Update, 11/30: This record-high transfer bonus ends tonight! Read more about the new Virgin program here.

Originally posted on 10/21:

You can get a record high 40% bonus when you transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Virgin Atlantic until 11/30. The points typically transfer instantly at a 1K:1.4K ratio with this promo.

You can also get a 30% bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic until 11/16. The points typically transfer instantly at a 1K:1.3K ratio with this promo.

Virgin Atlantic points never expire!

Note that Virgin Atlantic awards for travel on Virgin change from an award chart to dynamic pricing on 10/30.

In general, Virgin Atlantic charges high fuel surcharges that kill the value of many of their awards, though travel from Israel has low surcharges.

Note that you can save big by booking travel as 2 one-way trips from the US, instead of a round-trip. Fuel surcharges for one-way or round-trip travel originating in Israel are also very low, making for some great bargains for Virgin Atlantic travel.

You may even save more by calling Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500 and asking for a companion discount.

You can hold award tickets for 3 days.

Dates changes or cancellations cost $50 ($35 if originating in UK).

There are some notable sweet spots on partner airlines.

Flying on El Al:

You can redeem Virgin points to fly on El Al.

Read this post for how to find El Al award space.

A flight between NYC and Tel Aviv costs 62K points in coach (47,692 points with a 30% bonus or 44,285 points with a 40% bonus), 84K points in coach (64,615 points with a 30% bonus or 60K points with a 40% bonus), or 150K points in coach (115,384 points with a 30% bonus or 107,142 points with a 40% bonus).

Here’s what a one-way flight to/from Tel Aviv will set you back in Virgin points, before the 30 or 40% bonus:

• Zone 1 (1-500 miles): 5.5K coach, 10K premium, 20K business.
  • Eilat, Larnaca, Paphos, Rhodes
• Zone 2 (501-1,000 miles): 11K coach, 17K premium, 28K business.
  • Athens, Bucharest, Sofia, Tbilisi, Thessaloniki
• Zone 3 (1,001-1,500 miles): 17.5K coach, 27K premium, 45K business.
  • Budapest, Chisinau, Dubai, Dubrovnik, Krakow, Rome, Tivat, Vienna
• Zone 4 (1,501-2,250 miles): 26K coach, 32K premium, 70K business.
  • Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Frankfurt, Geneva, Liege, London/LHR, London/LTN, Madrid, Marseille, Milan, Moscow, Munich, Nice, Paris, Prague, Venice, Warsaw, Zurich
• Zone 5 (2,251-3,000 miles): 31K coach, 41K premium, 80K business.
  • Casablanca, Delhi, Lisbon, Marrakech, Mumbai, Seychelles
• Zone 6 (3,001-4,000 miles): 41K coach, 54K premium, 97K business.
• Zone 7 (4,001-5,000 miles): 52K coach, 68K premium, 125K business.
  • Bangkok, Phuket
• Zone 8 (5,001-6,000 miles): 62K coach, 84K premium, 150K business.
  • Boston, JFK, Newark, Tokyo
• Zone 9 (6,001-7,000 miles): 73K coach, 97K premium, 175K business.
  • Fort Lauderdale, Miami
• Zone 10 (7,001+ miles): 91K coach, 122K premium, 220K business.
  • Los Angeles

Flying on Delta:

Virgin Atlantic points can be a bargain for flying on Delta, though after several devaluations, it’s not what it used to be.

Click here to access the Virgin Atlantic award booking page.

If you have problems typing in your desired airport you will need to click the location icon as shown below and manually search for your destination by country and state. If your destination still isn’t available you will have to call Virgin Atlantic to book award travel to that destination.

If the option to search for points isn’t available you also may need to try selecting another airport, click on pay with points, and then switch the airport. For example NYC to LAX didn’t work for me at first, but I switched the destination to San Francisco, clicked on pay with points, and then switched back to Los Angeles.

On the search page you can select one-way or round-trip, exact dates, flexible within 1 week, or within 5 weeks by changing the word “dates” in the URL to “calendar” on the award calendar search results page. You can also change the class of service by clicking on “Show advanced options.” When you are viewing the award calendar you can toggle it to show direct flights only.

There are still some domestic bargains, though Delta often blocks partner award space within 3 weeks of a flight.

