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The AwardWallet team has been scouting for premium cabin award deals while we wait for travel restrictions to lift. Last month we stumbled upon some incredible AA Flagship First availability. This month, we've found a boatload of Delta One Suites availability!
Fly to Asia. Fly to Europe. Fly virtually anywhere Delta flies its flagship product. And the best part? The availability we're seeing is bookable via Virgin Atlantic Flying Club—meaning direct flights cost far less than booking with Delta SkyMiles. Combine that with the ability to pool points from Chase, Amex, Citi, and Marriott, and your next suite deal on a business class flight might be a lot closer than you think.
International Travel in 2020
Although we're itching to travel again, our ability to do so in 2020 is far from a sure thing. Since a lot of the availability we'll be talking about is for travel at the end of this year, it's good to keep in mind that speculative bookings naturally involve a bit of optimism.
The good news, however, is that the program we're discussing here—Virgin Atlantic Flying Club—has a stellar cancellation policy. If you check out section 4.2 in Virgin's Terms and Conditions, this is what you'll find:
If for any reason a flight Reward is cancelled by the Member outside 24 hours of departure, 100% of the Miles will be re-credited to the Member’s account. A cancellation fee of £30 for changes to flights originating in the UK, US$50 for changes to flights originating in the US or local currency equivalent of US$50 for changes to flights originating in any other region.
It gets even better. Reports indicate that if an award's taxes and fees are less than $50 in total, Flying Club's policy is that there is no redeposit fee. Virgin Atlantic will simply keep the charged taxes and fees (often $5.60 per person for awards departing the U.S.) and redeposit your miles. So even in the worst-case scenario, you can simply cancel your booking, get your miles back, and only be out the taxes and fees!
Where to Find Availability
If you want to fly Delta's best product, you'll have to start with the routes that offer it. With the pending retirement of its Boeing 777s, Delta has three aircraft types that will continue to offer the Delta One Suites product:
Airbus A350
- Atlanta (ATL) — Seoul (ICN)
- Detroit (DTW) — Amsterdam (AMS)
- Detroit (DTW) — Seoul (ICN)
- Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) — Amsterdam (AMS)
- Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) — Seoul (ICN)
Airbus A330-900neo
- Seattle (SEA) — Amsterdam (AMS)
- Seattle (SEA) — Seoul (ICN)
Boeing 767-400 (retrofitted)
- Boston (BOS) — London (LHR)
- New York (JFK) — London (LHR)
*A few other routes are operating Delta One Suites, including Detroit (DTW) to Shanghai (PVG), Atlanta (ATL) to Tokyo (HND), Detroit (DTW) to Tokyo (HND), and New York (JFK) to Nice (NCE). We have not listed these here because award availability isn't nearly as widespread.
Thanks to Delta's dynamic award pricing, booking Delta One Suites on these routes can often cost an absurd amount of miles. On the other hand, Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club has a very reasonable award chart with only a few caveats to take note of:
- To get the best award pricing, you need to book non-stop flights. Flying Club charges per segment. For example, if you booked an itinerary from Indianapolis to Detroit to Seoul, you're going to be charged the standard award price for the first segment (Indianapolis to Detroit) plus the standard award price for the second (Detroit to Seoul).
- You need to be aware that Flying Club's online award search tool is a little, well, quirky. For instance, sometimes your origin or destination airport won't appear when you type it in. If that's the case, you'll have to click the ‘Full Airport List' link, search for the country, and select the correct airport code. This process can be a little counter-intuitive if you're not expecting it.
- Premium awards to or from London incur steep taxes and fees thanks to hefty UK taxes. These are unavoidable, and worth taking into consideration since canceling an award with high taxes and fees will trigger the $50 cancelation fee.
Atlanta (ATL) — Seoul (ICN)
Widespread availability on Mondays – Thursdays between July 23, 2020 – December 31, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 60,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 40,000 miles one-way
Detroit (DTW) — Amsterdam (AMS)
Widespread availability through November 13, 2020, then sporadic through December 29, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 50,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 30,000 miles one-way
Detroit (DTW) — Seoul (ICN)
Widespread availability Mondays through Thursdays between July 23, 2020 – December 31, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 60,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 40,000 miles one-way
Minneapolis/ St. Paul (MSP) – Amsterdam (AMS)
Widespread availability August 1, 2020 through November 12, 2020, then scattered availability through December 30, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 50,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 30,000 miles one-way
Minneapolis/ St. Paul — Seoul (ICN)
Widespread availability Mondays through Thursdays between July 23, 2020 – December 31, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 60,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 40,000 miles one-way
Seattle (SEA) — Amsterdam (AMS)
Widespread availability through November 12, 2020, then sporadic through December 31, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 50,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 30,000 miles one-way
Seattle (SEA) — Seoul (ICN)
Widespread availability Mondays through Thursdays between July 27, 2020 – December 31, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 60,000 miles one-way
- Economy: 40,000 miles one-way
Boston (BOS) — London (LHR)
Widespread availability through December 31, 2020
- Delta One Suites (business): 47,500 miles one-way
- Economy: 10,000 miles one-way
New York (JFK) — London (LHR)
Widespread availability through December 31, 2020
- Virgin Atlantic Upper Class (business): 47,500 miles one-way
- Delta One Suites (business): 57,500 miles one-way
- Economy: 20,000 miles one-way
Earning Flying Club Miles Without Flying
One of the great things about Flying Club is that you can combine points from so many sources. Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Points, and Marriott Bonvoy Points are all transfer partners. Translation: it's possible to easily accumulate enough Flying Club miles for any of these redemptions with just one credit card offer.
