Taking advantage of the recent 30% bonus for transferring AMEX MR points to VS miles, and with some guidance from a friend, I redeemed 93,000 MR points (120,000 miles) for two PEK-DTW Delta One Suite tickets, even for peak travel in early July. This post documents the booking process and hopefully helps others who also want to book flights with VS miles.

Delta One Suite is one of the best business class products offered by a U.S. airline. I found the following cabin image on Delta’s website.

Trip Planning and Which Miles to Use

For this trip back to the U.S. from China, I planned to go to Beijing a few days early to see friends and classmates, then fly directly back to Chicago. My schedule was fairly flexible, and flying around early July would work. Since I had already spent a month traveling around China, I wasn’t planning to stop anywhere else, so I did not consider using the relatively more valuable AS miles.

The miles and points I had available were AA miles plus some UR and MR points, so my first thought was to book JAL with AA miles. I was definitely looking for business class, especially for the transpacific segment, so I first searched JAL award space for NRT-ORD, as shown below. (The AA system could not find JAL-operated flights.)

I found award space on July 5 and July 10. I was surprised to see availability that far in advance during peak season. But when I tried to confirm through BA, there was no space. I then searched again using the Qantas system and found that only July 10 had availability, with two different time options, which was a bit strange. After calling AA customer service, the agent also could not see any seats and said there was no availability from sometime after June 20 through July 10. Since I wanted to lock in my flights sooner rather than later, I had to give up on using AA miles.

At that point, someone suggested transferring MR points to VS miles to book Delta One Suite. There also happened to be a 30% transfer bonus. From Beijing, only SEA and DTW were options, so I chose DTW because it is much closer to Chicago. I would need to buy the final segment separately, because adding Chicago on an award would cost an extra 22,500 miles, which was not a good deal at all. A quick search showed plenty of availability, so the itinerary was basically set: PEK-DTW, then a separate DTW-ORD ticket.

The Actual Redemption

Because of Delta’s own dynamic award pricing, redeeming Delta miles for Delta One Suite would have cost 180,000 miles, which is a terrible deal. But booking through VS required only 60,000 miles. Once you factor in the 30% MR transfer bonus, it came to just 47,000 points one-way, or 93,000 points round-trip, which is comparable to the mileage cost of booking through ANA and therefore a very solid deal.

At the same time, the cash fare was $3,170. That means each MR point got a value of 6.74468 cents!

For the DTW-ORD segment, I booked a Delta flight. I called Delta and was told my bags could be checked through to Chicago, so I probably would not need to worry about paying extra baggage fees.

Pros and Cons of VS Miles

The advantages of VS miles should already be pretty clear from the example above. In general, award availability is often quite good, which can make this especially useful during peak season if you want to lock in your plans early. VS also has many transfer partners: UR, MR, and TYP can all be transferred, and transfers post instantly. MR and TYP also frequently offer 30% transfer bonuses.

That said, if you do not have a near-term use for them, there is no need to transfer MR points to VS just because there is a bonus. You never know when a major devaluation might happen. Also, with United expected to devalue as well, transferring UR points to VS has become even more attractive, although UR usually does not come with a transfer bonus.

At the same time, VS miles do have some drawbacks. You cannot book mixed-cabin Delta awards as a single ticket and instead have to redeem each segment separately. Some people have also reported that the change rules are complicated and customer service is relatively weak.

In addition to Delta redemptions, VS miles can also be used for ANA awards, especially ANA First Class. Round-trip between the U.S. West Coast and Japan costs only 110,000 miles, while round-trip between Japan and the U.S. Central or East Coast costs 120,000 miles. However, ANA releases limited award space, and bookings must be round-trip, so these can be hard to find during peak season. It may still be worth trying at other times.

Finally, here are Delta’s main routes between the U.S. and major cities in China, Japan, and South Korea:

  • DTW-PEK/PVG/NRT/ICN
  • SEA-PEK/PVG/NRT/ICN
  • ATL-PVG/NRT/ICN
  • LAX-PVG/HND
  • PDX-NRT
  • MSP-HND

Conclusion

This itinerary did not involve any stopovers or open jaws, so it was fairly straightforward and relatively easy to ticket. That makes it a great option for beginners like me who want to start redeeming miles for flights. Even though the trip itself looks simple, I actually spent quite a bit of time searching AA award space and researching how to use VS miles. Hopefully this will help anyone else looking to book flights with VS miles. I’ll come back and add a review after I’ve flown it!