Youtube Link: Virgin Atlantic A330-300 Upper Class Review
Introduction
This was a trip that came together within a matter of days. I wanted to go to watch Liverpool FC play a game at Anfield and I noticed that the tickets to the game were quite affordable. So I planned with a friend to meet up there and decided to fly into Manchester since it had more options for flying in and I could just use the train to go into Liverpool.
We ended up losing 3-0 so maybe I should just have stayed in Manchester for the entire trip 🙂↕️
Booking the Flight
Award redemptions can be a little weird so i’ll break it down. This flight was:
Booked On: Virgin Atlantic ( or people say Virgin Atlantic Metal or VS Metal)
Booked Through: Air France
Booked With: Flying Blue Miles (Air France and KLM mileage Program)
Transferred From: Chase Ultimate Rewards (with 25% Bonus points on transfers)
I redeemed 72,500 miles and $205 for this one-way Upper Class ticket. But, remember there was a transfer bonus so I only needed 72,500 / 1.25 = 58,000 miles to redeem this flight.
In order to measure the value and worthiness of this deal we can use this equation:
Where Opportunity Cost is the number of miles you would have earned from flying alone if you paid for the ticket in cash (this field is highly optional I NEVER use it since I would’ve probably flown economy without the points and earned much less).
As I mentioned in my video this flight was going for ~$3500 at the time, so by following the formula we get:
(3500 - 205 / 58,000 + 13,600) * 100 = 4.6 cents per point (Very good deal)
This calculator can give you the raw number.
Usually points bookings above 1.3-1.5 cpp are considered decent value but this is an arbitrary number at the end of the day. You may be interested in the cpp calculator if you’re wondering whether it is a good deal or not.
I found the flight using pointsyeah (my first stop when searching for points flights). I ran a simple query for the dates I was flying and it came up.
I opened my Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and confirmed the bonus was still active then transferred the 58,000 points over to flying blue.
Navigated to the Air France website, found the flight there and redeemed using 72,500 miles.
The reason flights on Virgin Atlantic can be booked on Air France is because the two airlines are part of the Skyteam alliance (You can even search flights directly on here). Alliances are important in the world of points and miles because the cost of flights vary between airlines and when you factor in transfer bonuses it is not uncommon that booking a flight through an alliance partner is cheaper than booking through the airline itself.
Lastly, I booked this flight about a week or two before the flight. If you are flexible or very organized it is worth noting that the best deals are usually available T-14 or T-365 from when you want to fly.
Bummer that your team lost. At least you traveled in style to witness the loss