Why Virgin Atlantic miles to book ANA flights is the best way to get to Japan in Business or First Class

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If you are considering travelling to Japan, the obvious options – especially if you want to earn Avios and British Airways tier points – are British Airways and Japan Airlines. If you don’t mind a longer journey, you can also use Finnair via Helsinki, Qatar Airways via Doha or Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong amongst other options. These indirect flights are likely to be cheaper and will get you MORE BA tier points because you are taking multiple flights.

There is a third airline flying directly from Heathrow to Tokyo – ANA. ANA runs a daily service, departing at 7pm. It flies to Tokyo Haneda which is substantially more convenient than Tokyo Narita – Narita is about 40 miles from the city centre.

ANA

ANA is a member of Star Alliance. This means that you can credit ANA flights to Lufthansa Miles & More, United MileagePlus, Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, ANA’s own Mileage Club or whichever other Star Alliance airline you prefer. You can also credit ANA flights to Virgin Flying Club.

We did a full review of ANA’s business class service to Tokyo in 2017, which you can read here.

Using Virgin Flying Club miles to fly ANA

You can obviously redeem miles from any of the Star Alliance airlines for reward tickets on ANA.

You may not know, however, that ANA is also a Virgin Atlantic partner. You can redeem your Virgin Flying Club miles for tickets on ANA.

Even better, the rate is VERY attractive, especially when compared to an Avios redemption. Ever since the amazing Virgin Atlantic redemption deal on Air China was killed off last year (see this article) I think that ANA is the best ‘sweet spot’ in Flying Club.

You can also earn Virgin Flying Club miles when booking cash tickets on ANA, if you want to steer your next business trip their way.

You can see the Virgin Flying Club earning and spending chart for ANA on this page of the Virgin Atlantic website.

Assuming you are based in the UK, these are the key numbers you need to know:

Economy return flight (London to Tokyo) – 65,000 Virgin miles

Business return flight (London to Tokyo) – 95,000 Virgin miles

First return flight (London to Tokyo) – 120,000 Virgin miles

Note that one way redemptions are not possible.

These are exceptionally good rates in Business and First. For comparison, this is what you pay using Avios for a BA or JAL redemption:

Economy return flight (London to Tokyo) – 39,000 Avios off-peak / 60,000 Avios peak

Business return flight (London to Tokyo) – 150,000 Avios off-peak / 180,000 Avios peak

First return flight (London to Tokyo) – 204,000 Avios off-peak / 240,000 Avios peak

The price gap between Avios and Virgin miles is stunning. Even with a British Airways American Express 2-4-1 voucher, it is STILL a better deal to use Virgin miles most of the time when travelling Business or First Class.

Even better, there are no fuel surcharges added to ANA redemptions using Virgin miles. You will have to pay the usual Air Passenger Duty, Heathrow departure taxes etc.

If you can’t find availability on the ANA flights from London, they also fly to Tokyo from Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, Brussels and Paris. Virgin appears to have the same availability as Star Alliance partners and the Aeroplan (Air Canada) and United Airlines websites are both decent places to search for seats before calling Virgin to book.

So …. if you are considering Japan for a 2019 holiday (get in before the 2020 Olympics creates a rush), you should be seriously considering flying ANA using Virgin Flying Club miles. Take a look at our review if you want to learn more.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, one has a bonus of 15,000 points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

The UK’s most generous free Visa or Mastercard at 0.75 points / £1 Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 points bonus and the most generous non-Amex for day to day spending Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 30,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 30,000 Virgin Points:

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points.

(Want to earn more Virgin Points? Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Sam G says:

9 Jan9 January 04:42

Don’t forget if you are tagging on Kyoto to your trip (which you really should) – you’ve only got a couple of months to redeem at the wonderful Ritz Carlton Kyoto for 60k points – just got 2.1p per Marriott point later this year 🙂
Note the reward calendar on the Marriott site doesn’t seem accurate – make sure you check your specific dates for availability
Christian says:

9 Jan9 January 05:12

I booked the ANA first class redemption last summer to fly this March – 120k miles plus £384. Used United to find availability and then phoned Virgin to book.
- Scott says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 05:41
  
  Any idea if it is same taxes for biz?
  
  Thanks
- Matt says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 05:44
  
  Did the same! Wanted 2 seats so trip to Washington DC first, and then to Tokyo and return to New York. 240k miles and £343 miles.
  