For example, a flight NYC to Cleveland will be 7.5K Virgin points in main cabin with wide open availability, as long as you book 3 weeks in advance:

A zone 1 JFK-Cleveland coach ticket is 7.5K Virgin points (5,769 points with a 30% bonus or 5,357 points with a 40% bonus) or 21K points (16,154 points with a 30% bonus or 15,000 points with a 40% bonus) in first class:

Vs 21.5K in main cabin with Delta miles or 31K in first class with Delta miles:

Before the 30%-40% bonus:

• A zone 1 flight from Cleveland, Detroit, or Pittsburgh to NYC is 7.5K Virgin points in economy and 21K in first class.
• A zone 2 flight from Atlanta to NYC will is 11K Virgin points in economy and 41.5K in first class.
• A zone 3 flight from Miami to NYC is 16.5K Virgin points in economy and 59.5K in first class.
• A zone 4 flight from Denver to NYC is 18.5K Virgin points in economy and 66.5K in first class.
• A zone 5 flight from LA to NYC is 22K Virgin points in economy and 70K in first class.
• A zone 6 flight from NYC to Lima is 35K Virgin points in economy and 80K in first class.
• A zone 7 flight from NYC to Buenos Aires is 44K Virgin points in economy and 105K in first class.
• A zone 8 flight from NYC to Tel Aviv is 49.5K Virgin points in economy and 130K in first class.
• A zone 9 flight from NYC to Tokyo is 65.5K Virgin points in economy and 165K in first class.

Infant lap child awards on international flights are a bargain. While Delta charges 10% of the paid fare, which can be astronomical on one-way flights, Virgin charges just 1,000 points in coach or 5,000 points in business class each way:

Cancelations and changes officially cost $50, but are capped at the taxes paid, so are just $5.60 for a domestic one-way.

Flying on ITA:

Fly on ITA between the US and Rome for 75K points (57,692 with a 30% bonus, 53,571 points with a 40% bonus):

Flying on Air New Zealand:

You can fly on Air New Zealand between Australia or Pacific Islands and New Zealand for 15K points (11,538 with a 30% bonus or 10,714 with a 40% bonus) in business class, between Asia and New Zealand for 40K points (30,769 with a 30% bonus or 28,571 with a 40% bonus) in business class, between Hawaii and New Zealand for 45K points (34,615 with a 30% bonus or 32,142 with a 40% bonus) in business class, and between the US48 and New Zealand for 62.5K points (48,077 with a 30% bonus or 44,642 with a 40% bonus) in business class with no fuel surcharges.

Unfortunately, you do need to call Virgin Atlantic to book travel on Air New Zealand at 800-365-9500. You can search for Air New Zealand award space on United.com.

ANA flies between Tokyo Haneda or Narita from Chicago, Houston, JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington DC.

Search for business class saver awards on United.com to or from AKL and then call Virgin Atlantic to book:

Flying on ANA:

ANA is an incredible Japanese airline with great first class suites that have very comfortable beds and amazing service.

I reviewed them here towards the end of the 4th part of my Island Hopper adventure and flew on ANA’s new first class cabin last year from Tokyo to the US:

On long-haul flights you can enjoy divine Hibiki 21:

And on medium-haul flights you can enjoy also excellent Hibiki 17:

You only need 72.5K Virgin Atlantic points to fly one-way from the west coast to Japan or 85K points to fly one-way from the east coast to Japan in first class. There are fuel surcharges which are tied the price of oil from a couple months ago. Those are currently about $250 each way.

Or you can fly in business class for just 60K Virgin Atlantic points one-way from the west coast to Japan or 52.5K points to fly one-way from the east coast to Japan.

Unfortunately, you do need to call Virgin Atlantic to book travel on ANA at 800-365-9500. You can search for ANA award space on United.com.

ANA flies between Tokyo Haneda or Narita from Chicago, Houston, JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington DC.

Search for first class saver awards on United.com to or from TYO and then call Virgin Atlantic to book:

ANA’s new first class suites and business class suites are amazing!

New ANA First, with a 43″ 4K LED, a door for privacy, windows, and more:

The middle seats have a partition for privacy that goes up and down so that companions can talk to each other:

New ANA business:

Business class is staggered with forward and rear facing seats that also have privacy doors and middle partitions and go up and down:

Want to earn Virgin Atlantic points?

