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One of the bucket list redemptions of any point and miles enthusiast has been to use Virgin Atlantic Miles to book ANA First Class. This has been especially attractive when Amex offers a 30% transfer bonus. Why? For years now, Virgin Atlantic has made it possible to fly in one of the world’s best first class products for 110k miles roundtrip ( 120k if you’re flying from the east cost of the USA). The big caveat… you had to book a roundtrip flight. There were creative routing ways to circumvent a traditional roundtrip, but it required a lot more effort since ANA doesn’t usually release a ton of award space in advance. That all changed. Spotted by OMAAT – the Virgin Atlantic page dedicated to ANA now allows one way redemptions.
The new First and business class pricing:
- Business Class from 35k out of Hawaii, 45k from the West Coast, and 47,500 from the East Coast and Europe
- First Class from 45k out of Hawaii, 55k from the West Coast, and 60k from the East Coast and Europe.
ANA’s The Room is arguably the best business class in the world
Earning Virgin Atlantic Miles
The easiest way to earn loads of Virgin Atlantic Miles is via credit card that earn points that can be converting into Virgin Atlantic Miles. Specific cards from Citi, Amex, and Chase do just that. You can read more about them on our favorite credit card page.
I recently booked 2 ANA first class tickets
- I used 90k Lifemiles, but had this been available…I would have used Virgin
ANA is notorious for being stingy on releasing space ahead of time, but I somehow landed two seats in December of this year. Mark that up to sweet luck and high odds that Japan won’t be open so they won’t have to honor those tickets lol.
Finding ANA award space
The easiest is to search on United.com – this is what it would look like if you found the space. I swept the calendar…very few seats open.
Overall
This is a tremendous development while it lasts. The biggest problem I see…Japan is likely to stay closed to foreigners through the award calendar. Sure, I have tickets booked for December but I fully expect for those to get canceled. Virgin has created a better redemption situation by allowing one ways to be booked, but they have plenty of time to devalue the award chart before they’ll ever have to honor a one way booking to Japan ( from foreign nationals). File this one under…I’m really excited but destined to be disappointed.
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.
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