How to book Delta award flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points
Editor's Note
Though Virgin Atlantic joined SkyTeam in early 2023, its Flying Club loyalty program may not be as well known as some of its alliance partners — especially Delta SkyMiles.
However, Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club program has so many great partner redemptions that it's worth getting to know the program if you're looking for good-value award flights. The loyalty program has many gems, including cheap premium cabin awards to Japan and business-class flights to the South Pacific.
While Delta is not generous in releasing premium cabin awards to partner airlines, compared with the more than 350,000 SkyMiles Delta can charge for a single flight, there are some great deals to be found booking through Virgin Atlantic instead.
If you're considering moving away from SkyMiles thanks to the recent changes to status levels and lounge access, here is how to use Virgin points to book Delta flights.
How to earn Virgin Points
Before we get into how to use them, it's important to note how easy it is to collect Virgin points — even without flying Virgin Atlantic or its partners.
Flying Club is a transfer partner of every major transferable point currency:
- American Express Membership Rewards (1:1)
- Bilt Rewards (1:1)
- Capital One (1:1)
- Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1)
- Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1)
- Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 with a 5,000-point bonus for transferring 60,000 points, 48-hour transfer time)
It's worth noting that Bilt Rewards points and Capital One miles transfer to Virgin Red, not directly to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. However, you can easily use your Virgin Red account points with Flying Club.
Some of the above programs offer regular transfer bonuses to Flying Club, meaning you might need even fewer points than you first thought.
That means you've got plenty of options for earning rewards to transfer to Flying Club, many of which feature terrific welcome bonuses. Here's just a sample of the travel rewards credit cards that earn these transferable points that can be converted to Virgin points:
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- American Express® Gold Card
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Ink Business Preferred Credit Card
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Virgin Atlantic's Delta award chart
While Delta did away with its award charts years ago with some eye-watering dynamic prices, Flying Club has retained award rates for Delta-operated flights, with some quirks and caveats.
You'll now see three Delta award charts on Flying Club's website.
- U.S. to U.K. nonstop flights
- U.S. to Europe (excluding the U.K.) nonstop flights
- All other Delta reward flights
Here's the award chart for one-way, nonstop flights from the U.S. to the U.K.:
Meanwhile, the award chart for flights from the U.S. to the rest of Europe is as follows:
For all other Delta flights — such as flights within North America, as well as to Asia, Australia and South America — Virgin Atlantic uses a distance-based award chart. Each segment is priced separately based on the following table for travel up to Dec. 31, 2023:
For flights departing from Jan. 1, 2024 and onward, Flying Club recently increased these Delta flights' prices.
While there are some sharp increases for redemption prices in 2024, Flying Club will still charge fewer points than Delta's SkyMiles program may charge for the same flights thanks to SkyMiles' dynamic pricing. Therefore, it is worth checking the prices of both programs where you have transferable credit card points, as there is still value to be had.
For a round-trip ticket, you'll need to pay double the cost of a one-way ticket. And as noted above, you'll redeem points for each segment individually. As a result, flying from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) will require additional points if you connect through a Delta hub like Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) — even though the total distance flown with the connection is just a few miles longer.
Also, Flying Club members can't book Delta Premium Select (premium economy) awards on any route.
Related: Is Delta Air Lines premium economy worth it between New York and London?
While these are excellent redemptions for Delta One, unfortunately, we no longer see any Delta One award space provided to Virgin Atlantic to or from Europe or the U.K. at the time of publication.
It's understandable that if Delta has SkyMiles members willing to pay 750,000 miles for a round-trip redemption to Europe in business class, the airline would be hesitant to provide these same seats to partners to redeem for a fraction of that price.
Sweet spots for Delta flights
There are some great sweet spots where you can use Virgin points to book Delta flights. Main Cabin economy awards are readily available to London-area airports and represent a terrific value, especially on off-peak dates for a solid product.
Related: A review of Delta Air Lines economy on the Boeing 767 from London to New York
While Delta flights should start from 15,000 Virgin points each way to London, we have seen some dates go for as low as 10,000 points; however, there are carrier-imposed surcharges to be paid.
Considering Delta charges 58,000 SkyMiles for the same Main Cabin flight, booking this flight for just 10,000 Virgin Points is terrific.
You can also use the handy reward seat searcher to quickly check the availability of Delta flights, month by month, on routes to and from the U.K.
You'll need a higher 30,000 Virgin points to fly Delta from the U.S. to European destinations outside the U.K. Still, the benefit is that the fees and taxes are virtually nil, and there are no pesky surcharges.
This same flight through Delta would set you back 66,000 miles.
Despite the recent price increase for most non-Europe Delta flights, the distance-based chart for other Delta-operated flights can also be valuable. Flights less than 500 miles in length escaped the devaluation and are still just 7,500 Virgin points per flight.
Especially for domestic Delta-operated flights, we recommend focusing on routes covering up to 2,000 miles. You may snag a Delta reward for less than is possible with other programs like Delta's SkyMiles program.
Try to look for nonstop flights since a connecting itinerary will price segment by segment (and thus have a higher price).
On long-haul Delta flights to regions other than the U.K./Europe, we have only seen availability on a limited number of routes and only in Main Cabin economy.
How to search Delta flights
You can search and book Delta flights on the Virgin Atlantic website.
To search, start here and enter the requested information. Don't forget to change the "Show Price In" choice from Money to Points. I also recommend selecting "Show Flexible Dates" if you have flexibility.
Virgin Atlantic's website doesn't show a handful of airports when you search by entering the three-digit airport code. If this happens to you, click the "Full Airport List" button and select your airport.
Selecting "Show Flexible Dates" will display a small range of dates and prices.
When you click on a given date, you'll arrive at the screen with flights you can select.
After confirming your flight details, log in to your Flying Club account. At this point, you'll receive a message if you don't have enough points to book the award.
As noted, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards to Flying Club. The points will typically reach your account instantly.
However, you may need to log out and back in to access your updated balance.
Bottom line
Delta's decision to remove its award charts in 2015 has led to incredibly high award ticket prices. However, there are often ways to book these flights for significantly fewer points than Delta would charge.
One option to consider for select routes is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
It's always worth a few minutes to check Virgin Atlantic's website before booking an award ticket on Delta.