Virgin Atlantic launches good US Upper Class flight sale – works for solo travellers too

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Virgin Atlantic has launched a good sale on many of its US routes.

This seems to be in response to the current British Airways sale, which is exceptionally cheap – see our article here – but which requires two people to travel.

The Virgin Atlantic deal does NOT require two people to travel. Solo travellers who were annoyed by the British Airways sale can jump in now. (If there ARE two of you travelling, you might find the British Airways prices to be better so check those too.)

Here are the rules:

you must book seven days in advance of travel – so the earliest you can book, given this was published on Saturday 17th, is on Saturday 24th

you must travel outbound by 30th September

you must return by 10th October

you must stay away for a Saturday night

How good are the prices?

Here are a sample of Upper Class deals:

Boston £1,486

Washington £1,486

New York £1,486 (this includes the new A350 service which launches on 10th September on the 13.30 Heathrow service, excluding Thursdays)

Las Vegas £1,503

Atlanta £1,798

Los Angeles £1,798 (limited availability)

Seattle £1,803 (limited availability)

Chicago £1,865

Miami £1,999

I couldn’t find anything to San Francisco or Orlando.

If you are considering booking the new A350 with the new Upper Class Suite, our review is here.

You can also book onto Delta services for the same price where available if you want to give them a try. Here is our review of Delta ONE on an A330-200.

Either way, you can get into the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Terminal 3 which we reviewed here and which is definitely something you should try once.

As we said with the British Airways sale article, if you are travelling before the end of September you may want to think about cancelling any ticket booked using Avios or Virgin Flying Club miles and buying a cash ticket instead.

It is slightly less clear cut with these Virgin Atlantic deals – with the BA sale, it is virtually a no-brainer to cancel and rebook unless you need the flexibility to cancel – but you should do the maths. You may also be able to get a better timed flight by swapping to cash.

You can book on the Virgin Atlantic website here.

To maximise your miles when paying, your best bet is one of the two Virgin Atlantic Reward credit cards. These earn double miles (3 per £1 on the paid card or 1.5 per £1 on the free card) when you book at virginatlantic.com or via Virgin Holidays.

Another option is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers double points – 2 per £1 – when you book flight tickets directly with an airline.

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: