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Was looking at LHR-IAD in upper. Managed to find saver level award both ways so price in points was reasonable at 92,500 Virgin Points. But then they quoted £1,043.52 in taxes and fees?! I thought when they introduced dynamic pricing the fees at saver level were reduced?!
VS cash fare for the same dates in upper return is £1,710 … makes the redemption 0 value, even at saver level.
The fees also seem to be “dynamic” now, which can work for or against you. Sometimes it can work out cheaper booking as 2 singles now, have you tried pricing it up that way?
From tracking a one way redemption over the past month it now seems to vary depending on the amount of points for the flight and some sort of banding.
For a one way UC flight the fees vary as below:
29k-35k – $264
45k-250k – $498The 45-56k are marked as saver fares but still attract the higher level of charges. My bands aren’t completely accurate as I don’t have enough data points
Some PE redemptions from the US seem (relatively) decent value with fees at $189 from what I’ve seen.
Of course if you use Virgin points on DL ex-US, you pay $6 in taxes 😂
Some PE redemptions from the US seem (relatively) decent value with fees at $189 from what I’ve seen.
Of course if you use Virgin points on DL ex-US, you pay $6 in taxes 😂
But then you typically end up in CDG or AMS, and have to collect/recheck your luggage and pay for a flight back to MAN, and try finding DL business class redemptions from the US on partners!
Well you don’t have to go that far! Plenty of US/Caribbean/Latin American options.
Just booked LHR-SFO return in Upper Class using a credit card voucher as a companion voucher for March 2026. Excellent miles ‘price’ for the return leg at 41,000 miles (I couldn’t see anything else under 100,000) on that particular day and outbound was the same 41,000. Taxes/charges came out at £693.52 per person, which is lower than the usual ~£1050 we have paid for the last few years. A good news story in this house today at least!
@JenT The taxes are levied in bands now. I was trying to work out the datapoint where it changes so your post helps.
As far as I can tell it’s anything over 45k or maybe 50k attracts the higher taxes. East coast is slightly lower than west coast.
There’s also the ludicrous situation that the Saver icon isn’t applied to some fares on the RFF that are clearly saver, such as a 31k PE from NY.
I’m totally confused (not difficult, I know!) It was briefly advantageous to book VS one-way award flights but has this been reversed again?
MAN-JFK in PE next May is 10.5K points plus £367. Return is 21k points plus £448. Cash fare is being quoted at £905 which makes the return booking on points just about worth it, but the one-way, barely! And that’s on the cheapest available dates.
Yes, they dropped the banding system for saver/low points awards a couple of weeks ago, so the cash component increased to a ridiculous level for all cabins.
Yes, they dropped the banding system for saver/low points awards a couple of weeks ago, so the cash component increased to a ridiculous level for all cabins.
Virgin have totally killed their reward seating for me in terms of both points and pounds. I cant find 4 seats to a good destination at a good time for a sensible price. I have a ridiculous number of points, 2+ million but i now only redeem them for events or advent calendars. I am clearly not a VS target customer.
@Jonathans Completely agree, they’ve killed the program and I bet the advent calendar goes up yet again this year to devalue that even further. It’s all about virgin red redemptions now, not flights. I’d rather pay Aer Lingus cash now.
JFK-MAN, however, in PE on the date I was looking at is 10.5K points plus $240, so it looks like the advantage has swung towards one-way trips from the US.
I should have enough flexibility to be able to still get value out of the program but it’s certainly no use for anyone with limited travel dates who needs to know what price they’ll be paying for their award seats.
Can anyone link the site please that shows you the cheapest dates for any cabin / destination.
Can anyone link the site please that shows you the cheapest dates for any cabin / destination.
This one? https://www.virginatlantic.com/reward-flight-finder
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