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Update, 3/31: The Capital One 30% transfer bonus offer ends today!
Update, 3/18: The Citi 30% transfer bonus offer ends today!
Update, 3/7: Virgin Atlantic has just devalued their ANA partner award chart without notice. It had been one of the great bargains with miles.
A first class award between Hawaii and Japan has gone up from 45K to 57.5K miles each way. A first class award between the US west coast and Japan has gone up from 55K to 72.5K miles each way. A first class award between the US east coast and Japan has gone up from 60K to 85K miles each way.
That’s still less than the 110K Air Canada miles or 121K United miles for those routes, but unlike Virgin Atlantic those airlines don’t pass on fuel surcharges, allow online booking, and allow tag-on flights to and from other destinations.
It’s another reminder why I also suggest keeping miles as bank points and only transferring to airlines on demand when needed.
Surprisingly, business class rates haven’t gone up. A business class award between Hawaii and Japan is 35K miles each way. A business class award between the US west coast and Japan is 45K miles each way. A business class award between the US east coast and Japan is 47.5K miles each way.
Update, 3/1: Capital One just added the same 30% transfer bonus through 3/31. Read the post below to learn how to capitalize on this promotion!
Originally posted on 2/20/23:
You can login here get a 30% bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou Points to Virgin Atlantic until 3/18. The points typically transfer instantly at a 1K:1.3K ratio with this promo.
Virgin Atlantic points never expire!
In general, Virgin Atlantic charges high fuel surcharges that kill the value of many of their awards.
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.
However they charge low mileage rates and are currently offering 30% off many awards. That will stack nicely with this 30% transfer bonus.
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.
Flying on Delta:
There are some notable sweet spots on partner airlines:
Virgin Atlantic points 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 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. 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 points 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 points in coach or 50K points 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 points in main cabin (under 6K Citi points) or 17.5K in first class (under 14K Citi 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 points each way in coach as a zone 8 award. That’s under 27K Citi 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 points (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 points in coach or 5,000 points 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 points to fly round-trip from the west coast to Japan or 120K points to fly round-trip from the east coast to Japan in first class.
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 points to fly one-way from the west coast to Japan or 60K points to fly one-way from the east coast to Japan in first class.
Compare that to 121K United points 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 have introduced 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 Citi to Virgin Atlantic to take advantage of this bonus? What other award sweet spots do you take advantage of?
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45 Comments On "[Ends Today!] Transfer Capital One Points To Virgin Atlantic And Get A 30% Bonus: Book Discounted Delta Awards, Incredible ANA First Class Bargains, And More!"
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Every flight I click on from my phone browser tells me there are no award flight available. I check multiple dates and cities. I looked at jfk to cle, jfk to Mia, jfk to fco, jfk to mxp. I checked every day next month. Does that make sense?
Nope. Try from a computer.
On the dates where it says not available are those the ones that you said you could call up and book? Or that’s only if Delta is not showing award space but Virgin is?
Companion discount? Please, tell us more
I’ve read about it online, but reps had no idea what I’m talking about. At least as of last summer when it was first publicized.
You need a virgin credit card to get a companion
Info can be found here: https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/flying-club/spend-points/companion-seats.html
Why do I see only the Virgin options at the link to book partner airlines>Delta, no Delta flights, just a single page chart, fuel surcharges $4-500? Am I missing something?
same here
dan, do you know if i can book thru virgin , delta or other domestic flights in usa like miami to nyc etc?
Can’t currently transfer points, Citi is having issues, told me to call back in a few days they are working on it.
Dan, what do you value a TYP, in regard to selling.
Thanks Dan for all your great tips! I just called and asked for companion discount. The rep gave me half off the miles for my wife’s ticket. And I do not have their cc.
Awesome. What route and what did you pay in total?
I’m flying tlv to jfk with stop in lhr. Flying premium economy for 49720 miles plus $409 in fees for me and my wife.
Is that one-way or round-trip?
One way. March 30th. Didn’t find better anywhere else.
Does anyone know if I can transfer from my wives Citi account to my own virgin account, will the transfer get stuck?
Not sure. Transfer to your Citi first?
I don’t have a Citi account… What’s the worst that could happen?
It bounces back eventually.
But why not transfer to her Virgin account to book you?
Already booked the ticket with my account and don’t want to loose it, can I have Thank You account just with a Citi checking account?
Ended up transferring miles from Chase. When I called in in the first place to make the reservation I asked for a companion discount, the agent told me that when I call in to finish the payment I should ask for it, when I called to do it, the first agent didn’t know about this discount I HUCA’d and the second agent was able to give me the companion ticket for free and only pay the taxes and fuel charges (that is not cheap…).
Thank you Dan! I booked flights to Israel for the summer, I called for a companion discount and they gave half the points off one of my kids. I do not have a CC with them.
I am getting fuel surcharges of $250+ (one way jfk-tlv)
What am i doing wrong?
Nothing. That’s what they charge
on Dans examples above, they seem to have fees of $5 or so
Those are examples of Delta flights bookable with Virgin because Saver award space was available. Virgin charges hefty fees for flights in their own metal
Does companion have to be a relative?
I have no specific travel plans at the moment. Does it makes sense to move my Capital One Points to Virgin to get the 30% discount when I need it, or am I limiting myself. I live in Israel, so good chance that I will have a few Tel Aviv to US trips coming
You’re limiting yourself
Dan, I’m seeing availability on deltas site for direct from Tlv to jfk but it is not showing on virgin I called them as well and that did not help. Anyway to get this?
No. Clearly there’s no delta saver space available then
Searching on a laptop, but every destination I try gives me this error even though I have flexible dates checked! ” Sorry, no reward flights are available for your search, some flights don’t operate every day. Try selecting flexible dates to see more availability.#101638_A”. I’m searching JFK to Europe (tried multiple cities)
What the heck am I doing wrong?
Nothing. Clearly there’s no delta saver space available then
How come the direct Delta flight from BOS to SAN doesn’t show up on Virgin’s portal?
Because there’s no delta saver space available on the days you’re looking at
The examples of flights shown in the post above are all from last year. Most are over a year old. Not seeing those types of USA-Europe vice-versa mileage rates?
If using Virgin Atlantic miles to book a Delta flight, can you then attach the Delta Skymiles number to get a free checked bag using the Delta Amex credit card benefit? If so, do you have to pay fees with the Delta Amex?
Yes you can and no your don’t
My daughter is planning on going to sem in Israel for 2023/2024 school year, WGH. Does it male sense to transfer points now?
Dan, a word about citi to lifemiles 20% bonus please
I searched many many dates and there aren’t any Delta nonstop flights TLV-NYC available through Virgin
I’ve never been able to find business or first availability on ana from NYC. Has anyone…?
Im so pissed. I specifically transferred enough points for round trip east cost to TYO in F during a %30 transfer bonus from amex around 6 months ago. I was waiting for Japan to open back up and then shortly after when it did I ended up procrastinating on booking something and now this happens. They should of at least gave 2 weeks notice. רשעים ארורים