• You can transfer AMEX, Chase, Capital One, Or Citi points to Virgin Atlantic at a 1:1 ratio or Marriott points at a 60K:25K ratio. 

• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card is offering 75,000 bonus miles for spending $4K in 3 months, plus earn 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, $300 annual travel credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, 10K anniversary bonus miles, Global Entry/Pre-Check, Capital One lounge access, Priority Pass Lounge membership, Hertz President's Circle status, free lounge access and status for free additional cardholders, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. $395 annual fee. Read more here.
• Capital One Venture X Business is offering 150,000 bonus miles for spending $30K in 3 months, plus earn 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, $300 annual travel credit for bookings through Capital One Travel, 10K anniversary bonus miles, Global Entry/Pre-Check, Capital One lounge access, Enhanced Priority Pass Lounge membership, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. $395 annual fee. Read more here.
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is offering 75,000 bonus miles for spending $4K in 3 months, plus 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, transfer points to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. $95 annual fee. Read more here. 
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card is offering 20,000 bonus miles for spending $500 in 3 months, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. No annual fee.
• Capital One Spark Miles for Business is offering 50,000 bonus miles for spending $4,500 in 3 months, 2 miles per dollar spent on every purchase, Global Entry/PreCheck, transfer miles to airlines and hotels, 5K MLB redemptions, and more. $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95.
• New offer: Capital One Spark Cash Plus is offering $2,000 cash back (convertible to 200,000 miles) for spending $30,000 in 3 months, plus get another $2,000 cash back for every $500K spent in your first year, 2% back everywhere, $40 MLB redemptions, annual fee refund when you spend $150K/year, and more. $150 annual fee.

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has a 60K signup bonus for spending $4K in 3 months, earns 2.1 points per dollar on travel after the card's 10% anniversary bonus, 3.1 points per dollar on dining, streaming, and online groceries after the card's 10% anniversary bonus, has a $50 hotel credit, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.25 cents each for paid travel ($95 annual fee). Read more here.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a 60K signup bonus for spending $4K in 3 months, earns 3 points per dollar on dining/travel, has a $300 travel credit, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.5 cents each for paid travel ($550 annual fee with $300 travel credit). Read more here.
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card has a 90K signup bonus for spending $8K in 3 months, and earns 3 points per dollar on up to $150K of annual spending on shipping, advertising, and travel, can transfer all Chase points into miles, and points are worth at least 1.25 cents each for paid travel ($95 annual fee). Read more here.

• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card has a $750 signup bonus in the form of 75K points for spending $6K in 3 months, and earns 1.5 points per dollar on business purchases ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card has a $350 signup bonus in the form of 35K points for spending $3K in 3 months and another $400 signup bonus in the form of 40K bonus points for spending another $3K in 6 months for a total of 75,000 Chase Ultimate points, plus if you have a Chase business checking account open on the card's first anniversary you will get a 10% points bonus on all earnings from card spending, this card earns 5 points per dollar on the first $25,000 in combined purchases on cable, TV, telecom, cellular, and office supply stores, plus 2 points per dollar on dining and gas on up to $25,000 in purchases ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
• Chase Freedom Flex has a 20K signup bonus, plus 5 points on rotating categories, 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited® has a signup bonus that earns an extra 1.5% cash back in the form of 1.5 points per dollar everywhere on up to $20K of spending during your first year, on top of at least 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 5 points per dollar (marketed as 5% cash back) on travel purchased through  Chase Travel℠, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.

• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express is offering a rare bonus to earn 15,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership and offers 2 points per dollar spent on up to $50K spending annually 1 point per dollar thereafter, plus transfer points to airlines and hotels and keep AMEX points alive. Terms apply. Read more here.
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is offering a 150K bonus for spending $20,000 in 3 months and offers monthly credits, lounge access, and much more. Terms apply. Read more here.
• American Express® Business Gold Card is offering a 100K bonus for spending $15,000 in 3 months, monthly business credits, Walmart+ membership, up to 4 points per dollar spent with a $150K annual spend cap, and more benefits. Terms apply. Read more here.
• The Platinum Card® from American Express is offering an 80K bonus for spending $8,000 in 6 months and offers monthly credits, lounge access, and much more. Terms apply. Read more here.
• American Express® Gold Card is offering a 60K bonus for spending $6,000 in 6 months,  monthly credits for Uber and Grubhub, and more. Terms apply. Read more here. 
• AMEX Green Consumer Card is offering a 40K bonus for spending $3,000 in 6 months and offers up to $189 in annual CLEAR Plus® credits, $100 LoungeBuddy credit, plus transfer points to airlines and hotels and keep AMEX points alive. All information about the AMEX Green Card has been collected independently by DansDeals.

