Virgin Atlantic Devalues Delta One Awards

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club does a lot of things well, and a lot of what they do is great for award travelers like us. But sadly, one thing they are very good at as well is stealth devaluations. Virgin Atlantic appears to have devalued Delta One award prices between the US and Europe by jacking up the price for these awards. As has become their MO, Virgin Atlantic devalues Delta One awards with no advance notice or any notice at all. This was one of Rick's favorite redemptions, so let's pour one out for him.

Delta One Awards with Virgin Atlantic

Booking Delta One flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points used to be one of the best deals for flying to Europe in business class from the US. Flights on Delta One used to cost just 50,000 points from anywhere in the US. Availability was usually hard to find but still doable. Sadly, as Thrifty Traveler points out, Virgin Atlantic has increased the cost of this redemption while also adding some hefty surcharges.

The miniscule silver lining here is that economy awards were spared and their prices remain the same.

Delta One Awards to Europe

Virgin Atlantic devalued Delta One awards in two ways. First, Virgin Atlantic has split the US into two zones for their award chart between the US and Europe, dividing the US between West Coast and East Coast. Not surprising, flights between the West Coast and Europe are now more expensive than those from the East Coast.

How expensive are we talking? Here is the new award chart for Delta flights between the US and Europe (excluding UK), showing off-peak pricing (prices are one-way):

Even though the cost in points between the East Coast and Europe has gone down for Delta One redemptions, the new surcharges still make this a net loss for award travelers. I would never trade 2,500 Virgin Atlantic points (let alone any transferable currency) for $1,000.

And here is the cost of peak pricing between the US and Europe:

That price of 77,500 points from the West Coast to Europe represents more than a 50% increase over the previous price of 50,000 points. Seriously, everyone, let's be extra nice to Rick for the next few days.

It's also unclear whether Midwest cities like Minneapolis or Detroit will fall under East Coast or West Coast. But I expect them to price out as East Coast since those cities are grouped under Central US in the UK charts below and have very similar pricing to East Coast awards.

Delta One Awards to the UK

Virgin Atlantic also devalued the cost of Delta One awards to the UK, which has different pricing than flights to Europe. Here, Virgin Atlantic split the US into three zones: East Coast US, Central US, and West Coast US. Prices are more expensive the farther away you get from Europe, as expected.

Here is the award chart for off-peak pricing:

Prices are identical to the flights to/from Europe for Delta One. I'm not sure why Flying Club decided to add Central US as a separate zone in the UK award chart but not the Europe chart, especially since the only difference between the two zones is 2,500 points for economy seats.

The new award chart for peak pricing to/from the UK is consistent with the one for Europe as well:

Virgin Atlantic Delta award chart to UK (off-peak)

Connections Cost Additional Miles

If your flight requires a connection, Virgin Atlantic will charge you a separate price for that additional flight and add it to the non-stop price shown above. For example, if you're flying from Boston to Amsterdam but need to position to Boston from New York, the cost of those two separate flights will be added together (7,500 + 47,500 points).

Virgin Atlantic Devalues Delta One Awards: ToP Thoughts

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has devalued Delta One awards to Europe and the UK by increasing the cost in points and tacking on hefty surcharges. Doing this with no notice (whether advance or otherwise) makes this sting even more, but that has been Virgin Atlantic's playbook for years. Economy awards remain unchanged. Meanwhile, Delta awards to other regions of the world continue to follow Virgin Atlantic's distance-based award chart for Delta redemptions.

What do you make of this devaluation? Come share your thoughts in our Facebook group!