flight times are as follows:

• VS208 departs Heathrow at 09:45 and arrives in Seoul at 06:05 the following morning (night flight)
• VS209 departs Seoul at 08:35 and arrives in London at 15:05 (day flight)

…. not that you can book at the moment!

Virgin Flying Club hikes redemption taxes for US members

Historically, both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic ripped off US-based members when it came to taxes and charges on redemption tickets.

Call it karma, call it levelling the playing field, call it whatever you want. It was good news if you lived in the UK.

Because it is simply too easy to build up crazy amounts of miles with US credit card bonuses (the typical miles and points heavy hitter in the US will have around 30 active credit cards), US residents dominated demand for premium seats transatlantic.

(Here’s a 2015 article from a US blogger showing how you could earn 1.2 million Virgin Points very quickly from card sign-ups to redeem for a Necker Island holiday.)

When British Airways introduced Reward Flight Saver fixed charges for long haul redemptions, it was US members who benefitted the most because the playing field was now level.

Similarly, when Virgin Atlantic moved to dynamic redemption pricing last October, the big winners were US flyers.

Virgin Flying Club did two things:

• it equalised the taxes and charges paid by US and non-US members, to the greater benefit of US members

• it started to flex taxes and charges based on the points price, so a cheap ticket on an off-peak date also came with low surcharges

In what may be a positive move for UK residents, it’s game over for those in the US.

US residents (more accurately, those starting a trip in the US) no longer get discounted taxes and charges when booking the cheapest Virgin Atlantic reward flights.

Let me show you what I mean.

This is what a UK resident sees when booking London – New York – London:

As you can see, the taxes and charges in Upper Class start low(er) and go up as the number of points needed goes up.

This is what a US resident sees when booking New York – London – New York:

The taxes and charges figure in Upper Class is $1,583 return irrespective of how few points are used. For comparison, the highest possible charge for a UK member is £1,043 ($1,433) and you only pay that if you are not on a ‘Saver’ flight.

There is still a snag for UK residents though.

If you book a US redemption as two separate one-way tickets, you will now pay more in taxes and charges than if you booked a return flight starting in the UK. This is because the return flight is seen as ‘US originating’ and extra surcharges are added.

Similarly, a US resident can reduce the $1,583 taxes number by booking 2 x one-way flights so that the return leg is charged at the lower UK rate.