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The ability to search for Virgin Atlantic and partner awards on the Virgin site has long been one of the easiest and most convenient ways to find awards. However, Virgin Atlantic removed the award calendar option box from its search page, seemingly ending this useful feature. The good news is that Virgin hasn't actually removed this functionality from its website. The calendar search still exists, and this Virgin Atlantic award calendar trick makes it possible to easily find awards for Flying Club sweet spots.
This tool isn't to be confused with Virgin's reward seat calendar, which has uses but also severe limitations. Here's how to find the monthly award calendar and why we like using it.
How the Virgin Atlantic Award Calendar Trick Works
The trick to accessing the Virgin Atlantic award calendar search functionality is relatively straightforward. First, head over to Virgin's booking search page. Once there, enter your desired route and travel date. Make sure to tick the “points” option and the “flexible Dates” box.
For the process to work, the selected date must have an award booking available within three days on either side. If there is no availability, you will receive a negative response from the site and must select a new date. Once you have chosen a date with availability on either side, you'll see a results page.
In the address bar at the top of your browser, you will see the term “flexible-dates?” At this point, you need to replace the word “dates” with the word “calendar” and hit return. Now, you'll see the Virgin award calendar search results.
Once you have the monthly calendar visible, you can cycle to ensuing or preceding months by clicking on the arrows at the left and right of the calendar.
Does It Work for Upper Class Awards?
If you are wondering whether this hack works for Upper Class awards (Virgin Atlantic's business class), the good news is that it does. Simply repeat the process of performing a search — this time for an Upper Class award. Bear in mind it can be a little more challenging here. With fewer Upper Class awards available, it can be tricky to hit a date that will let you open up the whole month, but perseverance will pay off eventually.
However, once you hit a date with award availability on either side of it, you simply repeat the process of changing the words “dates” for “calendar.” Now, you're looking at the Upper Class award calendar.
Our Take
Searching by month is much more convenient (and simpler) than using the flexible date option, so this workaround is very handy. While Virgin Atlantic may leave this as is, it also might decide to change things again to disable the function — especially if it does not want to offer calendar search functionality.
This Virgin Atlantic award calendar trick makes it easier to find awards, especially if you are looking to book Virgin's own flights. Unfortunately, some of Virgin’s partner sweet spots — like ANA first class awards — are not searchable online, but plenty of others are. And there's also a calendar for Virgin Atlantic and Delta seats on specific routes, available in a different feature. Using that tool for flights departing anywhere outside the U.K. requires considerable tinkering, though, so you may still find the calendar search we've outlined here more practical.
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