  Got fleeced on the flight LHR-IAD though. 90k miles and £900 for Virgin in PE!
Ryan says:

9 Jan9 January 05:27

Does anyone who has booked the Europe routes know if the Taxes are much lower? Germany comes out cheapest usually I believe. Will the Taxes on United be correct?

Going to the Rugby World cup so will be looking for 6 seats which means take what we can get!
- SB says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 06:39
  
  You’ll be lucky for the RWC.
  
  Pretty much all ANA redemption to HND or NRT ex-UK and Europe in Bus and First are all gone or on the dreaded ANA waitlist – purgatory for a redemption play…
  - Waribai says:
    
    9 Jan9 January 07:13
    
    I was going to say…has anyone actually managed to successfully book this from LHR? I remember it used to be a running joke that even though the chart was there for all to see. There was zero availability 365 days per year…
    - Alan says:
      
      9 Jan9 January 07:55
      
      Yep, booked for Oct (although probably going to be too busy seeing Japan to go to RWC!)
    - John says:
      
      9 Jan9 January 08:47
      
      I booked last year for March from LHR. Reasonable availability in F – on two pairs of flights within a week of when I wanted to travel. I even switched dates a couple of times
Gavin says:

9 Jan9 January 07:16

The ANA evening flight is very popular in our office as it allows a full UK days work, and arrives at in Tokyo mid afternoon at a more civilised time than the BA flights which are early morning.

I think there may be a BA or JAL flight which now leaves Tokyo around midnight to get to London early in the morning, but previously the office strategy was to take ANA via Frankfurt as this allowed one to leave Tokyo late Friday night after a full day at work and be back in the UK for 9am Saturday.
- Gaz says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 09:12
  
  JL 41 0245-0625 LHR is the flight you’re thinking of Gavin.
Antony Jackson says:

9 Jan9 January 07:18

I have done this for May this year with the VA miles earned, mostly via a VA credit card and a flight or two to the US, based on your earlier articles on this 🙂

My partner is in First Class both ways, and I am in Business out and Economy back – but hope for further reward seats to become available – I keep checking – so can join them in First.

Cost me £702 in taxes and fees as memory serves.
- Ed E says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 07:46
  
  Antony, my question was going to be if it is possible to do mixed class redemptions as I have miles Y out and J back for two of us as the last of my credit card miles!
  
  Presumably this was easy over the phone?
Anna B says:

9 Jan9 January 07:20

Can you use VFC 2-4-1 vouchers on ANA? If yes, with any class of booking or do you need Virgin tiers to match?
- Genghis says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 07:52
  
  No
- Alan says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 07:55
  
  I believe Virgin 241 is only usable on Virgin metal.
  - Anna B says:
    
    9 Jan9 January 11:00
    
    Okay thanks.
- Alan says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 07:56
  
  No, these vouchers (BA and Virgin) are always restricted to their own metal.
Alan says:

9 Jan9 January 07:54

Yep, it’s stunning value (and I’ve probably bored folk stupid in the comments with mentioning I’d booked it!).

There are some YQ charges nowadays though – thankfully not as much as BA, but still noticeable…

Base Fare
USD 0.00
Carrier-imposed Surcharge (YQ)
GBP 165.60
United Kingdom – Air Passenger Duty (APD) (GB)
GBP 172.00
United Kingdom – Passenger Service Charge (UB)
GBP 46.62
Japan – Passenger Service Facilities Charge (SW)
GBP 17.70
Total Amount
GBP 401.92
- TripRep says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 12:13
  
  Alan – love the detail, great score on your redemption.
  
  The YQ element isn’t as bad as BA/VS metal for a US trip.
RTS says:

9 Jan9 January 09:24

Oh wow.. i didn’t know about this!! Very good to know.

Rob – perhaps one for the future but an article on good value Virgin partner redemptions would be super appreciated.
- Anna B says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 11:02
  
  Agree. I’d value this too.
- Rob says:
  
  9 Jan9 January 11:17
  
  From London there isn’t much else. You can’t redeem Singapore Airlines from the UK due to the restrictions in the small print on aircraft types. The Air China deal is now very pricey.
  
  What IS also worth a look is Air New Zealand (but not from the UK as almost never availability, but for other routes – eg perhaps ANA to Tokyo and then Air New Zealand from Tokyo to Auckland) and Singapore Airlines for regional intra-Asia redemptions.