Prior to this morning, I had always thought the cheapest way to fly to Europe from the New York area was to fly JFK-DUB utilizing British Airways’ Avios (but flying on Aer Lingus metal), which costs 20,000 Avios + about $75 in taxes. This option is still a great deal, especially if you have Membership Rewards points to spare during a transfer bonus like the 35% bonus on transfers to Avios that’s sadly ending today (with the 35% transfer bonus, 15K Membership Rewards points = 20,250 Avios).
However, MileCollector, just sent me a message informing me of what I now believe to be the cheapest way to get to Europe from New York.
How cheap? 13,000 Virgin Atlantic miles (which can be transferred 1:1 from your Chase Ultimate Rewards Account) + $98 in taxes for New York to London via Virgin Atlantic. The fare is valid from both Newark and New York-JFK, however, there seems to be more award space available out of JFK.
For comparison purposes, the same award would cost:
- United – 30,000 miles + $5
- American – 30,000 miles + $2.50 (or 20,000 miles + $2.5 during off-peak times)
- British Airways – 20,000 Avios + $253(!)
As you can see, 13,000 miles + $98 is by far the best option – and there appears to be incredible award availability! Yes, even for this summer!
How to Search for Virgin Atlantic Award Space
- Login to your Flying Club account. Not a member yet? Join here.
- From the main screen, search for a One Way flight between NYC and LON. Select that you would like to pay for your ticket by ‘spending your miles’. Then, click ‘Book my flight’.
- If there are flights available on your selected date, the flight options will appear. The example below shows what you’ll see if you’re searching for a flight on July 4th.
If there is not a flight available on your selected date, a calendar will appear and you will be able to select any dates which have flights available. Using a sample search of NYC-LON on July 1st, the following result appeared, which shows that there is award availability on 26 out of the 31 days in the month.
I tried selecting five days at random from those shown above, and all the flights priced out for 13,000 miles + $97.50 in taxes and fees.
Getting Home
Unfortunately, there is no great way to get back to New York from London due to those pesky UK taxes. The following are the return prices (i.e. LHR-JFK) in both miles and dollars).
- Virgin Atlantic – 13,000 miles + about $277
- United – 30,000 miles + $181
- American Airlines – 30,000 miles + $181 (or 20,000 miles + $181 during off-peak times)
- British Airways – 20,000 Avios + $361
However, if you fly out of a different country, the tax goes down dramatically. For example, for Paris to New York, the taxes are only $86 on the United Award. Think about using Avios for short-hops around Europe, as awards under 650 miles are only 4,500 Avios each way.
Getting Ultimate Rewards Points:
As stated above, Virgin Atlantic is a new Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, and points transfer 1:1. If you have one (or more) of the following credit cards, you’re in luck. If not, below are the best public sign-up bonuses.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3,000 in 3 months, enough for 3 one-way New York to London flights
- Chase Ink Plus Business 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 in 3 months, enough for 4 one-way New York to London flights after completing your minmum spend.
- Chase Ink Bold Business 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 in 3 months, enough for 4 one-way New York to London flights after completing your minmum spend.
Hold up! Where are VAs ridiculous fuel charges?
Wish i had known about this 2 months ago! i transfered my UR points to help someone book EWR-LHR, would have loved to save the points!!!!
GREAT POST
Only $50 to cancel too. Not bad at all! Great find, Mark & Angelina!
Too bad it’s coach….
So no FUEL surcharges?
@heather and stacy: total prices out at $97.50 and 13K miles… :)
WOW….great find!!!
Great find!
OMG this is perfect for some fall travel that I was just starting to mentally plan.
I looked it up for flights from Chicago to London; 14,000 miles + $98.
How much for Biz/First?
Already noticed, and got the Amex card. from BofA
Great find! For LAX TO LHR it is 17.5K and $112 for economy. Unfortunately, it is over $400 in fees for Upper class… :-(
This seems like an incredible deal. I just received a targeted credit card offer from Virgin Atlantic for 55K bonus miles but pitched it because of concern over high taxes and fuel surcharges.
Cool, Dulles to London is also 14,000 miles + $97.50 in fees.
I should know this but I don’t. Is it possible to book one way on aer lingus? That is, using half the miles for a return DUB – JFK or EWR?
@CJ: Yes you can book the one way. I believe DUB-JFK is 20K Avios + around $75.
I was just looking for ways to use VA miles because wanted to apply for their cc but fuel charges stopped me but now I have my reason…thanks!
I have been posting all over the place to let ppl know about this deal…it is sick…and I am glad the blogs are on it now. My once quite useless virgin atlantic miles are gold now…GOLD JERRY GOLD
If I do a roundtrip search it comes up with the sale price of 26k miles but $373 in fees. Me thinks the one way is not displaying correctly – did you go all the way to booking?
The original source of this info is here
http://www.headforpoints.com/2013/06/02/virgin-cuts-fuel-surcharges-on-economy-redemptions-now-38-143-lower-than-ba/
The miles are a sale till Jun 17. The surcharge is lower possibly for good, but not $98 according to what he sees.
@Greg – you need to search one way (JFK or EWR to LHR), it will be 13k + $98. The return leg is what is driving up the cash portion on your round trip search.
Also Boston to London is 14k Virgin Atlantic miles + $97.50. You can fly to Dublin for about $80 then back to Boston for 12,500 Avios + $75 on Aer Lingus metal theoretically. This is fun! lol
And this is the type of post where I do not have much beef sliding the affiliate cards:-)
I flew Upper Class RT JFK-LHR and it was okay. Best part about it was the lounge in LHR!
13,000 miles & less than $100 is a sick deal indeed! Has anyone gone all the way and TICKETED it? Am thinking this may be a techie glitch? Them British do love their fees (fuel surcharges)
George – I heard on another site they removed the YQ from Econ awards but not upper class… But no, haven’t ticketed yet but got to checkout screen.
VS has just reduced their fuel surcharges on economy rewards – that is why these appear so cheap.
Nice! If you want to work in Paris, I recommend the EuroStar. It was literally 1/2 the price of flying. We’re doing it RT Dub-BOS, then flying to London and it was still cheaper. Tickets were only $60 each way downtown to downtown advance purchase. Considering you don’t have to factor in airport transfers, a steal!
It seems you cannot get a seat assignment before you pay … not great for me who values knowing what seat I will get.
Not much availability in August :( but great find.
Wow, awesome find! MileCollector, how’d you find this? Just fell upon it or were you on the prowl for it?
Any idea if this will be going away or if it’s legit?
Just an FYI, Virgin Atlantic is now offering FREE Silver Status :)
This is fantastic! I’m all on this deal. I need a little help finding a return flight, though, if you might help me. I (and my family of 5) want to use my AA miles to fly home from somewhere in Europe, preferably France, to my small hometown airport of GJT. We are hoping to go in April of next year, which is off peak season, so it’s only 20,000 miles, but everything out of France, and pretty much all of Europe when I look at the AA website flies on BA through LHR, so the taxes are pretty steep (longest run-on sentence ever?). Pretty much the only place I have found that the taxes are affordable is Spain, but we would make up for the cost on how much it is for a train ride or rental car to get down there.
What is another airline I could look into that would cost as few miles as AA, but might have lower fuel surcharges, and that I can still use my AA points with? Is that even possible? Thanks for any help anyone can offer! This is really a great deal!
Oh no! I checked the flights the other day and they were only 13,000, went today to actually book it and it was wayyy up! :(
It went up to 17.5k + $97.5 :(