Will you transfer points to Virgin Atlantic to take advantage of this bonus? What other award sweet spots do you take advantage of?

HT: Eluzer K.

Update, 11/30/24: This transfer bonus ends tonight!

Update, 11/1/24: This offer is alive again through 11/30/24.

Note that Lifemiles recently devalued most long-haul awards without warning, though most short-haul redemptions are unchanged.

United blocks some partner award space, so always check on availability before transferring.

You can subscribe to Lifemiles to get a 10% award rebate and free cancellations.

Originally posted on 5/1/22:

Transfer AMEX Points To Avianca Lifemiles And Get A 15% Transfer Bonus

You can transfer increments of 1,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points into 1,150 Avianca Lifemiles through 5/31/22.

With this promotion you’ll be able to redeem United award flights for less than 6K points each way!

Lifemiles is one of the rare mileage programs that doesn’t collect any fuel surcharges. United is another program that does not collect fuel surcharges, but AMEX points can’t be transferred to United as they are exclusively with Chase.

• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express is offering a rare bonus to earn 15,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $3,000 in eligible purchases on the Card within your first 3 months of Card Membership and offers 2 points per dollar spent on up to $50K spending annually 1 point per dollar thereafter, plus transfer points to airlines and hotels and keep AMEX points alive. Terms apply. Read more here.
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is offering a 150K bonus for spending $20,000 in 3 months and offers monthly credits, lounge access, and much more. Terms apply. Read more here.
• American Express® Business Gold Card is offering a 100K bonus for spending $15,000 in 3 months, monthly business credits, Walmart+ membership, up to 4 points per dollar spent with a $150K annual spend cap, and more benefits. Terms apply. Read more here.
• The Platinum Card® from American Express is offering an 80K bonus for spending $8,000 in 6 months and offers monthly credits, lounge access, and much more. Terms apply. Read more here.
• American Express® Gold Card is offering a 60K bonus for spending $6,000 in 6 months,  monthly credits for Uber and Grubhub, and more. Terms apply. Read more here. 
• AMEX Green Consumer Card is offering a 40K bonus for spending $3,000 in 6 months and offers up to $189 in annual CLEAR Plus® credits, $100 LoungeBuddy credit, plus transfer points to airlines and hotels and keep AMEX points alive. All information about the AMEX Green Card has been collected independently by DansDeals.

You can also transfer Marriott points to Lifemiles at a 60K:25K ratio, or Capital One or Citi ThankYou points to Lifemiles at a 1K:1K ratio.

Note that Avianca Lifemiles require earning activity every 12 months in order to stop your miles from expiring. Transferring points to Lifemiles will extend the points validity for 12 more months.

• You’ll need to open a Lifemiles account here before you can search for award tickets online.
• Lifemiles allows you to use cash+points on award tickets, where you can effectively buy miles from about 1.5 cents each on the award search results page. You do need to have 40% of the required miles in order to do this.

Avianca is a Star Alliance member and their Lifemiles program is an interesting one. Lifemiles can be used to book travel with partner airlines like United and Air Canada within North America.

Back when I used to give regular seminars I talked about many of the glitch cities that existed that allowed you to fly to Europe or Asia for just 12.5K Lifemiles, but a blogger managed to have them killed by complaining to the DoT about a flight that involved a trip from North America to Guam via Asia that Lifemiles used to count as a domestic US award.

They recently got rid of their award charts, so I set about figuring out what they now charge for awards.

On their old award chart, Lifemiles split up the US into 3 zones:

US Zone 1: Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC.

US Zone 2: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin

US Zone 3: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming

This used to be the one-way mileage requirements for travel within the US:

The new formula isn’t published, but first I tried to figure out if it could be based off of the previous zones.

It soon became clear that the old zones are dead and things were working based on the distance of the flight.

I used GCMap.com to calculate the distance between airports and try to figure out what their new award chart is.

