Background:
First, thanks to all the BoardingArea bloggers who pointed out the September AMEX Transfer Bonuses and the Delta Business Class Award Space from New York (JFK). Currently, there’s a 30% bonus to transfer from American Express Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic. And coincidentally, Delta had opened up nonstop business class award space for travel between New York (JFK) and several European cities earlier this month. Since you can use Virgin Atlantic to book Delta One, I quickly snagged a roundtrip ticket for 77,000 AMEX points + $67!
I was planning to visit a few friends in Europe and one lives near Amsterdam, so I decided to meet her there! There were a decent amount of flights during February, so I timed it with her winter break and the President’s Day holiday.
Sharing My Booking Process:
The cool thing using Virgin Atlantic points to book Delta One from the US to Europe is that when award space is available, you only need to pay 50,000 Virgin Points one-way, versus my exact flights were pricing out at 200,000 Skymiles with Delta’s Dynamic pricing. The negative is that the award space on Virgin Atlantic for Delta isn’t super easy to find.
This was the first time I booked using Virgin Atlantic points, but I already created an account years ago for this very moment. On the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club website, I searched for award availability in one way segments. Sometimes the Virgin Atlantic site is a bit clunky/annoying, but thankfully the BoardingArea post pointed out dates with availability which made it a lot easier for me to find the flights.
Once I found the two one way segments I liked, I tried pricing out a roundtrip but it was not showing the same options. Rather, it was only showing availability for JFK-AMS as a one way, and AMS-JFK as another one way. The problem with booking this way is that the taxes + fees are a lot higher on the AMS-JFK segment (255 Euros).
But, if you book originating from the United States roundtrip, the roundtrip taxes are only $67. Thankfully, when I spoke to Virgin Atlantic over the phone, they were able to build a roundtrip with the $67 in taxes/fees.
Calling Virgin Atlantic to Book Delta One:
Once I found the flights I liked, I called the Virgin Atlantic Team. I waited for about 15 minutes to connect to someone which wasn’t too bad, and the agent was very friendly and helpful! Then, I read her the flights I was interested in, and she pieced together the roundtrip for me. I told her I was planning to transfer points over, and she said that she would hold the reservation for 48 hours for me while I got the points sent over which was really nice.
Once I hung up, I quickly transferred the points from American Express to Virgin Atlantic, and they showed up in my account pretty much instantly. Since there was a 30% bonus, I transferred 77,000 AMEX Membership Rewards Points to get 100,100 Virgin Atlantic Points.
I did a quick call back, and a new agent helped me ticket the booking. Voila! All Booked! I then got an email confirmation and went to choose my seats on the Delta Website. And for icing on the cake, the flights I found were operated with the new Airbus A330-900neo, which features Delta One Suites!
They also informed me if I needed to cancel, it would just be a $50 fee to redeposit the points, which isn’t too bad!
The Verdict:
Overall, I was so excited using 77,000 AMEX points + $67 to book Delta One Suites from New York to Amsterdam roundtrip, as the cash fare for the flights was about $7,000. Hopefully Amsterdam won’t be too cold in February, and it would be nice to see my friends in Europe!
Have you used Virgin Atlantic points to book Delta One flights? Comment below!
Safe travels,
Ty
Have any questions? Comment below or email me at takeofftotravel@gmail.com. I’ve also started working with a travel agency, Fora Travel, and can assist in booking hotel stays or planning trips. You can also view all my other posts here! Thanks for stopping by!
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