As creatures of habit, we’re conditioned to believe that the typical fixed award rate for a transcontinental award is 12,500 miles. All of the major carriers (such as United, American Airlines, and British Airways) charge that for domestic awards from coast to coast. On peak travel dates, a standard award is double that, and it sure is a painful redemption to make…
Awards to Mexico from the US can sometimes be even higher. For instance, United charges 17,500 each way for awards to Mexico.
We tend to forget about other revenue-based carriers that have variable award charts (meaning that the amount of miles needed is determined by the actual cost of the ticket). Southwest, Jet Blue, and Virgin America are other airlines to consider for award travel, especially during a sale or transfer bonus.
I’ve only flown Virgin America once back in 2014 from Newark to Seattle and it was a pleasant experience. Another passenger even sent me a drink to my seat (it’s considered a “hip” airline). I wouldn’t hesitate to fly them again – they just haven’t  been on my radar much because my focus has primarily been with Star Alliance and Oneworld partners.
However, it’s worth pointing out that there are several sweet-spot awards with Virgin America now, especially with the 50% transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to Virgin elevate points until March 10, 2016.
I spent a few minutes playing around with itineraries and saw that there are some great redemptions out there on some popular routes over the next few months.
For instance, JFK to LAS is pricing out at 4,930 elevate points, which is only 6,600 Membership Rewards points.
Flights between LAX and JFK/EWR are 6,186 elevate points, which is ~8,400 Membership Rewards points.
San Francisco to Boston is pricing out at 6,233 elevate points, which is also 8,400 Membership Rewards points.
There’s also some awesome last-minute deals to Cancun from the west coast.
For example, you could head to Cancun from LAX this weekend for 4,250 elevate points and $27.33 (5,800 Membership Rewards).
There’s flights from the east coast to Cabo (SJD) for 13,050 elevate points (17,400 Membership Rewards), but that’s not much to write home about.
Also keep in mind that with this transfer, American Express charges a small excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point (with maximum fee of $99). They charge this fee to offset the federal excise tax that must be paid when you transfer points. The fee is very minimum. Transferring 6,600 points would cost you $3.96.
Getting Membership Rewards Points
As I mentioned earlier, Virgin America is a transfer partner of the American Express Membership Rewards program. I currently accumulate Membership Rewards points with my Business Platinum Card® from American Express OPEN. Other great Membership Rewards cards include The Platinum Card® from American Express, The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN, and the Premier Rewards Gold Card from American Express.
It’s also worth noting that some are receiving really high American Express sign-up bonuses with the Card Match tool (100,000 Platinum/50,000 Premier Rewards Gold). It’s YMMV; however, it might be worth trying before deciding to apply for the highest-public offer.
Bottom Line
It’s always worth taking some time to look into other programs as there might be some sweet-spot redemptions instead of assuming that you’re always stuck paying 12,500 miles for a domestic award.
Have you booked a Virgin America award before? Are you considering taking advantage of the current transfer bonus?
Last year, I booked 2 seats on Southwest LGA/LAX for roughly 17,000 points round trip per person. As long as you book far enough in advance, you can burn through your Southwest (Chase) points, while saving your miles for international trips on the legacy carriers, well UA and AA anyway. ;)
Yes and I love that with SW you can always cancel and redeposit & rebook in the event of a fare sale!
The reason you could get a transcontinental ticket for 5000 points is because the revenue ticket is on sale for around $100. I wouldn’t call it sweet spot.
By the same token, you could get a short haul ticket for 1500 points easily when the revenue ticket is $29.99. That could be another attention grabbing headline.
Yes, I agree. The point of the post was to show that you aren’t always limited to fixed-price award tickets. The same $29.99 LAS-NYC ticket on AA (I wish!) would still cost 12,500 Avios… and sadly many people make those redemptions without checking the price or other programs.
These are just cheap flights. And they’re not even *that* cheap!
The JFK to LAX flight you show is $143. That’s ok, but nothing to write home about. You’d be better off paying $124 for the AA flight on the same day (and on top of that you’ll earn 2500 miles or so).
And if you’re that hard up for cash that you’d rather use your MR points on a Virgin flight rather than some crazy first class Singapore thing, then you can pay $108 on AA with a layover, and earn even more miles.
So to recap:
1) use 8400 MR points (let’s say they’re worth 1.5 cents a piece, though some people say more than that) + pay $5 or so: total cost: $131
2) pay cash: $143, plus earn 715 points, worth $15 at 2.15 cents a piece:
total cost: $128
3) pay $124 for the AA flight, earn about 2500 miles, worth about 1.5 cents a piece:
total cost: $87
I know what I would pick!
I also totally would purchase the $124 AA flight personally. The reason I made this post was to show people that you’re not always limited to fixed-price awards. Sadly I see so many people redeeming MR points for as low as 1 cent per point (paying with points), or for airline gift cards etc.. And not to mention a lot of people still transfer MR to Avios (even with devaluation) for “cheap” AA rev flights, thinking an award is always the best answer. Thanks for your comment. I’d go with option 3.