Frequent Miler on the Air - Best uses for Virgin points | Coffee Break Ep94 | 2-24-26

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Virgin Atlantic Rewards and Virgin Red both earn Virgin Atlantic points. Now through February 28th, Chase has a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic, so in this episode, we'll talk about some of the best uses of these points. Best uses for Virgin points(00:36) - Read more about the 40% bonus from Chase to Virgin Atlantic here(02:07) - Fly Delta economy(03:52) - Fly Virgin Atlantic(07:09) - Fly SAS(08:17) - Fly LATAM(11:35) - Fly Air France/KLM(12:16) - Fly ANA biz/first class(14:09) - Fly Air New Zealand biz class(16:40) - Virgin Limited Edition properties(21:22) - Virgin VoyagesVisit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media.Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn HeadsMentioned in this episode:Visit FrequentMiler.com Did you know that Frequent Miller is also a website? At frequentMiller.com, you'll find all the latest deals, news about points, miles, and rewarding credit cards, the single best, Best Credit Cards page on the web, guides to all popular rewards programs, and many other terrific resources. If you'd like to get our posts sent to your email, go to frequentMiller.com/subscribe and sign up for free. https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe/

This is a Voyescape podcast. You can find all of our travel podcasts from around the world atvoyescape.com. Welcome to Freakomiler's Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. And each coffee break is limited to 20 minutes or less for your money back. On today's coffee break, best uses for Virgin Points. Virgin Points come from Virgin Atlantic rewards, but also from, a separate program called Virgin Red. And whether you earn points from one or the other, they're all really combined into one so you can use them either way. So we're just sort of generically describing

them as virgin points for the show. And we decided it was a good time to talk about uses for virgin points because as we record this, Chase has a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through February 28. and we noticed that this is the third 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic in just the last four months. So we've had now this is the second from Chase and we had one from American Express at the end of last year. And so it's looking like those are becoming more and more common. And of course, that can make your transferable points go much further when that kind of thing is available. So it's a good idea to sort of keep an eye on. What are good uses of these points so you know what to look for next time a great transfer bonus rolls around.

Yeah. And you know, this could be sort of a side effect benefit of going dynamic. We normally hate it when programs go with dynamic award charts. And Virgin sort of has that going on where they'll charge, at least for their own flights, more for some seats than others. But that creates opportunity in the sense that those flights that are in less. demand, perhaps offer a really good value for points when you can find these kind of safer awards available. And then if you're able to stack that with a transfer bonus, all the better. Of course, we'll talk about some partner award situations here today, and those are not dynamic in the same way,

at least. So let's talk about some of the sweet spots. So first up, you can fly Delta economy. Short non-stop delta flights within the United States start at just 7,500 miles each way. Just recently, I've run into this a few times where that would be a terrific deal versus. the cash price, particularly on those really short flights. Now, I say that you should also keep in mind that it's worth checking Air France KLM flying blue because sometimes they only charge 5,000 miles for the same flights. However, with like a 40% transfer bonus, this still might work out to be a better deal booking through Virgin.

So you're going to have to just compare between the two, but that can obviously be a great use of your Virgin points. Yeah, yeah. And it's something that, you know, many people, are likely to encounter situations where that can work out for you. But as next said, it could be an even better deal transferring to Air France KLM. And most programs that transfer to one also transfer to the other. Yeah, it's really worth a mention, by the way, that Delta appears to at least for the last several months.

I don't know how long it's been this way, but they only release availability to partners, I think at least 21 days in advance. I'm not able to find anything really close in on Delta anymore. So that's a limitation to be aware of. If you're saying, I never see that available. If you're only looking at close-in flights, you're probably not going to see it available through partners. Right, right.

And in almost all the cases we're talking about here, the prices we're going to talk about are only available when the airline releases award space to their partners, which is not all the time by a long stretch. But it does happen frequently enough that it's worth considering. And we'll point out when particular award are really, really hard to find. Now, Virgin Atlantic, as Nick alluded to before,

they have a flexible award pricing scheme where they say saver awards will be up to or start, yeah, up to a certain point price, but other awards, which during normal times when you're just searching for awards, it's not going to be really obvious to you, whether an award is saver or not. Other awards are just priced over.

they're priced. And so we're going to just describe prices as like starting at, you know, like what's the bottom that we've seen? And so you can get really good deals when you, when you hit the timing right, flying Virgin Atlantic and using Virgin Points to do that. Flying to London from North America starts at only 6,000 points in economy, only 10,500 points in premium economy, and only 29,000 points in business class, which Virgin calls upper class. Now, the surcharges that go with it are something you have to watch out for. Going to London isn't as bad as the other direction. So going to London, economy is only $110.