I included the distance flown in parenthesis in the sample routes below. Based on those I believe that Lifemiles typically charges:

• 6.5K miles in coach and 15K-16K miles in business for flights under 500 miles in distance.
• 7.5K miles in coach and 15K-16K miles in business for flights 500-799 miles in distance.
• 10K miles in coach and 15K-25K miles in business for flights 800-1,199 miles in distance.
• 12.5K+ miles in coach and 15K+ miles in business for flights 1,200+ miles in distance.

There are some exceptions. The short haul pricing only seems to apply within the US, as flights between NYC and Toronto or Montreal are 10K in coach or 15K in business. Chicago to Great Falls is 1,210 miles in distance and should cost 12.5K miles in coach, but only costs 7.5K miles. But for the most part, domestic routes in coach seemed to follow this formula.

Business class pricing though is all over the place.

Lifemiles used to always charge a $25 booking fee on top of tax, but now the booking fee is variable and starts at $10.

Note that Lifemiles also allows cash plus points. For example you can use 3.5K miles+$45 instead of 6.5K miles.

• All of these routes are under 500 miles in distance, cost 6.5K miles each way in coach, and had a $10 booking fee:
  • Chicago-Kansas City (403): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Cleveland-Chicago (315): 6.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Houston-New Orleans (305): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • LaGuardia/Newark-Cleveland (404): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Boston (200): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Columbus (463): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Detroit (488): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Pittsburgh (319): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Washington/IAD (212): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Las Vegas (236): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Phoenix (370): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-San Francisco (337): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Washington/IAD-Charlotte (322): 6.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
• The following routes cost 7.5K miles in coach and vary between 500-799 miles in distance. The booking fee on these is $10 as well:
  • Newark-Atlanta (746): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Charlotte (529): 7.5K coach, 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Newark-Cincinnati (569): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
  • LaGuardia/Newark-Chicago (719): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Jackson Hole (784): 7.5K coach. 15K business. $10 booking fee.
  • San Francisco-Seattle (679): 7.5K coach, 25K business. $10 booking fee.
  • Washington/IAD-Orlando (758): 7.5K coach, 16K business. $10 booking fee.

Exception route: Chicago-Great Falls (1,210): 7.5K coach, 15K business. $25 booking fee.

• The following routes cost 10K miles each and vary between 800-1,199 miles in distance. The booking fee on these ranged from $15-$25:
  • Chicago-Bozeman (1,186): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Chicago-Denver (888): 10K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Cleveland-Orlando (895): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Chicago-Fort Lauderdale (1,182): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • LaGuardia/Newark-Toronto (357): 10K coach, 15K business. $25 booking fee.
  • LaGuardia/Newark-Montreal (324): 10K coach, 15K business. $25 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Colorado Springs (833): 10K coach. $15 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Denver (862): 10K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Seattle (954): 10K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Newark-Fort Lauderdale (1,065): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Newark-Kansas City (1,094): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Newark-Orlando (937): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Newark-New Orleans (1,167): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Washington/IAD-Fort Lauderdale (901): 10K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
• The following awards over 1,200 miles in distance cost 12.5K or more miles:
  • Chicago-El Paso (1,236): 12.5K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Chicago-Salt Lake City (1,250): 12.5K coach, 25K business. $15 booking fee.
  • LaGuardia/Newark-Houston (1,400): 12.5K coach, 15K business. $15 booking fee.
  • Newark-Vancouver (2,429): 12.5K coach, 25K business. $25 booking fee.
  • Newark-Los Angeles (2,454): 13.5K coach, 25K business. $25 booking fee.
  • Los Angeles-Honolulu (2,256): 15K coach, 40K business. $25 booking fee.
  • Newark-Honolulu (4,962): 15K coach. Keep dreaming in business. $25 booking fee.
  • JFK-Zurich (3,931): 16.5K coach, 63K business. $25 booking fee.
  • Newark-Sao Paulo (4,758): 30K coach, 50K business. $25 booking fee.
  • Newark-Tel Aviv (5,692): 42.5K coach, 78K business. $25 booking fee.

While I typically book all of my travel as one-way as that allows the most flexibility, with Lifemiles you’ll pay the booking fee twice if you book 2 one-way awards instead of a round-trip award.

It’s worth noting that Lifemiles has non-existent customer service and their website does not see all of the awards that it should, so you should always check for availability before transferring miles.

Will you transfer points to Lifemiles?

HT: TzviR, via DDF