The sexy and sometimes sleazy (if you don’t like short skirts on long legged pretty ladies and suites on well-groomed handsome men), revolutionary game changing airlines from London, Sydney, and San Francisco have finally came together to further unite their frequent flyer programs as one large partnership! Still three different programs, the Virgin frequent flyer programs now allow members to redeem points on ALL three airlines, creating a mini Virgin alliance in the sky!
In 2010, Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America started to allow frequent flyers to earn points and miles from flyer each other airlines, so no matter what program you were a member of, points/miles could be earned on all three airlines.
Remember though, not all frequent flyer programs are created equal, and each program has different ways to earn points/miles and different requirements for spending.However, with these newest announcements Virgin America Elevate members can now book roundtrip flights on Virgin Atlantic from New York, Boston, Chicago, or Washington D.C. to London for as few as 15,000 Elevate points and from San Francisco to London for as few as 25,000 points + $650 in taxes and fees.
Furthermore, as of March 22nd, Elevate members can book roundtrip flights on Virgin Australia for as low as 40,000 points + $749 in taxes and fees from Los Angeles to Sydney. Points can also be used for redemption in Prem Economy and Biz with higher surcharges and more points. Furthermore points can be used to all destinations that Virgin Atlantic flies to LAX to Dubai anyone? Although fees are quite steep! You might be better off buying a ticket unless going prem or upper class! Find your reward costs here. Again I would say economy tickets are NOT worth it, Prem econ and Upper class are debatable!
Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club program members can book domestic flights on Virgin America, such as from San Francisco to New York for as few as 25,000 Miles, or Los Angeles to San Francisco for 10,000 Miles +$5 taxes and fees. Also, Virgin Atlantic Flyers can also travel on Virgin Australia from Sydney to Los Angeles from 94,000 Miles + $749 in taxes and fees!
Obviously theses fees, taxes, fuel surcharges, etc are SKY HIGH and are NOT the best redemption opportunities for flights to/from London and Sydney, especially for coach! However for Virgin Atlantic flyers, the domestic US flight taxes and fees are not only low, but have low redemption thresholds!
Virgin Australia Velocity flyers, your redemption opportunities is based on how many miles the trip is. Therefore a reward ticket on VX from SFO to LAX would be 6,900 points, whereas NYC to LONDON would be 23,900 on VA. Use the guide below for a cheat sheet for costs. Note that nowhere on the Velocity rewards site does it lay out what taxes and fees will be, but I would say, expect similar fees as the other airlines.
Remember Virgin American and Virgin Atlantic are transfer partners with American Express, so Membership Rewards points can be transferred between Membership rewards and these airlines and then used to fly to Australia, opening up 1 more way to get down-under for almost free! AND Membership rewards is offering a 30% bonus to VX right now!
