Got a big stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards points? Here's an easy way to get even more out of them … if you hurry!
Earlier this month, Chase rolled out a 30% transfer bonus when sending Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic. But you've got to move quickly if you want to take full advantage of it: This offer ends on Dec. 5!
Not sure where to start? Read our guide on Chase transfer partners and how they work!
Using transfer partners like Virgin Atlantic is one of the best ways to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points for even more value. And these transfer bonuses make it even better – think of it as a way to get some free airline miles.
Thanks to some excellent partnerships, you can use Virgin Atlantic miles to book Delta flights to Europe and save a ton of SkyMiles or even a lie-flat seat to Japan and back at an enormous discount, among other opportunities. This bonus just makes things even sweeter.
Keep in mind: As good as this bonus is, it's rarely a good idea to transfer points speculatively without a specific plan. But if you've scoped out a way to redeem Virgin points in the short term – and there are plenty of good options – this 30% bonus is fantastic and well worth taking advantage of while you can.
The Basics on Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is a quirky airline with a quirky frequent flyer program. The airline flies from several U.S. gateways to London Heathrow (LHR), as well as several international hubs like Dubai (DXB), Cape Town (CPT), and the Maldives (MLE).
Plus, you can book flights on more than a dozen other airlines using Virgin points … and save a ton of miles while paying reasonable fees, too. Add in this transfer bonus from Chase, and it’s a no-brainer. You can transfer points to a Virgin Atlantic account from Amex, Chase, Capital One, Bilt, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Marriott. All of them (with the exception of Marriott) transfer on a 1:1 basis.
However, with this current 30% bonus, Chase should be your go-to. If you transfer 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you’d get 65,000 Virgin Atlantic points. These transfers generally clear immediately – meaning the points will be available in your Virgin Atlantic account as soon as you make the transfer.
But there's one big exception. If you're just setting up a Virgin account, your transfer could be delayed by 24 hours or more. That's a recurring problem with Virgin, which requires new accounts to be verified before they can accept these transfers.
Read more: Points Stuck in Limbo? Why & What You Can Do?
Virgin Atlantic’s website can be a tad difficult to navigate. Getting award flights to show up on a given route can take a few tries. One good trick is to search for airports by country or region and pick them rather than manually typing in the city name or airport code.
The Best Ways to Use This Transfer Bonus
So what can you book? In two words: A lot.
Big Delta Deals
We don’t need to tell you that trying to understand the value of Delta SkyMiles can be frustrating. There’s no award chart, so the airline’s pricing when booking a flight with miles can be all over the map. Often, a Delta award flight can be obscenely expensive – especially if you want to fly business class.
Enter Virgin Atlantic. You can often use Virgin Atlantic to book the exact same Delta flight and save a boatload of SkyMiles. The London-based airline offers a far more stable – and frequently cheaper – alternative to booking Delta flights than using SkyMiles outright.
There used to be far more Delta sweet spots you could book using Virgin points, but Virgin obliterated many of them over the last few years with a handful of nasty devaluations. But booking short Delta flights – 1,000 miles in distance or less – through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club can still be a great deal!
For example, this short flight from Fargo (FAR) to Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) might otherwise cost you 20,000 SkyMiles. With Virgin Atlantic, you can still book for just 7,500 points each way – just 5,800 Chase points after the 30% bonus kicks in.
Lie-Flat to London for Less
Virgin's transition to dynamic award pricing resulted in some outstanding deals, flying Virgin Atlantic itself … for a fraction of the miles. Unfortunately, this deal recently took a big hit, too: Virgin now tacks on close to $600 in taxes and fees on a one-way business class ticket to London-Heathrow (LHR).
Still, flying business class to London from East Coast cities like Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), or Atlanta (ATL) for as low as 29,000 points could be worth stomaching the higher fees.
Factor in this transfer bonus, and you could book a lie-flat ride to London for as few as 21,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points each way.
There are deals to be had in the lower cabins now, too.
- A roundtrip from the East Coast to London for as few as 12,000 miles – as few as 9,000 Chase points with this bonus.
- A roundtrip in premium economy isn't bad either, at just 21,000 miles – as few as 15,000 Chase points with this bonus.
Thrifty Tip: It’s much easier to search for Virgin Atlantic flights one-way rather than roundtrip – and unlike with many other airlines, it’ll often save you money on taxes and fees booking one-ways separately, too.
Fly in Style with ANA
You can also use this transfer bonus to score an amazing deal on a trip to Japan on one of the world’s best airlines.
ANA is one of Japan’s flag carriers, and it lives up to its five-star reputation. Its first class cabin is spacious, private, and offers some of the best catering in the aviation world. And even ANA business class is outstanding, and rivals Qatar Qsuites for #1 in the world, too.
Go figure Virgin Atlantic also has a sweet spot for booking ANA flights, and this transfer bonus makes it even sweeter. While Virgin raised award rates to fly ANA first class, it's still easily the best way to book these flights.
