Virgin Atlantic and China Eastern Airlines Launch Codeshare Partnership

Updated: January 30, 2024, 9:35am CST

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China Eastern and Virgin Atlantic’s New Codeshare Partnership
Final Thoughts

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Virgin Atlantic and China Eastern are strengthening their relationship within the SkyTeam alliance.

Starting today, the codeshare partnership between the British and Chinese carriers will open up new possibilities for Virgin Atlantic and China Eastern passengers.

“Our new codeshare with China Eastern, a fellow SkyTeam partner, will serve continued demand for travel to the region and strengthens our commitment to China and East Asia,” said Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic. “We know these agreements bring plenty of benefits to our customers, from increased network scope to China and beyond, to reciprocal loyalty rewards for our Flying Club members.”

Let’s take a look at the details.

China Eastern and Virgin Atlantic’s New Codeshare Partnership

The newly-launched codeshare builds upon China Eastern and Virgin’s already close relationship since the British carrier joined SkyTeam in 2023.

In addition to reciprocal status benefits as SkyTeam members, the new codeshare means passengers can book 1-ticket itineraries across both airlines, making for seamless connections in the airlines’ hubs at London-Heathrow (LHR) and Shanghai-Pudong (PVG).

To start with, Virgin flights from London-Heathrow to Shanghai will codeshare with onward China Eastern services to Chengdu (TFU), Changsha (CSX), Shenzhen (SZX), and Xi’an (XIY).

China Eastern business class. Image Credit: China Eastern

Future additions to the codeshare include new 1-ticket possibilities for passengers departing Shenzhen for London-Heathrow with China Eastern.

Pending government approval, passengers will be able to connect seamlessly at London-Heathrow to Virgin’s services to Cape Town (CPT), Johannesburg (JNB), Montego Bay (MBJ), Nassau (NAS), and Lagos (LOS).

An added benefit of the airlines’ enhanced relationship is that Flying Club members can now earn Virgin Points and status-earning Tier Points on codeshare flights with China Eastern.

Flying Club members can also expect to be able to redeem Virgin Points on these codeshare flights to China in the not-too-distant future.

Hot Tip:

Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club is one of our favorite programs for redeeming points, especially in business class. For example, you can often save over 100,000 points when booking Delta One tickets to Europe with Flying Club rather than through Delta’s SkyMiles loyalty program.

Final Thoughts

The codeshare agreement between SkyTeam member airlines Virgin Atlantic and China Eastern will give travelers the possibility to travel seamlessly to a select number of destinations across each of the airlines’ route networks.