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Wow! Book Virgin Atlantic with Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles ( reduced surcharges too )

a stuffed animal in a plane

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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.

a screenshot of a flight

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

 

a screenshot of a flight schedule

Looking in the other direction surcharges are higher unfortunately

a screenshot of a website

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.

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2 Comments

  • Adam July 20, 2021

    Hey Miles,

    So I was looking at book a business class ticket via Flying Blue from IAD -> LON and saw a flight that would be on Virgin Atlantic… But it still says “Business Class”… Since Virgin doesn’t have Business Class, what do you think it converts to? Premium or Upper? I don’t think Premium is anywhere comparable to Business class if it’s that section right… ?

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