For award currencies that transfer to Flying Club, here are some of the best welcome offers available:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) — Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card (review) — Earn 3 Free Nights after spending $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening + 10X total points per $1 spent on up to $2,500 in combined purchases at gas stations, restaurants, and grocery stores within 6 months from account opening with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless™ Credit Card!
- Citi Premier® Card (review) — Earn 80,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- American Express® Business Gold Card (review) — Earn 70,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $10,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Gold Card within the first 3 months of Card Membership.*
Final Thoughts
You may have heard about Virgin Atlantic's recent financial plight. While we're confident that Virgin Atlantic will secure funding and pull through its restructuring, booking flights with them naturally involves a bit more risk now compared to before. This is something that you need to consider before you transfer your points or make a booking for the future. Thankfully, Delta owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, so hopefully it would honor Flying Club award tickets even in the worst-case scenario.
It's also interesting that the majority of the availability we see evaporates at the beginning of 2021. Are Delta and Virgin Atlantic opening all this availability just to persuade people to book 2020 travel?
Finally, nobody knows how soon we'll be able to travel internationally again. Moreover, there's probably not going to be an exact moment when everyone can start traveling without anxiety or fear. It's going to be up to all of us, individually, to decide when we feel comfortable heading back to the airport. Whenever you're ready, Delta One Suites could be a perfect way to get back to the skies.
Are you going to book Delta One Suites for travel this year?
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A350 worth a try. Never had experience yet 🙂
Sounds like a good deal. Hope it’s still available when the virus is more contained.
What a deal. I’m gonna convert my Amex rewards points for this!
Not seeing the super low mileage dtw-hnd, but shocked that there were actual delta flights listed as available. I may just bite on two and pray that it will be safe and that they will be allowing foreign travelers into the county in the fall.
Relatively minor quibble, but the product on the 764 isn’t marketed as Delta One Suites, since it doesn’t have the sliding doors like on the 777, A350, and A330neo. It has a “New Interior” flag on Delta’s website, but it’s just marketed as “Delta One,” not “Delta One Suites.”
Good point Ross. And good to hear from you again! 🙂
Virgin Flying Club website has been down for approx. 24 hours as of 8am EST on May 27. Hoping these awards are still available when the site comes back up….
I am a little confused, if I use Virgin Airlines points and then cancel before 24 hours of the flight, what will be the cancellation fees? and do you get all the points back? What happens if it is within 24 hours of the flight?
Thanks.
Within 24 hours of booking: No penalty for cancellation
More than 24 hours from departure: Up to $50 fee to redeposit your miles, but we’ve found that it’s limited to the taxes/fees amount in practice.
Within 24 hours of departure: non-cancellable
Thanks.
Good deal but though I found in coach tickets available, I couldn’t find any in business or first.
If you see it available with Delta miles, does that mean available with Virgin miles on Delta?
Thanks again.
Unfortunately, no. Delta will almost always sell you a flight using miles, but Delta may charge astronomical prices for the award flight. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club only has access to award availability if there’s “saver” space opened to partners. There’s no easy way of telling on Delta’s site if something is going to be available with partners. I’ve seen Delta charge 180k miles for a nonstop to Asia with it costing just 60k via Flying Club.
It´s really good! Maybe it´s not the best time, but good for Delta.
Thanks for the headsup! Got a 80k DL redemption which didn’t show availability using VS miles at time of booking. Time to switch!
I would book these if things weren’t so uncertain now.
The cancellation policy is indeed stellar, which is very good since one needs a giant leap of faith to book any air travel now.
Whoa this is great news.
I am booking a couple of tickets for the end of the year, hopefully we will be able to fly !
Making those private suites more available is great. Although, long haul flights would be easier if you could lie down in those suites too.
Truly a suite a la Emirates/Qatar FC ? Is this avail from BOM-US?
Delta was serving JFK-BOM using a 777-200LR. However, Delta has suspended this route and is retiring its 777s. While Delta has indicated that it will use an A350 on this route, that hasn’t been added to the schedule yet.
Sounds good, but they haven’t updated the schedule for the retiring of the 777s.
Great availability. I’d love to take the ICN flight, but not sure an Asia trip will be wise this year.
I know lots of people have doubts about Delta, but I’ve never had a bad experience. This appears to be a good value deal.
Great deal, everybody should take advantage of it
I hope virgin atlantic comes up. I knownthe galactic is coming up, so would be good and great airine
great availability, wonder if the flexible cancellation policy will last though
Wow. But unable to pull the trigger just yet.
These look like some great deals. And 10,000 miles for a one way economy to London sure seams cheap.
Are these seats ever available to Hawaii from the Midwest or is it only international?
We focused on international flights in this post, but yes, you can book Delta domestic flights with Flying Club as well! However, the availability (especially on a premium route like Hawaii) might be tough to find.
I’ve come across them before, but they are quite limited and go fast. It’s not often you see them just hanging out there.
Why would anyone fly even for free at the moment?
I’m holding off on travel for now as well, but these flight options spread through the end of 2020. Hopefully, through better testing and approved treatments, we will be able to resume travel by then! If not, as we show in the post, Flying Club has very reasonable cancellation fees.
While most aren’t (and shouldn’t) fly, there are plenty of people that must fly for work. Not saying that is specific to this post (though it could be for many travelers), but it’s a reality for some.
Are these promos also offered directly through the Delta site to avoid the risks of Virgin not honoring?
While you can book these flights through Delta, the miles required are usually greatly higher. For example, from Atlanta to Seoul, Flying Club charges 60,000 and Delta SkyMiles is charging 120,000-180,000 for the same exact flight.
That’s exactly the route I’d fly too. Thanks!
Great availability!
This is because anyone rarely travels.
Seeing nearly every one of those dates with such low prices is insane. I’ve never seen availability like that before.
Living thru a pandemic will have us seeing lots of things we’ve never seen before, some good, some bad.