DansDeals will receive compensation if you are approved for a credit card via a link in this post. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers, visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Update: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!
Update: The Capital One transfer bonus ends tonight at 11:59pm ET.
Update: This transfer is alive again from Capital One through 10/31 and from Chase through 11/12!
Originally posted on 5/1/22:
Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Into Virgin Atlantic Miles And Get A 30% Bonus
Chase executives told me when they launched Ultimate Rewards point transfers to airlines that they decided to focus on strong partners with easy to understand transfer ratios and not on assorted transfer ratios and transfer bonuses.
But times are changing and Chase has their first ever Virgin Atlantic transfer bonus.
Chase points normally transfer into Virgin Atlantic miles at a 1K:1K ratio, but until 6/15 you can get 1,300 Virgin Atlantic miles for every 1,000 Chase points. The miles typically transfer instantly.
Virgin Atlantic miles never expire!
In general, Virgin Atlantic charges high fuel surcharges that kill the value of many of their awards.
For example a round-trip coach ticket from JFK to London on Virgin Atlantic is just 20K miles (under 16K Chase points), but the taxes and fuel surcharges add $486. Premium Economy is 35K miles+$963. Business class is 95K miles and you’ll also owe $1,963 in taxes and fuel surcharges. Ouch!
If you only need a one-way ticket from NYC to London it’s not as bad. 10K miles+$150 in coach, 17.5K miles+$325 in premium economy, or 47.5K miles+$825 in business class.
You can save money by booking travel on 2 one-way trips. A one-way ticket from London to NYC is 10K miles+$269 in coach, 17.5K miles+$490 in premium economy, or 47.5K miles+$780 in business class.
Or for example a round-trip coach ticket from JFK to Tel Aviv on Virgin Atlantic is just 38K miles (30K Chase points), but the taxes and fuel surcharges add $548. Premium Economy is 67K miles+$798. Business class is 151K miles and you’ll also owe $1,498 in taxes and fuel surcharges.
If you originate in Tel Aviv then the round-trip coach ticket from Tel Aviv to JFK on Virgin Atlantic is 38K miles plus $428. Premium Economy is 67K miles+$390. Business class is 151K miles plus $510.
If you only need a one-way ticket from NYC to Tel Aviv you’ll pay 19K miles+$253 in coach, 33.5K miles+$378 in premium economy, or 75.5K miles+$728 in business class.
You can save money by booking travel on 2 one-way trips. A one-way ticket from Tel Aviv to NYC is 19K miles+$235 in coach, 33.5K miles+$216 in premium economy, or 75.5K miles+$276 in business class.
Flying on Delta:
There are some notable sweet spots on partner airlines:
Virgin Atlantic miles can be a bargain for flying on Delta. They also can book saver award space, even when there’s none available on Delta.com!
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 miles isn’t available you also may need to try selecting another airport, click on pay with miles, 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 miles, 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. 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.
You generally won’t want to use Virgin miles for Delta flights to the UK, as they tack on fuel surcharges.
However you can fly on Delta to the rest of Europe for just 30K miles in coach or 50K miles in business class each way.
For the rest of the world besides Europe, Virgin has a distance based award chart for travel on Delta:
You can check what a ticket will cost by checking the distance between city pairs on GCmap.com.
For example a flight from Cleveland to NYC will be 7.5K Virgin miles in main cabin (under 6K Chase points) or 17.5K in first class (under 14K Chase points) with this is a zone 1 award as the flight distance between Cleveland and NYC is under 500 miles.
Vs 14K in main cabin with Delta miles or 22.5K in first class with Delta miles:
Detroit to NYC is also a zone 1 award.
JFK to Tel Aviv costs 35K miles each way in coach as a zone 8 award. That’s under 27K Chase points!
Similar to BA Avios, you have to pay for each segment separately.
That means if I want to fly from Cleveland to Tel Aviv via JFK, it will cost 42.5K miles (35K for JFK-TLV+7.5K for CLE-JFK):
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 miles in coach or 5,000 miles in business class each way:
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.
You only need 110K Virgin Atlantic miles to fly round-trip from the west coast to Japan or 120K miles to fly round-trip from the east coast to Japan in first class.