And this is around. I'm not saying the exact amount, but premium economy, $240. and then business class and ouchy $590 as we're looking at it today. And the prices are all even higher than that in reverse. So you're looking at over $300 economy, over $500 premium economy, and over $700 in business class. Yeah. So that can hurt a little bit like Greg said. Now, we should probably mention here, though, that you've found a trick for reducing that

a little bit on the way back from Europe, right? Yeah. If you can book a, for example, an Air France or KLM flight from Europe to London and then Virgin Atlantic from London to North America, then you're not paying the, and you book it all as one Virgin Atlantic award, you'd pay a little bit more in points because you have to pay for that segment from somewhere in Europe. like Amsterdam or Paris, for example, to get to London, but it drops off the UK departure taxes from the equation. And so it lowers the overall cash portion of that kind of award.

Yeah. And so that can actually work out to be pretty good, particularly for premium economy, which I think is really a sweet spot either way there, starting at 10,500 miles if you're flying to the UK. But I think, you know, from Europe, if you have that connecting, like, it can start around, I think, 14-5 or something like that, something pretty reasonable. So, so you can do really well with that. So that's an interesting one. Especially if you look at the cash rates, they tend to charge for premium economy. They're like really high. And so to be able to get it for as low as 10,500 miles. And I have personal experience flying it. It was very, very nice. I would not hesitate to fly that again. Very good.

Next up, you can fly SAS. That's Scandinavian Airlines. So you can fly from North America to or from Copenhagen in business class for either 60,000 points each way or 75,000. I think that just depends on where you depart from, right? So the East Coast cities are going to be 60. And as you move further west from the United States, it's going to be 75. If I remember right, it's even more restrictive. I think it was like Boston or something like that was 60K and most of the others are 75K.

Something like that anyway. Okay. Yeah. Either way, it's not like an amazing price, but it's good. It's a good solid price and the surcharges are pretty low. Yeah, just $5.60. Departing the United States. And then if you're departing Copenhagen, something like $100 or so in that direction. So that could be a great way to get to and from Europe. I flew SaaS last year. And it's not the most amazing business class product ever, but it's a flatbed seat. And if you can find the availability and especially if you

can stack that with a big transfer bonus, you can do well there. Yeah. Also, also, So, you know, we mentioned Copenhagen as an example, but I think they also have flights to, what, Oslo and Stockholm. Stockholm as well. Yeah. That's true. All right. Next up, you could use Virgin Points to fly Latam. And it's not always like a slamming good deal, but, you know, one price that seemed pretty good to me is flying from North America to Lima, Peru, for 25,000 points. economy or 50,000 points in business class. And so that's a decent way to do that.

Very good. You can fly Air France, KLM within Europe. And we've found, and also within Europe and Northern Africa, we should say, for as low as 4,000 miles one way nonstop in economy, or as low as 8,000 in business class for flights that are under 600 miles in distance covered. And so that's certainly the case for nonstop flights of less than 600 miles distance covered. But you've also found some situations where even connecting itineraries have priced that low. Yeah. In almost all of Virgin Atlantic's award charts, they price distance by adding up all the segments, but in, or actually, they price each segment separately, which is even worse than that. But in this case, the, their award chart specifically says they just measure the starting and ending distance. They

the distance between the starting and ending airport, I mean. And so you could do things like, you know, start in one airport in Italy and end in another airport in Italy, flying through either Amsterdam or Paris, and it could cost as low as 4,000 miles one way in economy, which is, I mean, a ridiculous amount of flying, but still you get the idea that you can make it much, cheaper, you know, by flying to places that are not that far apart from each other. And I've even been able to price some flights like that out where you start in southern Europe and end up in Northern Africa for that kind of pricing. Wow. Yeah, that's pretty terrific. So yeah, and sometimes that can make for a really good deal versus cash prices. It's not even so much about

getting the extra flying out of it as much as it is. Like sometimes you just get a really good deal booking an award like that when cash prices are high. Normally we think of cash prices within Europe as being really cheap. But every now and then, we both run into situations where cash prices are unexpectedly high to travel relatively short distances. And then this can really come in handy in those cases. Yeah.

