Virgin Atlantic Increases Award Fees
As first reported by Thrifty Traveler this weekend, there's been (another) no-notice devaluation. Virgin Atlantic increases award fees without a word and without any warning. What seems like nothing at first, after all what is $25 here or there, suddenly becomes a big deal. This is the airlines' 2nd award fee increase in less than a year and some of these increases are quite significant, up to $250 each way. Once you add them all together, Virgin Atlantic is quickly making its own award program almost irrelevant for trans-Atlantic travel. We explain more below.
Historical Virgin Atlantic Award Fees
Prior to June 2025, the airline had saver awards to the UK from the USA for the following prices starting at:
- 6,000 points + $75 for economy
- 10,500 points + $106 for premium economy
- 29,000 points + $255 for business
In June 2025, Virgin Atlantic increases award fees up to ~115% or more, with prices starting at:
- 6,000 points + $111 for economy
- 10,500 points + $240 for premium economy
- 29,000 points + $575 for business
Even with these massive increases, you could still justify these award fees and consider these awards a “good deal,” especially when flying to the UK. If you decided to fly Virgin Atlantic back to the USA, you'd face even higher fees (up to $700 for business class) and it was harder to consider that a good deal. Now, it's almost impossible to consider any of these awards as worthy of our consideration.
Latest Award Fee Increase
As of April 2026, the award fees have increased across the board. For awards from the USA to the UK include the following fees:
- $164 for economy (a 119% increase from pre-June 2025 and a 47.7% increase from June 2025)
- $298 for premium economy (a 181% increase from pre-June 2025 and a 24% increase from June 2025)
- $700 for business (a 175% increase from pre-June 2025 and a 21.7% increase from June 2025)
Yes, you're seeing that correctly. Virgin Atlantic increases some award fees by almost triple over this time last year and a minimum of ~22% over just last week. The astronomical fees are not only on flights to the UK though. We now see crazy high fees to fly back to the USA. These include:
- £243 ($330 as of 4/14/26) for economy
- £468 ($635 as of 4/14/26) for premium economy
- £720 ($977 as of 4/14/26) for business
When you put these award fees together, it puts the lowest round-trip from the USA to the UK at these costs:
- 12,000 points and $494 per person in economy
- 21,000 points and $933 per person in premium economy
- 58,000 points and $1,677 per person in business
Virgin Atlantic Increases Award Fees: ToP Thoughts
If you value your miles at 2 cents each, the actual cost is $734 for economy, $1,353 for premium economy, or $2,837 in business. Certainly not terrible, but mostly defeating the purpose of using points & miles for travel. Alternatively, you could pay the award fees on a card like the Venture, Venture X or Venture X Business and then erase the cash cost with Capital One Miles at 1 cent per mile. That makes the total cost of the above round-trips 60,412 miles for economy, 112,434 miles for premium economy, or 170,146 miles for business. Remember that this calculation does NOT factor in the lost miles you could earn by paying award fees on a 4-5X airline card either, like a Chase Sapphire Reserve Business or an Amex Platinum.
When you break down the math, these Virgin Atlantic awards just are not worth it anymore for most folks, at least for round-trip awards. Yes, 12,000 points round-trip to the UK sounds lovely, but $494 per person in fees is awful. Unfortunately, the math remains true with both premium economy and business.
What are your thoughts on Virgin Atlantic increasing award fees? Come over to our Facebook group and let us know.
