Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers some of the most valuable ways to spend Chase Ultimate Rewards. Whether you're looking for premium cabin flights across the world or non-stop domestic flights within the U.S., Virgin Atlantic has something for everyone.
Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards to Partners
Points transfers to Chase partners are only possible if you (or someone in your household) hold one of these cards:
Also, once you have one of the cards above, you can also earn transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards with any of these cards:
- Chase Freedom Flex
- Chase Freedom Unlimited
- Chase Ink Business Cash
- Chase Ink Business Unlimited
- any former versions of these cards (Chase Freedom, Chase Ink Business Plus, etc.)
Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners
Chase Ultimate Rewards has 11 airline partners and 3 hotel partners:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada (coming “late 2021”)
- British Airways
- Emirates
- Flying Blue (KLM/Air France)
- Iberia
- JetBlue
- Singapore Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
- Hyatt
- IHG
- Marriott
Booking Awards with Virgin Atlantic
To transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic, you can follow the steps in our transfer guide. Transfers to Virgin Atlantic are instant. If you don't have enough Ultimate Rewards for your flight, Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Points, Amex Membership Rewards, and Marriott, so you can transfer from those programs, too.
For most partner award bookings, you must call Virgin Atlantic's call center. The U.S. call center can be reached at +1 800 365 9500. Virgin Atlantic's agents are among the best in the airline industry. Their competence and efficiency is second to none, making the availability search and booking process pretty painless. And since Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer instantly, you can wait to transfer until after the agent finds availability for the flight you want.
Award flights through Delta are one of the few exceptions where you can actually book online directly on Virgin Atlantic's website.
Virgin Atlantic Redemption Sweet Spots
Virgin Atlantic does not belong to any of the major airline alliances, but it partners with members of both Star Alliance and SkyTeam. Depending on the partner, redemptions are either zone-based or distance-based.
Premium Cabin to Japan on ANA
Virgin Atlantic is known for perhaps the best sweet spot in the award travel world: premium cabin from the U.S. to Japan on All Nippon Airways (ANA). Economy is pretty cheap too, but business and first class awards are a steal. Flights from the East Coast are only a bit more expensive than flights out of the West Coast. Here is the award chart (all prices are round-trip; one-way flights cost half the round-trip mileage required):
Until very recently, award bookings through ANA had to be round-trip. But now, you can book one-way awards on ANA through Virgin Atlantic! This makes life easier because you don't have to find availability for two flights. If you do book a round-trip award, keep in mind that you can mix cabins. This can be helpful if availability is hard to find.
To find availability, we recommend searching directly on ANA's website, through United Airlines' website, or through Air Canada's Aeroplan website. Once you find the dates you want, you have to call Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Redemptions on ANA come with taxes and surcharges, but they are not exorbitant.
Delta Sweet Spots
Another Virgin Atlantic sweet spot is flying Delta One from the U.S. to Europe for only 50,000 miles one-way. Many Delta award redemptions can be booked through Virgin Atlantic's website, so you can avoid using the phone for this one. You will only pay $5.60 in taxes for Delta flights to Europe starting in the U.S. For flights originating in Europe, taxes and fees will vary depending on the country of departure, but those taxes will be much higher than $5.60.
Using Virgin Atlantic for awards on Delta is also helpful for domestic flights in the U.S. For these redemptions, Virgin Atlantic uses a distance-based award chart, and flights start as low as 7,500 miles in economy. Here is Virgin Atlantic's award chart for all domestic flights, as well as non-UK and non-EU flights on Delta:
If your flight on Delta requires a connection, Virgin Atlantic will add those two segments together and charge you the added amount for both segments.
Final Thoughts
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers terrific value for Chase Ultimate Rewards for international and domestic flights. Whether you want to fly to Europe, Japan, or another country in the comfort of a premium cabin, or take a weekend getaway on a domestic Delta flight, Virgin Atlantic can save you a ton of money. How do you plan to use your Virgin Atlantic miles? Come over to our Facebook group and let us know.