And also, you know, the business class awards, they're so cheap at only 8K that even if the cash price of like economy would be so low that doesn't make sense to use miles to book, if you want to like check bags or something that might cost you more, you could book business class and have bags included and you also get probably a slightly better meal and things like that. Lounge access. And you could get lounge access. Yeah. So there's some big advantages for just spending a few more.

miles when doing that. Yeah, very good. All right. And then also, of course, you can fly Air France or KLM in business class from North America to Europe, starting at 48,500 miles each way and about $300 in taxes and fees departing the U.S. or 470 departing Europe. And I say about because it varies a little bit depending on your departure airport, particularly when you're departing Europe because different countries have different amounts of departure tax. And we said starting at 48,500 because there's sort of like there's an off-peak and a peak award chart for flying air France, KLM. So sometimes it'll be 48,500 miles each way. Sometimes it'll be, I think, 58,500 each way.

So a little bit more depending on the dates when you're traveling. Yep. Yep. Okay. The next two we're going to talk about are harder to find awards in two ways. One, these airlines don't often release premium cabin awards, but also you can't find. find and book these on Virgin Atlantic's websites. So these are two examples where you have to call to book. And the first is ANA. So you can fly A&A, business or first class, from, you know, between North

America and Japan, for very reasonable rates with virgin points. So starting in the U.S. in business class. Prices are 45,000 points or 47,500, depending where in the U.S. You're flying from. So that's a one-way price for business class to go to Japan. That's incredible. That's really good. Yeah. You know, that's less than most business class flights to Europe. And here you could get all the way to Asia, which is amazing. First class costs from the West Coast.

US, 72,500 virgin points and from the rest of the US 85,000. But first class is tremendous on ANA. And that's, if you can find it, it's definitely worth that premium in my opinion. Yeah, but like Greg said, very difficult to find first class. So you're going to need to have some knowledge and tools at your disposal to figure out when that's even possible and then call in order to book it. So there are some barriers. But man, great prices, incredible price. is really. I mean, the business class price at 45,000 each way, if you were to get a 40% transfer bonus, you're looking at like 32, 33,000 points one way. That's like the cost of a domestic first class award to fly all the way to Japan. That's pretty crazy. So, all right,

and last but not least, we have a really unicorn redemption. You can fly Air New Zealand business class to and from New Zealand and beyond. This one's a tough one to find. So you can find Honolulu to infirm New Zealand for 45,000 miles one way, which is a pretty good deal to Auckland if you're based in Hawaii or want a position to Hawaii. It's not easy to find. It's still pretty rare, but you can get that now and then. The award chart no longer lists a price from the mainland U.S. to New Zealand on Air New Zealand. So we haven't seen that available in a while, but it's possible in the past. It had been 62,500 points each way to a and from New Zealand from at least the West Coast.

But we don't see that available often. And again, it's not on the award chart anymore. So we don't know whether or not you'll find that. But it is at least possible to fly Air New Zealand with Virgin Points. And you may be more interested in connecting the dots somewhere within that region of the world on Air New Zealand. And you can do that with Virgin Atlantic points, which is notable since Virgin Atlantic is in Sky Team. Air New Zealand, of course, is in Star Alliance. So it's always interesting when you can use miles across alliances like that.

Yeah, same story with A&A. All right. We'll be right back with best uses of Virgin Points for Lodge. We hope you're enjoying the Frequent Miler on the Air podcast. Did you know that Frequent Miler is also a website? At Frequentmiler.com, you'll find all the latest deals, news about points, miles, and rewarding credit cards, the single best best credit cards page on the web

guides to all popular awards programs and many other terrific resources. If you'd like to get our post sent to your email, go to frequentmiler.com forward slash subscribe and sign up for free. And we're back. So virgin points can be used far beyond just for flights. And if you get on the Virgin Red website,

you can see all kinds of interesting redemption options. but I will caution you that in most cases, the value per point is really, really low. And so even with the 40% transfer bonus, if you're looking at getting less than a penny per point value, I don't recommend, you know, seeking out those things. But what they do have is they frequently have, I shouldn't even say frequently, Every now and then, they have deals on things like special properties or their Virgin Cruises. And when they have those deals, often it can be a really good value to book. And I'll talk about one particular property that's almost always a good deal compared to the cash rate.

But you might not have enough points even with a 40% transfer bonus. Get to that in a second. First, so there's a collection of properties that are, referred to as Virgin Limited Edition properties. These are like really high-end resorts and other types of lodging and things. And what I want to call out first is that there are three African safari properties. So these are luxury safari properties. They're all inclusive.

So you use points to book them. You get your meals covered. You get two daily game drives included. and they tend to get fantastic reviews. So I would love to use points for one of these. And as I mentioned before, it's not always a good value compared to the cash rate, but sometimes it can be. So the three properties, the first one is Ulusaba in South Africa, which, as we're recording this, it's closed for refurbishment. They're expected to reopen in April of 2027.

