Mistake fixed or backtracking? Virgin Atlantic cuts £100 from Upper Class flight taxes to the USA
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Last weekend we ran an article showing how pricing for Virgin Atlantic Upper Class redemptions to the US – and only the US, and only if you fly with Virgin Atlantic – had gone crazy.
The taxes and charges figure for ALL Virgin Atlantic Upper Class redemptions to the US from Heathrow had risen to £764 return.
For example, Heathrow to Atlanta (click to enlarge):
As you can see …. £764 of taxes and charges.
This has now changed.
If you do the same search today, you will get this (click to enlarge):
The taxes and charges figure has dropped to ‘only’ £664 return. This is a drop of exactly £100.
Here is a Boston flight, showing the same price of £664:
Of course, you can still save a lot of money flying with Virgin’s partner and main shareholder Delta, on routes which the two airlines share:
With Delta, you still pay just £464 in taxes and charges. The gap with Virgin is now ‘just’ £200 rather than £300 as it was last weekend.
Other non-US routes remain unchanged. Heathrow to Shanghai, for example, remains at £557 return despite a flight time almost twice as long as Boston.
£664 is, perhaps unsurprisingly, identical to what British Airways asks following its recent hike in surcharges. Here is a Club World return from Heathrow to Boston:
…. which comes out at £667 in taxes and charges.
This makes me think that we aren’t going to see any further reductions from Virgin Atlantic.
If you have booked an Upper Class redemption on Virgin Atlantic in the last 10 days or so, you may want to see if you can get a refund. Cancelling and rebooking is an option but, of course, you will be paying the cancellation fee which reduces your saving – and definitely do not do this unless there are other redemption seats showing for the same dates. There is no guarantee that the seats you cancel will go back into reward inventory.
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.)
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