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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 recently removed the award calendar option box from its search page.
The good news is that Virgin hasn't actually removed this functionality from its website. The calendar search functionality is still in the background. Now a workaround has been found for you to use to access this convenient way of searching for Virgin and its partners' awards.
How the Trick Works
The workaround to access the Virgin Atlantic award calendar search functionality is relatively straightforward and starts by heading over to Virgin's booking search page. Once there, you need to enter your desired route and travel date. You also need to make sure that you tick the “points” option and to tick the “flexible Dates” box.
For the process to work, the selected date will have to have an award booking available within 3 days on either side. If there is no availability, you will receive a negative response from the site and will have to select a new date. Once you have chosen a date with availability days on either side, you will 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 will be able to see the Virgin award calendar search results.
Once you have the monthly calendar up for your search month, you can cycle to the following 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 if this hack works for Upper Class awards, the good news is it does. Simply repeat the process of performing a search but this time for an Upper Class award. Bear in mind it can be a little more challenging to do this. 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 have hit a date with award availability on either side of it, you simply repeat the process of changing the words “dates” for “calendar,” and you will be 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 it is excellent news that a workaround has been found. (Shout out to Frequent Miler for finding this one.) While Virgin may leave this as is, it also may decide to change things again to disable the function — especially if it does not want to offer calendar search functionality.
This workaround makes it easier to find awards, especially if you are looking to book on 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. Regardless, we hope that Virgin Atlantic award calendar search functionality and its workaround continue for a long time!
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