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Good morning all,
I am looking to book flights for myself and my partner to Johannesburg in April/May 2026.
We only just jumped onto the points band wagon last year and did so just before dynamic pricing came in. We chose to collect the majority of our points with virgin as they were at the time a better deal than flying with BA and also BA has a reputation for pretty horrendous delays and cancellations on that particular route.
Now that dynamic pricing has come along it seems to have made flying to Africa with virgin points a significantly less appealing option. Saver seats are virtually non existent on that route and the return trip from JNB – LHR is significantly higher in points cost. We have a companion/reward voucher to use but even that is now worth significantly less.
I’m 6’3 and very broad shouldered, last year i flew this route in economy with extra leg room however it was not a pleasant experience, i was extremely unconformable when I flew out on my own as I had 2 equally large people in my row. As such we are hoping to fly premium or upper to get some extra room, I may even be able to sleep with a bit of luck.
I would be very, very grateful of any insight that you knowledgeable bunch can offer as to how to best plan to use points.
Does the time I book matter with dynamic pricing? Should I book flights as soon as they come out or is it pot luck as to when points prices may change?
Are saver seats ever added after the flights are released or again is this a virgin mystery?
Are there any partner airlines I can fly with instead (using my points)
It seems that if you want to fly to the US or Canada vigin points are still a great option, but beyond this all other destinations have become significantly less affordable.
So maybe after this trip we will move to avios as our main points pot and just do the odd bit of virgin points collecting on the side in case we ever fancy a trip to Canada.
Thank you all for your sterling work and insight, it really does make a huge difference!
Does the time I book matter with dynamic pricing? Should I book flights as soon as they come out or is it pot luck as to when points prices may change?
The prices can change as often as three times in 24 hours. It’s madness.
Are saver seats ever added after the flights are released or again is this a virgin mystery?
Yes, all the time, and sometimes they’re not shown with the saver icon.
The whole virgin program is a ****show now.
Use flighttimecalendar.com to keep any eye on the route you want.
KLM and Air France reward seats are bookable via VS and for a business seat are better value than either VS or using avios
KLM and Air France reward seats are bookable via VS and for a business seat are better value than either VS or using avios
Now that I look closer I see that you are quite correct, it seems like they are still on fixed pricing dependant on destination and are often significantly cheaper than all virgin cabins.
That said I couldn’t seem to find any return flights from JNB to LHR with them, only Kenya Airways.
Ps. Thanks for the tip
Does the time I book matter with dynamic pricing? Should I book flights as soon as they come out or is it pot luck as to when points prices may change?
The prices can change as often as three times in 24 hours. It’s madness.
Are saver seats ever added after the flights are released or again is this a virgin mystery?
Yes, all the time, and sometimes they’re not shown with the saver icon.
The whole virgin program is a ****show now.
Use flighttimecalendar.com to keep any eye on the route you want.
Glad it’s not just me that thinks it makes no sense!
To illustrate that point, if I look at one way pricing on 20th April 2026 from JNB to LHR, economy is 55,000 and premium 100,000. However if I search as a round trip depearting LHR on the 1st April and select an outbound flight that was with KLM, the return trip points cost on the same flight on the 20th somehow drops to 18,000 and 63,000 points with either zero tax or a slight refund in tax?!
It’s a complete minefield
Thank you for commenting
Ignore my last comment, I had misunderstood the pricing shown when booking a return trip. It is the same cost booking 2x one way as a return.
It’s still a minefield though, that bits definitely true!
It’s still a minefield though, that bits definitely true!
The minefield is that pricing can change 2-3 times a day. Something that was completely omitted from the HfP article today
In case it’s of interest to anyone else trying to fly this route, I tried booking the outbound leg with Air France as they were showing 30,000 points for premium whereas virgin was just under 100k. It let me put in all the details and get to authorising payment and then threw up an error message that the flights were no longer available. I tried again as the flights were still showing up but the outcome was the same. After a 20 minute call to virgin I established that although Air France and KLM are supposed to give Virgin Premium seats this doesn’t actually mean they will, they might release some, they may release none, they may release them tomorrow, they may release them next year. Nobody has a clue….
Also they don’t seem to offer the return leg to virgin until significantly closer to the time, a couple of months at most if they offer it at all. Hence no KLM or Air France flights come up from JNB – LHR at the moment, only Virgin and Kenya Airways.
So if you see what looks like a good deal with a partner airline, don’t get your hopes up until it’s booked and confirmed that you have the seats.
They did say that economy was available to book for 15,000 each so i’ll probably end up booking that so that I at least have something and then I can keep an eye on virgins points prices and rebook if needed minus the cancellation fee of £30pp.
Al this graft to collect points, earn bonuses etc just to end up booking economy, so much for flying in relative comfort! Easy come easy go I guess
After a 20 minute call to virgin I established that although Air France and KLM are supposed to give Virgin Premium seats this doesn’t actually mean they will, they might release some, they may release none, they may release them tomorrow, they may release them next year. Nobody has a clue….
Yes it’s been like this since the first day you could book AF/KLM via VS. It’s often said it’s an IT issue, the seats have gone, those airlines don’t give partner inventory etc. Stick a pin in it for whichever answer you will get.
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