A one-way flight in ANA first class flight from Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO) to Tokyo now costs 72,500 Virgin points – just 52,000 Chase points with this bonus.
These days, finding award availability on ANA can be a chore. First Class availability is practically nonexistent lately, so focus on a business class booking. These days, booking within three weeks of departure seems to be your best bet.
You can't book these flights online through Virgin Atlantic, which means it requires a bit of extra legwork. You'll want to search for award availability through a site like United.com and then ring up Virgin Atlantic at 1-800-365-9500 when you're ready to book. On the plus side, you can now book these awards as one-ways.
Read our guide to booking ANA flights with Virgin Atlantic miles!
Of course, ANA’s business class is nothing to scoff at either – especially if you can snag the brand new business class seats it calls “The Room.”
Read our full review of flying ANA's The Room business class from Chicago to Tokyo!
Virgin Atlantic recently raised award rates for these flights, too. But just as with booking first class, Virgin remains the cheapest way to book ANA business class:
- Flights from West Coast cities like Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), or Seattle (SEA) to Japan now cost 52,500 points each way.
- Longer flights from cities like Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) and New York City (JFK) now cost 60,000 points each way.
Fortunately, Virgin Atlantic has a reasonable $100 fee to cancel award tickets and get your miles back if plans change.
Set Sail With Virgin Voyages
Booking flights through Virgin Atlantic is our favorite way to put this big transfer bonus to use, but it isn't your only option. If you like mile after mile of uninterrupted ocean views, Virgin Voyages could be just the thing for you.
Since first setting sail in 2021, Virgin Voyages has quickly made a name for itself by offering a different type of cruise experience.
For starters, all of Virgin's ships are adults-only (18 and over) – no kids clubs or water slides here. Each of Virgin's ships offers a modern, yacht-like cruise experience with high-end dining and entertainment options (tailored for a more mature audience), and even include free Wi-Fi and most gratuities.
With tons of different itineraries to choose from, the price to book a Virgin Voyages cruise with points varies wildly. For example, a simple five-night cruise (for two) from Miami to the Bahamas and back goes for 295,000 Virgin points. While that's no small sum, you'd only need 211,000 Chase points to pull it off with this bonus.
Considering that it includes all your lodging, meals, most non-alcoholic beverages, and entertainment, it's not a bad way to use a stash of Capital One miles.
Or you could go for something a little more adventurous … like a 14-night transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona – with a stop in Morocco! Or even an eight-night sailing to Alaska and British Columbia.
At 720,000 and 730,000 points, respectively, those are no doubt pricier options. But both are made more affordable with this transfer bonus – roughly 522,000 Chase points apiece.
Bottom Line
This Chase transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic can unlock some of the best deals in the world of points and miles.
Whether you want to save your SkyMiles when flying Delta or head across the pond to Tokyo, Virgin Atlantic can save you a ton of Chase points. Just make sure to use it before the 30% bonus tier ends on Dec. 5!
AMEX and Chase both are running 30% transfer bonus. Which bucket would you use?
It would depend on which points you currently have more of, which you could more easily earn to replace what you’re transferring out, and what you’d otherwise do with those points if not send them to Virgin.
For example, I’d much rather transfer Amex points to Virgin than Chase because I have far more Amex points. And I tend to save my Chase points to transfer to Hyatt.
Do Virgin points apply to all of there services such as cruises , flights , etc?
They do! You’ll just need to have a Virgin Red account and link it with your Virgin Atlantic account. Once you do, points will be available in both platforms.
Sorry if I’m being dumb here – I’m new to this – can you transfer Chase miles to get the 30% bonus but not book anything till next year? In other words, can I ‘bank’ them in the Virgin Account?
Not dumb at all, Deborah. Yes, you can “bank” your points in a Virgin account, transferring Chase points now to take advantage of the current 30% bonus. But we typically warn travelers against making those kinds of proactive transfers unless they’ve got a specific redemption in mind. There’s no guarantee the flights you’d consider booking via Virgin next year will still be available – or that Virgin won’t drastically increase the cost of booking said flights by the time you’re ready to book.
How in the world are you finding flights without outrageous surcharges tacked on? Especially on ANA since they recently changed their YQ policies.
Many airlines have incredibly reasonable surcharges when booked through Virgin Atlantic. After spiking a year ago, surcharges when booking ANA have fallen to ~$350 roundtrip which is certainly high but less than half of what it has been.
Can you explain this statement “But you’ll rarely see us recommend using Virgin Atlantic miles to fly Virgin Atlantic flights.” So what should you use the miles for?
If you keep reading below in this post, you’ll see there are some excellent ways to redeem Virgin Atlantic miles for flights with Delta, All Nippon Airways to/from Japan, among others. You’ll find more examples in our Virgin Atlantic guide!
I’m trying to book a flight to chile. I live in Wilmington. I have around 366,000 chase points. Can I use Virginia Atlantic to fly in Delta business class to Chile using the 30% chase deal?
But I do not know how to do this. Could you help me?