Book Delta One Suites to India for 47,000 Points
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Delta announced its long awaited return to India last month, flying a Boeing 777-200LR from New York JFK to Mumbai (BOM) starting in December 2019.
Delta will operate a 777 that's been retrofitted with the fantastic new Delta One Suite.
One Mile At A Time reports that when the flight was loaded into the schedule, it was not available to book through Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club, which is usually the best way to book award flights on Delta aircraft. Now, the flight's available through Virgin, and there's solid premium cabin award availability on the new route.
Another bonus: Virgin's not charging fuel surcharges, so you'll just be stuck paying the taxes, which come to about $42 on a round-trip itinerary.
Looking in March 2020, there's saver availability at least once a week on the outbound (JFK --> BOM).
You'll have even more options on the outbound (BOM --> JFK), with a few days available each week.
What makes this deal even sweeter is that both Citi and Amex are currently running bonuses when transferring points Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club. You can earn a 30% bonus when transferring from either Citi ThankYou to American Express Membership Rewards.
With either program you'll only need to transfer 47,000 points to get 61,000 Virgin miles (you'll have some leftover since you can only transfer in increments of 1,000). For reference, you'd need to use at least 97,500 SkyMiles to book this flight through Delta, according to Award Wallet's unofficial Delta award chart.
Related: The Best Business Cards That Earn Transferable Points
Amex's transfer bonus ends on July 1 and Citi's on June 22. Both transfers should process instantly, so you can book immediately once the miles are in your account.
If you don't currently have any Citi or Amex points, both of the bank's rewards programs offer semi-frequent transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic, so it can be worth stocking up on points the next time one of these deals come around. Virgin Atlantic has a fantastic partner award chart, so if these flights aren't your cup of tea, you have plenty of other low-cost options for business or first class flights.
The Citi Premier® Card is currently offering a sign-up bonus of 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within the first three months of account opening. The ultra-premium Platinum Card® from American Express has a welcome bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on purchases in your first six months of card membership. If you want to avoid a high annual fee, the American Express® Gold Card will award 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first six months of card membership.