Unfortunately, fuel surcharges do apply, and those very high now at $434 each way. The surcharge for tickets issued in October and November are calculated based on the price of the Singapore jet fuel in June and July, when it was extremely pricey. I’d expect that to go down significantly for tickets issued in December, with those surcharges based on the price in August and September.
Virgin Atlantic now allows for one-way travel for half the round-trip rate in the chart below!
That means you only need 55K Virgin miles to fly one-way from the west coast to Japan or 60K miles to fly one-way from the east coast to Japan in first class.
Compare that to 121K United miles for the one-way flight!
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.
You can fly in ANA first class to Tokyo/Narita from Chicago, Houston, JFK, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington DC.
You can fly in ANA first class to Tokyo/Haneda from Chicago, JFK, or Los Angeles.
Search for first class saver awards on United.com to TYO and then call Virgin Atlantic to book:
They’re rolling out new first class suites and business class suites that look 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:
Will you transfer points from Chase to Virgin Atlantic to take advantage of this bonus? What other award sweet spots do you take advantage of?
Leave a Reply
25 Comments On "[Ends Tonight!] Transfer Capital One Or Chase Points To Virgin Atlantic And Get A 30% Bonus: Book Discounted Delta Awards, ANA First Class Bargains, And More!"
All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.
I don’t see any options to fly Delta NYC-TLV. Is there an award chart to view by month? Thanks!
Just click on flex dates when searching.
I selected flex dates and went through many different months, I haven’t seen even one Delta flight JFK-TLV… Found only the Virgin Atlantic flihgts with $549 fuel surcharges
Am I missing something???
@Dan having the same issue here, any advice
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/travel-tips-workarounds-bring-back-good-old-award-airfare-search-interface/
I don’t see NYC-DTW virgin for deletion any months flexible dates
I also tried searching BWI or WAS to several US airports, and got no results except 34k round trip to Miami.
hi thank you for the informative post however I find that delta space on v atlanti doesnt get released far in advance i am looking for award space in july and august and only see virgin flights with heavy surcharges
Having a hard time finding any availability for LAX-NYC or FLL-LAX.
Is it only for some short haul cities?
When the airline is saying that change fees are waived on none basic economy tickets but the difference may be owed , does that mean that if I choose another date that the rate is cheaper would I get a refund of the difference?
Can you book US domestic? I do not see any availability. I just called and waited on hold for an hour and the rep said they can only book delta on Intl tickets. Is this site off with US Domestic?
If so what is the best partner miles to use with amex, or chase points for Delta on USA domestic flight?
Thank you. Are stopovers allowed for ANA? I am thinking about a trip from SFO to Asia with a stop in Japan.
PHL to LAX (nearby airport OK) round trip not available from 6/24 to 6/27. Please help. Thanks.
Not sure you will see this question so hopefully someone in the know responds. Bc you can book flying blue and virgin with the points of the other, does it make sense to get the 25% bonus on chase transfers to flying blue or just do it all to Virgin for the 30% bonus? That seems to be the better choice but not sure if there is anything i am missing. Again, great job on covering the Lufthansa anti semitism!
THEIR WEBSITE SUCKS! I can’t search flights without getting an error.
Same. Has anyone experienced this error and found a way around it? I am trying to book NYC to FRA June 27th
chase execs told you yep. they told me also after i wrote to them asking to reopen my cards after they shut me down
Is this still available?
Alive again
Kedai to transfer for someday going to israel? or btter to keep now as Chase points and have more future flexibility and options, inlcuding revenue tickets at 1.5/ 1.25
What would be your word of wisdom?
Don’t transfer until you’re ready to redeem.
Thank you
When ready to book check available first before transer points ?
Gmar tov !
I am trying to use VA points for first class travel on ANA from Houston IAH to NRT the 2nd or 3rd week of March for a week of travel. Or any date for all of June and July for a week of travel. Thank you
dan, trying to check tickets nyc to florida, can you please help?
If you book Delta on Virgin 50k nyc to Europe, what if you want to continue from Europe to Israel in Economy, will you have to check in again since your trip (50k in Business) is to Europe, not to Israel?
How much would be NYC-TLV biz class?