How to redeem Virgin Points on SkyTeam flights (Virgin Redemption University #4)

How do you book flights on SkyTeam alliance members using Virgin Points?

This article is Part 4 of our new ‘Virgin Redemption University’ series to run alongside our existing ‘Avios Redemption University’ – which itself will get a much-needed update next month.

If you want to earn more Virgin Points, our review of the Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard credit card is here (15,000 bonus points) and our review of the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard credit card is here.

Here are the other 12 articles in the series:

• How does Virgin Red differ from Virgin Flying Club?
• How many Virgin Points do you need to fly to ….?
• How to redeem Virgin Points on Virgin Atlantic flights
• How to redeem Virgin Points on ANA and other partners
• How to upgrade your Virgin Atlantic flight with Virgin Points
• How to convert Virgin Points to Hilton or IHG hotel points
• How to use Virgin Points for a Virgin Holidays discount
• How to redeem Virgin Points for hotel rooms via Kaligo
• Is Virgin Atlantic’s ‘Points Plus Money’ feature a good deal?
• What’s the best non-flying use of Virgin Points?
• What is the cheapest way to top up your Virgin Points?
• Get cheaper Virgin redemptions with a credit card voucher

This article should give you a good introduction to what you need to know to make a redemption booking with Virgin Points on a SkyTeam partner.

Which airlines can be booked online and which must be booked by telephone?

The Virgin Atlantic IT system is not fully up to speed with SkyTeam redemptions, and most require you to book by telephone.

If you are reading this article after its original publication date (August 2023), you can check what airlines are currently bookable online by:

• visiting this partner page of the Virgin Atlantic website
• clicking on the logo of the relevant airline to go to their specific partner page
• scrolling down to the ‘Spending Virgin Points’ box – it will either say ‘book direct’ (ie online) or ‘get in touch with our Flying Club team’ (ie call)

Which SkyTeam airlines must be booked BY TELEPHONE with Virgin Points?

• Aerolíneas Argentinas
• Aeromexico
• Air Europa
• China Airlines
• Czech Airlines
• Garuda Indonesia
• Kenya Airways
• SAUDIA
• TAROM
• Vietnam Airlines (Business Class review here)
• Xiamen Air

Which SkyTeam airlines can be booked ONLINE with Virgin Points?

It’s not a huge list unfortunately:

• Air France
• Delta Air Lines
• ITA Airways
• KLM
• Korean Air
• Middle East Airlines

The process for booking these six airlines online is the same as it is to book Virgin Atlantic redemption flights.

Fundamentally, it is as simple as going to Virgin Atlantic’s homepage, entering your destination and dates you want to fly and selecting ‘Points’, an option which is hidden under the ‘Advanced’ button. Sadly the Virgin Atlantic website is very buggy when it comes to SkyTeam as I will explain below.

Which SkyTeam airlines cannot be booked with Virgin Points?

China Eastern is the only SkyTeam partner which cannot be booked at all with Virgin Points at this time. It is on the way, I believe.

What elite benefits do you get on SkyTeam airlines?

This article looks at the SkyTeam benefits you get if you are Virgin Flying Club Gold.

This article looks at the SkyTeam benefits you get if you are Virgin Flying Club Silver.

How many Virgin Points will I need for a SkyTeam redemption?

The redemption charts – yes, plural, because Air France KLM and Delta each use a different chart to the other SkyTeam airlines – are in this article which was Part 2 of this series.

Here are the basic rules when booking SkyTeam redemptions with Virgin Points:

• the pricing charts are for a sector – if you need to connect, each flight will be priced separately based on the distance of each leg. Pricing is NOT based on the total distance flown.

• the pricing charts are one-way – for a return flight, you do NOT add up the total distance and price from that. Each flight must be priced individually based on its own distance.

• First Class redemptions are not possible on those airlines which offer it

• you can mix different partners on the same booking online but the call centre agents are encouraged to book each carrier separately to make changes easier to process. I am assuming that you can still interline baggage even though your connecting flight wil be on a separate ticket – SkyTeam is more flexible than oneworld.