Then we have Finch Hatton. in Kenya. And we have Mahali, Missouri in Kenya. No idea if I said those correctly. Those are both open, both available to book with points. And both of them, they have like off-peak and peak pricing, so there's a range of points. So Finch Hattons, you have to book at least a two-night stay, and that's going to set you back between 240,000 or 360,000 virgin points.

And then each extra night is another 120,000 to 180,000 points. Mahali, Missouri has a, will charge you 330,000 to 800,000 for that two nights stay. That's a crazy high price, but there you go. And each extra night is 165,000 to 400,000. points. So again, for these, like especially Finch Hattons, we've seen special deals for those. And so if the timing on those deals works out, you're going to get a much better rate in those in those situations. Yeah, I think that's the thing on the Virgin Red redemption options in general nowadays. Many of them are relatively poor value unless they're running a special. And when they run a

special, it can sometimes be really good. And we have seen many times that specials, have coincided with transfer bonuses. So there's times when you can kind of stack the two. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All right. Now here's one Virgin Limited Edition property that where the value based on the cash rate of the stay will give you a good value for your points,

which is Necker Island. You can reserve a seven-night, all-inclusive stay for two on Necker Island for 2 million Virgin points. And believe it or not, as big as that sounds, that's a good price compared to the cash rate, which starts at something like $35 or $40,000 for the same seven nights. And that's a fairly standard price. Like that's not, I should say it this way, that's not a sale price for this. But the reason I'm caveating this is that we've seen it change over time.

It flips between, you know, like two million virgin points or, they'll say spend this many virgin points plus $6,000. I'm kind of throwing out a number, but it changes over time. So don't take it as fixed in place that it's definitely a $2 million point redemption. But it is today as we're recording this that much. I went with my wife to Necker Island about 10 years ago, and we had an incredible time, and I don't regret it all having spent the point. Um, although full disclosure, I only spent 1.2 million. So we've had some inflation since then.

Right. Although with a 40% transfer bonus, I guess, I don't know, you, you wouldn't need that much more than what you spent these days with a 40% bonus. So if you did get a bonus and there was availability and you can book it and want to and tune all that, there's, there's a chance. You can do pretty well with that, especially like Greg said, as compared to the cash rate to stay there, pretty, pretty wild redemption. One of those things you just can't ordinarily do or probably wouldn't ordinarily do otherwise. Most of us anyway, wouldn't ordinarily do otherwise. So it's kind of a cool experience in that regard, I think.

Yeah, totally. It was great. It was a once in a lifetime experience. That really, really was terrific. All right. Last up, you have Virgin Voyages, which if you're into that kind of thing, again, what we said before is look for the specials because you can get really good deals. But I'm going to give an example right here where there, um,

The regular rates without a special can be pretty bad. So I looked at what's available today as we're recording this. There's a seven-night Southern Caribbean cruise using points. You would book into what's called the C Terrace Cabin. And I looked at the, so the point price, 300,000 points. The cash rate, it depends whether you pick a lock-in rate, which is their like prepay rate or something else. but the so that lock-in rate is less than $3,000.

And so you're looking at less than one cent per point value, uh, using points to book that. So I would say don't, you know, that's not a good use of your points. But again, they have sales, uh, periodically and on the point prices. And that can be a really good deal. Yeah, it can be. And then with a 40% transfer bonus, if you really want to use points to book a cruise, this is about as good as you're going to do using, using points to bucket cruise, but that's still not really good. Like Greg said, this isn't a redemption

I would consider under the normal prices either. Also, keep in mind if you are a casino person at all and you have casino status, Virgin Voyages has done quite a few different matching offers. So it's always worth giving it to Google and seeing if there's a match offer available because for a while anyway, they were making it pretty easy to get a free cruise offer if you've had offers from other cruise lines or elite status with land-based casinos. And that would make me even more hesitant to use the points if that type of thing were available. It's at least worth looking for that before you go and spend hundreds of thousands of points on a Virgin Voyages cruise. But when they run them on sale, we've seen them as low as 120,000 points for two people. And that is really good.

So it just depends on what's on offer. Yeah. So that's it. That's our list of the best uses for virgin points. Don't forget, if you've enjoyed this and you'd like to get on our email list, you want to go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list, follow us on all the various social media and check out our frequent mile around the air episodes dropping every Friday. Travel Tales with me, Mike Siegel, is full of funny, inspiring, and wild adventures. Listen now at voyescape.com. If you love travel, you'll love Winging It Travel Podcast. Every Monday, I share stories from 75 countries, from backpacking tips, epic adventures,

and plenty of travel inspiration. Alongside that, I host Gets, Gets, Gets. interviews every two weeks. Check it out at voyscape.com.