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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.
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I booked Bali and Thailand for September and don’t expect I’ll be able to go. Bali has already said they probably won’t open until March 2022. Many countries might be more conservative to open back up even with vaccinations.
You didn’t mention the award surcharges, taxes and fees…etc. on these. I think Virgin passes them on so expect to cough up a chunk of cash for these. If you can ever manage to find any availability.
Hey Al – luckily, these were greatly reduced last summer amidst the pandemic
You fully expect Japan to stay closed into December? why?
I hope I’m wrong, but Japan has taken a very conservative approach to opening their borders and don’t expect that to change. I’d love to be wrong, I mean obviously I booked tickets hoping it’s open, but I wouldn’t want to steer readers in the wrong direction
Just to clarify, when searching for ANA award seats on United.com we are looking for saver awards, correct? Everyday awards will not be bookable with VA miles, right?