• for those carriers where you can book online, the Virgin Atlantic website is not able to show all possible permutations of connecting flights but, if you can see a flight combination via the reward booking website of any SkyTeam carrier, the Virgin Atlantic call centre should be able to book it. The exceptions are Air France, KLM and Delta – their websites offer more seats for their own members on their own flights than are offered to partners like Virgin Atlantic.

• you cannot use Virgin Atlantic credit card 2-4-1 or upgrade vouchers on SkyTeam partners, only on Virgin Atlantic itself

How much are taxes and charges?

How long is a piece of string? Because few carriers are bookable online at this point, it isn’t easy to give a comprehensive guide.

In general, you will get a better deal if you start outside the UK. This is partly to do with avoiding long haul UK Air Passenger Duty, and partly because Virgin Atlantic itself does not add surcharges.

Let’s take Frankfurt to Beirut on Middle East Airlines, which is bookable online. Business Class is 70,000 points plus just €126 in taxes, return.

Frankfurt to Seoul on Korean Air, in Economy, is 62,000 points plus just €127 in taxes, return.

Delta Air Lines has exceptionally good deals on flights from the US into Europe – but NOT to the UK. A one way Economy flight from Atlanta to Frankfurt, for example, is 30,000 Virgin Points plus a silly $6 in taxes. Business Class would also be $6 to Europe, but Delta opens very little award availability to partners.

Air France and KLM are most likely to be your partners

Despite the scale of the SkyTeam alliance, the reality is that – for most UK-based HfP readers – the most common partner redemption will be a hop over to Paris or Amsterdam for a connection to Air France or KLM.

Air France and KLM have excellent connections from most UK regional airports, although if you want to save Air Passenger Duty then you may want to buy two separate tickets.

Here is a review of Air France Business Class which I wrote last year. I took my own advice and took the Eurostar to Paris to save on taxes, investing the savings in a 24 hour break before connecting. A KLM review is on our ‘to do’ list ….

Here are some off-peak examples (add 20,000 Virgin Points return for peak dates):

• Air France, Paris to Abu Dhabi in Business Class, return – 100,000 points + €389

• KLM, Amsterdam to Dubai in Business Class, return – 100,000 points + €336

• Air France, Paris to Bangkok in Business Class, return – 224,000 points + €588

• KLM, Amsterdam to Tokyo in Business Class, return – 224,000 points + €516

One quirk is Curacao, which appears to benefit from lower taxes due to its territorial status. A return Business Class flight from Amsterdam on KLM is 97,000 Virgin Points + €140:

Why is the Virgin Atlantic website so buggy?

You WILL be asking this question, don’t worry.

It’s hard to understand how it could be so bad at booking partner rewards but it is.

Let’s ignore the fact that the majority of SkyTeam awards can’t be booked online at all …..

Here are some common problems you will face:

• the website won’t find your airport when you type in the name (highly likely if its not a direct Virgin Atlantic route) – you need to click the ‘Alphabetical’ button in the search box and scroll through the list of every global airport

• it may refuse to let you search for Virgin Points seats for no good reason. Here’s an example with the ‘Points’ option greyed out (Amsterdam to Curacao) – but if I toggled the search to look for Curacao to Amsterdam I COULD select ‘Points’. The joke is that I can’t book a ‘money’ ticket either because it’s a KLM route which isn’t part of any Virgin Atlantic codeshare.

• if you can select flights and get to the payment page, you are likely to be met by this message when you hit ‘pay – it is a lie and the call centre will happily book the seats you found if you ring:

I have NEVER been able to get an Air France or KLM long haul Business Class redemption to ticket. My last failure was just two weeks ago. I did get a KLM flight between London to Amsterdam to ticket online once.

Can you cancel Virgin Points redemptions on SkyTeam partners?

Yes. It is the same rule as for bookings on Virgin Atlantic itself – £30 per person cancellation fee with all points and taxes refunded.

I’m not sure if the ‘no fee’ 24 hour cooling off period applies to Virgin Points redemptions on SkyTeam or not.

I hope this article gave you an introduction on how to use your Virgin Points with SkyTeam partners. In the next part we will look at using your points on non-SkyTeam partners such as Japanese airline ANA.

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (January 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)