Which Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership associate redemptions will be booked on-line?

At TPG, we frequently reward Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Membership program as probably the most underrated and high-powered frequent flyer applications. Flying Membership is a switch associate of all main bank card applications, so Virgin factors are simple to earn.

Nonetheless, simply because the factors are simple to earn doesn’t imply they’re simple to make use of.

Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam alliance in 2023 and has a number of different nonalliance airline companions with which you’ll be able to earn and redeem Virgin factors. Sadly, Virgin’s web site shouldn’t be essentially the most user-friendly and has many limitations.

Some Flying Membership redemption companions will be booked on-line, whereas others require you to hunt for award house and name in to ebook.

What are the Flying Membership airline companions?

You’ll be able to earn and redeem Virgin Atlantic factors on the next member airways of the SkyTeam alliance:

• Aerolinas Argentinas
• Aeromexico
• Air Europa
• Air France
• China Airways
• China Jap Airways
• Czech Airways
• Delta Air Traces
• Garuda Indonesia
• ITA Airways
• Kenya Airways
• KLM
• Korean Air
• Center East Airways
• Saudia
• TAROM
• Vietnam Airways
• Virgin Atlantic
• Xiamen Airways

Along with these airways, you may as well ebook award flights with the next non-SkyTeam airways utilizing Virgin factors:

• Air New Zealand (Star Alliance)
• All Nippon Airways (Star Alliance)
• El Al
• Hawaiian Airways
• Singapore Airways (Star Alliance)
• South African Airways (Star Alliance)
• Virgin Australia

You may also earn Virgin factors — however not redeem them — with companions Scandinavian Airways, IndiGo and LATAM.

Which Flying Membership associate airways will be booked on-line?

Along with flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, Flying Membership members can redeem their Virgin factors on the next associate airways (for all different airways, you have to name 800-862-8621 to ebook).

Associated: Is Virgin Atlantic premium economic system value it on the A330-900neo?

Air France-KLM

To keep away from the numerous surcharges Flying Membership imposes on flights operated by Virgin Atlantic, reserving flights operated by Air France-KLM will be an inexpensive approach to make use of Virgin factors to fly to Europe and past. Whereas premium economic system on these airways shouldn’t be normally obtainable to ebook on-line or by cellphone, economic system and enterprise class will be booked on-line on the following charges:

• One-way economic system flight to Europe from the West Coast for 15,000 factors
• One-way economic system flight to the Center East from the East Coast for 25,000 factors
• One-way business-class flight to Europe from the East Coast for 48,500 factors
• One-way business-class flight from the East Coast to North Africa for 66,500 factors

Associated: Non-public suites and high-tech touches: What it’s like flying Air France’s new enterprise class

Delta Air Traces

With Delta taking dynamic pricing to the intense and charging 300,000-plus miles for one-way, worldwide, business-class awards, utilizing Virgin Atlantic to attain low-cost awards will be nice.

Lengthy-haul flights to Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America are pretty simple to search out and will be booked on-line.

Associated: A overview of Delta Air Traces economic system on the Boeing 767 from London to New York

Sadly, Delta’s premium economic system product is unavailable to ebook with Virgin factors, and whereas Delta One business-class seats can technically be booked on-line, they’re very hardly ever obtainable and now include large surcharges.

Quick-haul flights operated by Delta are simple to ebook on-line. Costs begin at an inexpensive 7,500 Virgin factors in economic system class or 21,000 factors in firstclass.

Korean Air

Primarily based in Seoul’s Incheon Worldwide Airport (ICN), Korean Air flights will be booked with Virgin factors on-line, although availability outdoors of Asia is tough to search out.

ITA Airways

Rising from the ashes of the now-defunct Alitalia, ITA Airways has glorious award availability utilizing Virgin factors and will be booked on-line. ITA’s long-haul business-class product is superb, with a strong lounge in Rome Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO), elaborate onboard meals and trendy Italian finishes.

Associated: A overview of ITA Airways enterprise class on the A330neo from Rome

LATAM

South American provider LATAM will be booked on-line with Virgin factors, and availability is usually good between North America and South America, with business-class flights from Florida to Brazil costing simply 50,000 factors plus minimal charges and taxes.

El Al

Flying Membership quietly added Israel’s flag provider El Al to its associate airline record earlier in 2024, and fortuitously, these flights will be booked on-line, although the charges between the US and Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV) are steep.

Associated: Inside El Al’s first retrofitted — and massively upgraded — Boeing 777

Center East Airways

Certainly one of SkyTeam’s lesser-known airways, Center East Airways (generally known as MEA), relies in Lebanon’s Beirut-Rafic Hariri Worldwide Airport (BEY).

Whereas MEA doesn’t function long-haul flights, it has an honest route community to Europe and will be booked on-line utilizing Virgin factors.

China Airways

Whereas Flying Membership insists that flights on Taiwanese provider and SkyTeam member China Airways (to not be confused with China-based Star Alliance member Air China) will be booked on-line with Virgin factors, TPG has not discovered any availability on China Airways by way of Virgin’s web site.

Xiamen Airways

Primarily based in Xiamen, China, SkyTeam member Xiamen Airways operates quite a few flights inside Asia and a handful of routes to Australia and Europe. Its present North American locations embody New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK), Los Angeles Worldwide Airport (LAX) and Vancouver Worldwide Airport (YVR).

You’ll be able to ebook Xiamen Airways redemptions utilizing Virgin factors on-line.

The right way to earn Virgin factors

It’s simple to spice up your Virgin factors stability with the fitting bank card, as Flying Membership is a switch associate of each main program with a transferable forex, together with:

• American Categorical Membership Rewards (1:1)
• Bilt Rewards (1:1)
• Capital One (1:1)
• Chase Final Rewards (1:1)
• Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1)
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1, with a 5,000-point bonus for transferring 60,000 factors and a 48-hour switch time)

Among the above applications supply common switch bonuses to Flying Membership, that means you would possibly want even fewer factors than you first thought.

Many of those applications supply playing cards that characteristic terrific welcome bonuses. Listed below are a few of our favourite journey rewards bank cards that earn transferable factors that may be transformed to Virgin factors:

• The Enterprise Platinum Card® from American Categorical
• The Platinum Card® from American Categorical
• American Categorical® Gold Card
• Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card
• Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card
• Ink Enterprise Most popular® Credit score Card
• Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card

Backside line

Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Membership program boasts a powerful record of redemption companions inside and outdoors of the SkyTeam alliance. Sadly, this system’s web site is much less spectacular, with most associate redemptions unavailable on-line, requiring just a little further legwork and a cellphone name to 800-862-8621.

Chances are you’ll want to use an exterior useful resource to examine award availability by way of different applications after which contact the Flying Membership program to ebook the seats you already know can be found.

There are some glorious offers available, so it’s definitely worth the effort.