In late 2024, the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program was completely overhauled, with the introduction of dynamic award pricing.
While the changes were a mixed bag, there were definitely more positive changes than many of us were expecting, as the cost of Virgin Atlantic’s cheapest award tickets dropped considerably, especially for Upper Class (business class) tickets. So along those lines, unfortunately there’s a negative change now, as flagged by Thrifty Traveler.
Virgin Atlantic massively increases award surcharges
Flying Club’s dynamic award pricing doesn’t just apply to the number of points required, but also to the surcharges, which vary based on the type of award ticket you’re booking.
The bad news is that with some newly introduced updates, the cheapest surcharges added to award tickets has increased considerably. For example, for a one-way award ticket from the United States to London:
- Business class award surcharges have increased from $255 to $586
- Premium economy award surcharges have increased from $106 to $240
- Economy award surcharges have increased from $75 to $111
These are all estimates, and there was always a little bit of variation. Furthermore, surcharges differ considerably across markets. But as you can see, the increases here are absolutely massive for transatlantic travel. We’re talking about business class and premium economy surcharges more than doubling in some situations.
At least surcharges are still lower than in the past?
Make no mistake, increased fees are bad. There’s absolutely no silver lining here, because nothing is improving while this is getting worse. It’s just a negative change, period.
I think the one important perspective to keep in mind is that Virgin Atlantic substantially reduced surcharges on many tickets when it implemented the late 2024 program changes. At the time, a one-way business class award from the US to London would typically come with somewhere around $1,000 in fees.
There are definitely still situations where I think redemptions on Virgin Atlantic represent a great value, given that transatlantic business class awards start at just 29,000 points one-way (though finding availability at that price takes some effort).
Honestly, when Virgin Atlantic rolled out its program changes, I was surprised at just how low some redemption rates became. Not only did Virgin Atlantic introduce among the lowest transatlantic premium cabin redemption rates in terms of the number of points required, but surcharges were also scaled back massively. So while I don’t like to see it, I’m not surprised to see a bit of a “correction” there. After all, British airlines love their surcharges!
Bottom line
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has unfortunately made a negative change, whereby the carrier imposed surcharges for award tickets have increased considerably. For transatlantic tickets originating in the United States in business class and premium economy, we’re seeing surcharges more than double.
This is of course a bummer that no one should be happy about. At least the surcharges are still way lower than they were before the late 2024 program changes.
What do you make of Virgin Atlantic increasing award ticket fees?
