Stop Using Virgin Points for Delta One Awards — Do This Instead

Last year, Virgin Atlantic added huge surcharges to awards from the U.S. to Europe on Delta One business class. While the number of miles needed remained reasonable, the surcharges became so high that it does not make sense anymore to use Virgin points to fly Delta One.

That was an unfortunate development, since Delta One was typically far more affordable with Virgin points than with Delta’s own SkyMiles.

But there are still ways for people based in the U.S. to use Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club points to great effect. That’s what we’ll be looking at in this article.

Why Using Virgin Points for Delta One Doesn’t Work Anymore

Redeeming Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points to fly in style in Delta One used to be among the best ways for points flyers to profit from the partnership between Delta Air Lines and Virgin. The companies are close partners: Delta owns 49% of the British airline, and both belong to the global SkyTeam alliance.

But that was before Virgin Atlantic slapped big surcharges on award tickets in Delta One from the U.S. to Europe. Surcharges on flights from Europe to the U.S. were much lower, but that’s gone too — now those sky-high fees apply to flights from Europe, as well.

For example, consider a one-way award using Virgin points to fly Delta One from New York (JFK) to Prague (PRG) in August 2025. You’d be charged 57,500 miles, which is a bargain for business class to Europe, but then you’d have to pay an absurdly high $1,054 in taxes and fees.

The same flight in reverse, Prague to New York, goes for the same number of miles but an even higher fee of $1,129.

Booking a round-trip award from the U.S. to Europe does not circumvent the problem. A round-trip flight from Atlanta (ATL) to Madrid (MAD) and back in April and May could be had for a very attractive 105,000 Virgin Points in business class, but the $2,175 surcharge would stop anybody in their tracks.

What’s worse, many Delta flights across the Atlantic are on the Boeing 767-300ER, which has an older and decidedly subpar version of the Delta One cabin. On that Prague flight, Delta sends an Airbus A330-300, with a different — and also underwhelming — business class the plane shares with the smaller A330-200. The experience certainly isn’t worth those brutal surcharges.

You can redeem your Virgin Atlantic points much better. Here’s how.

Use Virgin Atlantic’s Rewards Checker

Head to Virgin Atlantic’s Reward Seat Checker site, where you can bring up a monthly calendar of award seat costs for the next 11 months. It’s an invaluable tool for planning travel, and it can reveal great bargains, highlighted by a red tag.

The caveat is that the rewards checker works only for Virgin’s own flights. To find seats on partner airlines using Virgin points, you have to search on the main Virgin site.

From New York-JFK to London Heathrow (LHR) for peak summer travel in July, the reward checker returned, not surprisingly, very high prices in Upper Class (Virgin’s name for business) on most days but also some gems. You could find award seats for 57,500 and even 54,000 Virgin points on a couple of days.

In economy class, you could fly on most days for a low 12,000 points. And in Virgin’s excellent premium economy class, you could swing it for a spectacular 16,500 points.

Granted, you’d have to pay taxes and fees, ranging from $74 in economy to a less palatable $482 in Upper Class. But that’s better than the $1,000-plus hit you’d face if redeeming Virgin points for Delta One.

From the U.K. to the U.S., the calendar can help you find very good deals, too. 45,000 points for Upper Class between London and San Francisco (SFO) is exceptionally low.

From the reward seat checker, you’re taken to the booking section of the regular Virgin site, where you have to enter the date you’ve seen on the checker. The search results also reveal taxes and fees, which are higher when flying from the U.K. In our London to San Francisco example, you’d pay a not-insignificant $637 in Upper Class. Economy class would be very attractive, for just 9,000 points and $283 in taxes and fees.

The reward seat checker can also reveal surprising twists, like dates when Upper Class is cheaper in points than economy. For example, a seat on the London to Bengaluru (BLR), India, flight on June 5 can be had for 28,000 points for a flat bed, versus 47,000 for a coach seat at the back of the plane. Taxes and fees for Upper Class would be high at $613, but at 28,000 points you’d still be looking at a deal for a 9-hour flight.

Use Virgin Points for Partners That Aren’t Delta

Virgin Atlantic makes it easy to redeem points on Air France, a great alternative to Delta One for flights to mainland Europe in business class.

Like Delta, Air France-KLM is a member of the SkyTeam alliance with Virgin, and you can use Virgin points to book Air France’s excellent long-haul business class. The best part is that you don’t face the steep taxes and fees that Virgin charges for Delta award tickets.

Air France also releases a lot of award seats to Virgin. Using Seats.aero, we found seats available from major East Coast cities to Paris (CDG) through January 2026. Depending on the route and date you select, there are up to 9 available seats in business class.

The amount of points required, and the taxes and fees, make this an especially attractive use of your Virgin points. In business class you can go as low as 48,500 Virgin Flying Club points plus $275.40 in taxes and fees. In economy, you could find either 12,000 points and $157 or 30,000 points and $5.60.

There are several other ways to redeem Virgin points for great value, but using them for Air France business class is both easy and relatively cheap.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points are also very easy to earn, thanks to a robust list of transfer partners. You can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Wells Fargo Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy to Virgin Atlantic to book these awards.

Final Thoughts

One of the best sweet spots in the world of travel rewards, using Virgin Atlantic points to book Delta One business class to Europe, is gone. Or rather, Virgin has added such exorbitant surcharges to those award bookings that they are no longer practical.

The good news is that there are other uses of Virgin points that let you extract great value from that loyalty currency. In fact, you can use them to fly to Europe in arguably even more style than Delta One.