We may receive a commission when you use our links. Monkey Miles is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com and CardRatings. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Monkey Miles is also a Senior Advisor to Bilt Rewards. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Book Virgin Atlantic with Air France/KLM Flying Blue Miles
It wasn’t long ago that Virgin Atlantic and Air France/KLM have struck a codeshare partnership. Then news hit that Virgin had integrated Air France and KLM award tickets into their system. I just stumbled upon Virgin Atlantic availability on Air France’s site. I have to say I’m quite pleased with the number of miles needed to book Upper Class, and the taxes and fees compared to booking with Virgin itself.
Booking Virgin Atlantic award tickets using Air France/KLM.
Here’s some sample availability populating the Air France website:
It’s showing two flights on March 20th and we can see the Economy and Upper Class rates.
- Economy 29k + $64.41
- Upper Class 72k + $205
I have to say, those Upper Class rates are very solid.
Let’s compare that to Virgin Atlantic :
There are three flights populating the Virgin site that I would have thought Air France would also see, and unfortunately, Air France isn’t picking up the Premium Economy flight. Hopefully this will improve, or perhaps it just requires phoning into Air France to see if they can manually pull the space. Note VS24 is on their new A350-1000
Looking in the other direction surcharges are higher unfortunately
Virgin Atlantic’s new A350
I had the chance to fly this cabin from New York to London at the end of last year. While the experience is certainly cool, and the seat is a MASSIVE improvement over the prior generation, it could be updated with extra storage IMO. With that said…it’s a very cool experience. You can read our full review here, or watch our YouTube review below.
Why this is very welcomed news
Virgin Atlantic releases a healthy amount of award space, but the surcharges are hard to swallow. Sure you can use Delta Skymiles to book, but they are only a transfer partner of Amex, and it’ll run you 86k a pop.
Air France is a partner of all the major flexible currencies
In fact, Amex had a 25% transfer bonus at the end of last year, and usually runs one at least twice in a 12 month period. Citi has had bonuses as well. If you were strategic and transferred during a 25% bonus, you could fly Virgin Upper Class for just 58k points + $205. Pretty solid deal if you ask me.
It’s always a great time on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class
Overall
The ability to book Virgin Atlantic award space with Flying Blue is awesome. It’s even better that the required mileage isn’t awful, and the fees are FAR better than I would have imagined. Remember, sometimes transfer aren’t instant and Air France reps will usually give you a complimentary 72 hour hold on flights. I would assume this will be extended to partners as well, but time will tell.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.