Ever since Virgin Atlantic moved to ‘dynamic pricing’ for flight redemptions last year, the cost of Upper Class has been out of reach for most people.
I know that Virgin Atlantic is happy with the increase in Economy redemptions, now priced from just 6,000 Virgin Points each way.
I also know that there is disquiet about the removal of Upper Class as a realistic redemption option on most routes, especially the effect on those who are Upper Class cash flyers.
I thought we should take another look at Upper Class pricing. Luckily, a HfP reader has built an online tool, vseats.io, which scrapes the Reward Seat Checker page of the Virgin Atlantic website and lets you manipulate the data. It’s really rather clever.
Because you can rank reward pricing using vseats.io, I thought I’d look at each route for a seven night trip in Upper Class.
What I wanted to know was:
- what is the cheapest possible redemption over the next 11 months for a week-long trip?
- and, to avoid distortion due to one-off cheap deals, what is the 50th cheapest redemption day over the next 11 months?
I thought ’50th cheapest’ was an acceptable compromise. The very cheapest dates are usually when you don’t want to travel (eg New York in January) and taking the 50th lowest priced departure date weeds out a lot of that. It’s probably comparable to off-peak Avios pricing.
Of course, you still need flexibility when you travel to take advantage of this pricing. If you are tied to school holidays, or even tied to Saturday-to-Saturday holidays, you will pay more – often a LOT more.
Not all Virgin Atlantic routes operate 365 days per year. In such cases, the 50th cheapest date will be higher up the price range.
What are the cheapest Virgin Atlantic Upper Class redemptions?
I’ve listed the routes from cheapest to priciest.
I have shown Upper Class return pricing from London Heathrow for a seven night stay, searching across the full 11 month booking window.
Because of the way the system works, we can only look for the price of one seat. Do not assume you can book a couple, and definitely not a family, at these rates.
I have included the cost of an off-peak Club World Avios redemption for comparison.
The problem with Virgin Flying Club, in a nutshell
Here’s a summary of the results assuming:
- you value an Avios and a Virgin Point at 1p, so you can blend the points and cash elements to get an overall total cost
- you take the ’50th cheapest day’ as a fair comparison with the off-peak Avios price
Routes where Virgin Points beat Avios:
Riyadh, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Lagos
Routes where Avios beat Virgin Points:
Toronto, New York JFK, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Dubai, Miami, Tampa, Barbados, San Francisco, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Orlando, Boston, Seattle, Antigua, Grenada, Cancun, Cape Town, Maldives, Johannesburg
I think the list above sums up the current situation pretty well. Yes, there is some value out there in Upper Class for Virgin Points, but Riyadh, Bengaluru, Lagos etc are not key holiday routes.
Let’s look at the pricing in detail.
Virgin Atlantic Upper Class reward pricing in detail
Here are the full results from vseats.io, listed in order of the cheapest Upper Class seat anywhere in the schedule:
Riyadh
- Cheapest departure day – 46,000 Virgin Points + £578
- 50th cheapest departure day – 49,000 Virgin Points + £578
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
Bengaluru
- Cheapest departure day – 46,000 Virgin Points + £568
- 50th cheapest departure day – 64,000 Virgin Points + £568
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Delhi
- Cheapest departure day – 46,000 Virgin Points + £566
- 50th cheapest departure day – 116,000 Virgin Points + £754
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Mumbai
- Cheapest departure day – 51,000 Virgin Points + £563
- 50th cheapest departure day – 77,500 Virgin Points + £813
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Toronto
- Cheapest departure day – 58,000 Virgin Points + £683
- 50th cheapest departure day – 138,000 Virgin Points + £1,061
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
New York JFK
- Cheapest departure day – 68,000 Virgin Points + £781
- 50th cheapest departure day – 123,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
Lagos
- Cheapest departure day – 70,000 Virgin Points + £659
- 50th cheapest departure day – 81,000 Virgin Points + £694
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
Washington DC
- Cheapest departure day – 70,000 Virgin Points + £868
- 50th cheapest departure day – 134,000 Virgin Points + £868
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
Montego Bay
- Cheapest departure day – 80,000 Virgin Points + £692
- 50th cheapest departure day – 270,000 Virgin Points + £878
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – n/a
Las Vegas
- Cheapest departure day – 91,000 Virgin Points + £693
- 50th cheapest departure day – 197,500 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Dubai
- Cheapest departure day – 100,000 Virgin Points + £819
- 50th cheapest departure day – 217,000 Virgin Points + £819
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
Miami
- Cheapest departure day – 101,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- 50th cheapest departure day – 176,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Tampa
- Cheapest departure day – 105,500 Virgin Points + £956
- 50th cheapest departure day – 248,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Barbados
- Cheapest departure day – 107,000 Virgin Points + £802
- 50th cheapest departure day – 282,500 Virgin Points + £864
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
San Francisco
- Cheapest departure day – 121,500 Virgin Points + £1,043
- 50th cheapest departure day – 270,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Atlanta
- Cheapest departure day – 129,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- 50th cheapest departure day – 207,500 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
St Vincent and the Grenadines
- Cheapest departure day – 130,000 Virgin Points + £705
- 50th cheapest departure day – 440,000 Virgin Points + £829
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – n/a
Los Angeles
- Cheapest departure day – 134,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- 50th cheapest departure day – 240,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Orlando
- Cheapest departure day – 135,000 Virgin Points + £868
- 50th cheapest departure day – 271,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Boston
- Cheapest departure day – 147,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- 50th cheapest departure day – 165,000 Virgin Points + £1,043
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 160,000 Avios + £375
Seattle
- Cheapest departure day – 148,000 Virgin Points + £868
- 50th cheapest departure day – 240,000 Virgin Points + £868
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Antigua
- Cheapest departure day – 152,000 Virgin Points +£847
- 50th cheapest departure day – 530,000 Virgin Points + £847
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Grenada
- Cheapest departure day – 187,500 Virgin Points + £828
- 50th cheapest departure day – 525,000 Virgin Points + £828
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Cancun
- Cheapest departure day – 275,000 Virgin Points + £872
- 50th cheapest departure day – 385,000 Virgin Points + £872
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Cape Town
- Cheapest departure day – 275,000 Virgin Points + £823
- 50th cheapest departure day – 435,000 Virgin Points + £823
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Maldives
- Cheapest departure day – 355,000 Virgin Points + £969
- 50th cheapest departure day – 545,000 Virgin Points + £969
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
Johannesburg
- Cheapest departure day – 400,000 Virgin Points + £823
- 50th cheapest departure day – 460,000 Virgin Points + £823
- British Airways off-peak Avios cost – 180,000 Avios + £475
