How to book Delta award flights with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

Though Virgin Atlantic joined SkyTeam in early 2023, its Flying Club loyalty program may not be as well known as some of its alliance partners' programs — especially Delta Air Lines' SkyMiles.

However, Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club program has so many great partner redemptions that it's worth getting to know the program if you're looking for good-value award flights.

Since Delta operates using a dynamic pricing model, the carrier can charge upward of 350,000 SkyMiles for one premium award flight. Though Delta is not generous in releasing premium-cabin awards to partner airlines, there are still some good deals to be found.

Whether you want to travel domestically or internationally, if you want to save your Delta SkyMiles, here's how you can book Delta-operated flights using Virgin points.

How to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points

Before we get into how to use them, it's important to note how easy it is to collect Virgin points — even without flying Virgin Atlantic or its partners.

Flying Club is a transfer partner of almost every major program with a transferable currency:

• American Express Membership Rewards (at a 1:1 ratio)
• Bilt Rewards (1:1)
• Capital One (1:1)
• Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1)
• Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1)
• Marriott Bonvoy (3:1, with a 5,000-point bonus for transferring 60,000 points; 48-hour transfer time)

It's worth noting that Capital One miles transfer to Virgin Red, not directly to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. However, you can easily use your Virgin Red account points with Flying Club.

Additionally, some of the above programs offer regular transfer bonuses to Flying Club, meaning you might need even fewer points than you first thought.

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That means you've got plenty of card options for earning rewards to transfer to Flying Club, many of which feature terrific welcome bonuses. Here's just a sample of the travel rewards credit cards that earn transferable points that can be converted to Virgin points:

• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
• The Platinum Card® from American Express
• American Express® Gold Card
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (see rates and fees)
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees)

Virgin Atlantic's Delta award chart

While Delta did away with its award charts years ago and now has some eye-watering dynamic prices, Flying Club has retained award rates for Delta-operated flights, with some quirks and caveats.

You'll now see three Delta award charts on Flying Club's website.

• Nonstop flights between the U.S. and the U.K.
• Nonstop flights between the U.S. and Europe (excluding the U.K.)
• All other Delta reward flights

Here's the award chart for one-way, nonstop flights between the U.S. and the U.K.:

Meanwhile, the award chart for flights between the U.S. and Europe is as follows:

For all other Delta flights — such as flights within North America, as well as to Asia, Australia and South America — Virgin Atlantic uses a distance-based award chart. Each segment is priced separately based on the following table:

Due to SkyMiles' dynamic pricing, Flying Club still charges fewer points than Delta's SkyMiles program may charge for many of the same flights. Therefore, it is worth checking the prices of both programs where you have transferable credit card points, as there is still value to be had.

And as noted above, you'll redeem points for each segment individually. As a result, flying from New York's LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) will require additional points if you connect through a Delta hub like Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) — even though the total distance flown with the connection is just a few miles longer.

Also, Flying Club members can't book Delta Premium Select (premium economy) awards on any route.

Related: Is Delta Air Lines premium economy worth it between New York and London?

While Delta One business-class flights to Europe can technically be booked with Virgin points for as low as 47,500 points each way, availability is virtually nonexistent, and Flying Club recently added a huge carrier surcharge of over $1,000 each way, which makes this option a poor use of Virgin points.

Sweet spots for Delta flights

There are some great sweet spots where you can use Virgin points to book Delta flights. Main Cabin economy awards are readily available to London-area airports and can represent a terrific value, especially on off-peak dates, for a solid product.

Related: A review of Delta Air Lines economy on the Boeing 767 from London to New York

While Delta flights to London should start at 15,000 Virgin points each way, we have seen some dates go for as low as 10,000 points; however, you will have to pay carrier-imposed surcharges.

Considering Delta charges 58,000 SkyMiles for the same Main Cabin flight, booking this flight for just 10,000 Virgin points is terrific.

You can also use the handy reward-seat search tool to quickly check the availability of Delta flights, month by month, on routes to and from the U.K.

Though you'll need more Virgin points to fly Delta from the U.S. to European destinations outside of the U.K., the benefit is that the fees and taxes are virtually nil, and there are no pesky surcharges.

This same Delta flight through SkyMiles would set you back a massive 115,000 miles, so if you have credit card points, it's a much better deal to book through Flying Club than SkyMiles.

Despite the recent price increase for most non-Europe Delta flights, the distance-based chart for other Delta-operated flights can also provide value. Flights less than 500 miles in length escaped the devaluation and are still just 7,500 Virgin points per flight, a great deal.

We recommend focusing on routes covering up to 2,000 miles, especially for domestic Delta-operated flights. You may snag a Delta reward flight for less than you would have paid using Delta's SkyMiles program.

Try to look for nonstop flights since a connecting itinerary will price segment by segment (and thus have a higher price).

On long-haul Delta flights to regions other than the U.K. and Europe, we have only seen Main Cabin availability on a limited number of routes.

How to search Delta flights on Virgin Atlantic

You can search and book Delta flights on the Virgin Atlantic website.

To search, start here and enter the requested information. Don't forget to change the "Show Price In" choice from "Money" to "Points." I also recommend selecting "Show flexible dates" if you have flexibility.

Virgin Atlantic's website doesn't show some airports when you search by entering the three-digit airport code. If this happens to you, click on "Full Airport List" and select your airport.

Selecting "Show flexible dates" will display a small range of dates and prices.

When you click on a given date, you'll arrive at the screen with flights you can select.

After confirming your flight details, log in to your Flying Club account. At this point, you'll receive a message if you don't have enough points to book the award.

As noted, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards points to Flying Club. The points will typically reach your account instantly.

However, you may need to log out and back in to access your updated balance.

Bottom line

Delta's decision to remove its award charts in 2015 has led to incredibly high award ticket prices. However, there are often ways to book these flights for significantly fewer points than the carrier would charge.

One option to consider for select routes is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. It's always worth checking Virgin Atlantic's website before booking an award ticket on Delta; you could save plenty of points.