Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Devalues Many Delta Routes

Ben Smithson and Nick Ewen: "If you've used Virgin Atlantic's Flying Club program to book Delta-operated flights in the past, listen up. You have just a couple of days before Virgin significantly increases the price of many Delta award itineraries."

Starting December 7, 2023 for flights from January 1, 2024 onward, a new chart will take effect for flights that aren't to/from the U.K. and Europe.

All but the shortest Delta flights will require 29-60% more Virgin points. Awards in domestic first class and Delta One on routes that are no more than 3,000 flight miles will require 20-51% more Virgin points.

Points Wire Note: There aren't any positives to this. None of the award rates are improving. Plus, this is a no-notice devaluation which isn't exactly the most respectful way to treat customers.

Qatar Airways Adds Peak Dates For Award Tickets

In July, I reported that Qatar Airways Privilege Club had added a close-in booking fee by increasing award rates for award tickets booked within 40 days of departure. Mainly Miles now reports that Qatar Airways has added peak dates to/from Southeast Asia that increase the standard award rate by 20%.

I ran some awards searches from the U.S. on Qatar Airways and saw Off-Peak noted on some dates. Those dates had 70,000 Avios listed as the award rate as expected. Unfortunately, on dates without the Off-Peak label, I did see that the rate jumped to 94,500 Avios. That's a 35% jump!

Air France-KLM and Etihad Partnership Adds Reciprocal Loyalty Benefits

One Mile At A Time: "In September 2023, Air France-KLM & Etihad Airways announced plans to expand their partnership. There’s now a major update, as both airline groups have rolled out frequent flyer reciprocity, giving flyers the opportunity to earn and redeem miles for travel on the other airline group. This has major implications for passengers."

Points Wire Note: The Etihad Guest award rates for Air France and KLM flights are set by their partner award chart. This won't be a go-to option.

Flying Blue rates won't blow you away, but there's some potential. The main benefit is we now have an option with multiple transfer partners (Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, Citi) in addition to American AAdvantage which only partners with Bilt.

In theory, Air Canada Aeroplan could be useful but they haven't been able to book Etihad business and first class award space for a while now.

33% Discount On Virgin Atlantic Award Tickets

Monkey Miles: "Virgin Atlantic has a great deal that reduces the price of Virgin Atlantic award flights, upgrades, and companion bookings by 33%. The big thing to pay attention to on this deal is that only the points are reduced by 33%, not the surcharges. Book by 11/27/23 and you must fly 11/24/23 onward ( yes the entire calendar is on sale )."

Points Wire Note: There's no way around it, the surcharges are rough which leads to some seriously steep taxes/fees. However, if you don't see award space on partners, this could be a good option in a pinch.

Two Transfers Bonuses To Qatar Airways Privilege Club

One Mile At A Time: "Qatar Airways Privilege Club is currently offering two separate transfer bonus promotions. They’re not particularly exciting, but are worth being aware of, as this can also be useful for collecting other “flavors” of Avios (including with British Airways Executive Club)."

- 10% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards
- 25% transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou Points

Please note that these transfer bonuses are handled on Qatar Airways' end so you won't see any indication of the bonus on Amex or Citi sites. The bonus can take up to 45 days to post. Hopefully, it won't actually take that long.

Points Wire Note: You can combine Avios between Qatar Airways, British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus.

Flying Blue Miles Can Now Book Award Tickets On ITA Airways

One Mile At A Time: "ITA Airways is the new(ish) national airline of Italy, and the successor of Alitalia. While the airline belongs to the SkyTeam alliance for now (until Lufthansa completes its takeover), unfortunately there have been limited opportunities to actually redeem partner miles for travel on ITA, which has been quite frustrating."

"Air France-KLM Flying Blue points can now be used to redeem on ITA Airways directly through the Air France or KLM website."

Points Wire Note: Whether using Flying Blue miles or Virgin points will be a better option depends on the route and whether if there is a bank transfer bonus to either program.

JetBlue TrueBlue Changes Award Chart For Hawaiian Airlines

Award Wallet: "JetBlue just added the ability to book Hawaiian award flights online, making the booking process much more convenient. This new functionality comes just a week after JetBlue added online booking for Qatar awards — marking the first time TrueBlue members could redeem points for partner awards online."

"However, it's not all good news. Along with making Hawaiian Airlines awards bookable online, it seems JetBlue has revamped its unpublished award chart for Hawaiian flights, making some awards a lot more expensive to book."

Etihad Restricting Partner Access To Business And First Class

One Mile At A Time: "Long story short, at the moment there seem to be no opportunities to redeem partner points currencies for travel in Etihad first class or business class on long haul flights. There’s long haul economy award space and there’s a limited amount of short haul business class award space, but there’s no medium or long haul first or business class award space."

"What’s interesting here is that this wasn’t an overnight change. For several months now, Air Canada Aeroplan has been having issues with booking premium Etihad award space. Then a few weeks ago, American AAdvantage seemed to lose access to most premium Etihad award space."

Iberia 50% Off Award Tickets For Select Members

Pontos pra Voar reports that Iberia Plus has launched a 50% off award ticket promo. Unfortunately, this is a targeted offer so only some accounts can book with the discount.

There isn't a promo page so you'll only know you have the offer if you search for award space and see the award rate is cut in half.

It's worth a quick check to see if you have the 50% discount if you want to book flights to Europe.

The one-way business class award rate of 34,000/50,000 Avios (off-peak/peak) one-way from the east coast and Chicago drops to 17,000/25,000 Avios. Economy class awards drop from 17,000/20,000 Avios (off-peak/peak) to 8,500/10,000 Avios.

American Airlines Won't Help Fix Your Award Ticket On Etihad

View From The Wing: "Although American’s website remains glitchy for showing Etihad award space, the AAdvantage program retains access to seats that are made available by the Etihad – even while Etihad’s partner Air Canada Aeroplan frequently does not."

"However if things go wrong with your Etihad award redemption, American is telling its own agents that they just aren’t going to be able to help."