Up until now, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club was one of the best programs to redeem flights on Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA). However, this is not the case anymore.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Devaluations ANA Awards
While there were constant rumors that the Flying Club will be devaluating ANA awards, it has come as a surprise, the program changed without notice. The Flying Club program was arguably the best program to redeem ANA’s first and business class with one-way first class from Japan to the US starting from 55,000 points.
Below you can see the old award chart the Flying Club offered.
From economy class to first class redemption, the Flying Club offered the best award cost for ANA flights.
Effective, immediately, there will be a new award cost when redeeming ANA awards and here is the table the program published.
In spite of the changes, you may notice that the actual devaluations took place only for the first class awards. While the economy and business class awards remained the same, there was an up to 42% increase in the first class redemption cost.
This is quite a relief that you are still able to experience ANA’s amazing business class with the same number of points.
My Thoughts On Virgin Atlantic Flying Club’s ANA Devaluation
As of March 1, 2023, Virgin Atlantic has become the newest member of SkyTeam and many of us expected that there will be some changes with the partner programs especially those who are not SkyTeam members.
The airline has a huge number of non-SkyTeam partners such as British Airways and ANA and the joining of SkyTeam will surely have implications in the future.
Award devaluations are always painful for frequent flyers since we end up using more miles/points. However, I am quite surprised that the devaluation was not severe as I thought. Since only the first class redemption cost was affected and the rest of the class remain untouched.
Furthermore, even with the devaluations, the redemptions rate is still the best compared to other partners. So I would not complain about that.
Summary
Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club quietly devaluated the All Nippon Airways first class award by up to 42%. Members were not notified about the change beforehand and the new changes were in effect immediately.
Despite the devaluation, only the first class was touched while the business and economy remained the same. Furthermore, the program still offers the best redemption rates on ANA’s business and first classes.
