In our previous introduction to VS miles, we covered many of the sweet spots of the Virgin Atlantic program. However, since most of those redemptions required calling in, they were a bit of a hassle to use. The good news is that you can now redeem Delta award tickets directly on the Virgin Atlantic website!

How to Redeem

Open the VS booking page, and you’ll see this:

Under the date field, check "Pay with miles." If your travel dates are flexible, you can also select "Within 1 week" or "Within 5 weeks." If you want to book business class, click "Show advanced options" and select "Upper Class" under Cabin, as shown below:

One thing to note when entering airport codes: after entering the departure airport code/city, you may need to use the following little trick to enter the destination airport code/city. For example, if you want to book a SEA-PVG flight, after selecting SEA as the departure airport, you may not be able to type in PVG directly as the destination. In that case, click the location icon next to it, choose China under Country, and then select Pudong Airport below, as shown here:

Then choose your date and click "Fing my flights" to search. There was still a good amount of award space for trips back to China in May and June of next year:

Click on a date, choose your flight, and you can ticket it directly!

Recommended Routes

  • US–China routes: Nonstop business class is only 60,000 miles one-way; with connections, it starts at 72,500 miles. Delta’s nonstop US–China routes include Seattle-Hong Kong; Atlanta/Detroit/Los Angeles/Seattle-Shanghai; and Detroit/Seattle-Beijing. Among these, the Detroit-Beijing/Shanghai routes (with Shanghai service beginning on April 9, 2018) are operated by the A350, with Delta’s newest Delta One Suite business class. OneMoreDay highly recommends it :). Other A350 routes include Detroit-Seoul/Tokyo and Atlanta-Seoul.
Delta One Suite (source: delta.com)
  • Transcontinental routes within the US: On the flagship JFK-LAX/SFO routes, Delta uses the Boeing 757 with lie-flat business class seats, for only 22,500 miles one-way. Other routes with lie-flat business class include BOS-SFO, JFK-SAN, and DCA-LAX.
  • Nonstop US–Europe business class flights cost only 50,000 miles one-way, with the best value generally from the West Coast. However, just like Delta, flights in the Europe-to-US direction incur fuel surcharges of around $300-$400. Delta’s refurbished 777-200 cabin and A330 both feature reverse herringbone lie-flat business class seats, making them good options for US–Europe flights.
  • Delta also operates the Tokyo Narita-Honolulu route, and 35,000 miles one-way in business class is also an excellent redemption.

Right now (before 11/30), transferring MR points to VS miles comes with an extra 30% bonus, which means a one-way business class trip back to China costs only 47,000 MR points. Be sure to take advantage of this promotion if you want to use your MR points for a trip back to China.