I know I may be a little late to the game on this announcement, but I just now received the official email announcing that the Chase Ultimate Rewards program will now allow you to transfer points to Virgin Atlantic Airlines.
While I have never flown Virgin Atlantic, this new transfer partner provides another option for using ultimate rewards points for those looking to travel from the US to the UK. While many other bloggers are writing about how little they value transfers to Virgin Atlantic, I think that to me the greater point here is that there are now two options available for redeeming points with a specific redemption in mind. It’s always better to have two options for redeeming points, because it often seems that the best rate is not available in many cases.
Virgin Atlantic Gives You More Options
For example, if you are desperate to get to the UK on exact dates (say for a wedding or a sporting event), you might have researched the availability of flights on Ultimate Rewards transfer partners United Airlines and British Airways… but what if neither airline has a flight available? You may be out of luck. With Virgin Atlantic now being a third option for transfer, your chances are much better of finding a redemption that meets your needs on exact dates.
This is useful for me personally, because of Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with Delta, meaning I can likely get a flight out of Minneapolis/St. Paul to the UK without paying significantly more miles.
The Bad: Fuel Surcharges
The worst part about this transfer option is the amount of fuel surcharges that need to be paid on an award ticket. For an economy ticket between New York and London, you must also pay around $700 in fuel surcharges + 35,000 miles.
With other carriers, a similar amount of miles and cash are needed. British Airways requires around $500 + 40,000 miles for the same award ticket.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Continue to Add Value
Kudos to the Chase team for continuing to add value to their product. Each time a new program is added it makes Ultimate Rewards cardholders look like geniuses.