Maximizing Miles and Points: Delta – Detroit to Honolulu First Class Only 37,500 Miles
Currently, you can find first class availability flying on Delta Air Lines from Detroit to Honolulu, Hawaii for only 37,500 miles and $5.60 (one-way) during July – September 2019!
Now that’s a tremendous deal!
The catch?
You must use Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles to book these incredible award fares.
Value Can be Found When Transferring to Partners
This post isn’t so much about this specific deal – although, if you happen to have Virgin Atlantic miles, or can transfer points to get the miles needed, this is a great deal on which to pounce.
Rather, it’s an illustration of how utilizing partner airlines for certain routes or opportunities can prove extremely valuable when using miles, rather than dollars, as your travel currency.
And, in turn, how important it is to have a variety of transferable points available to take advantage of these opportunities when they fit your travel plans.
Transferable Points
There are four major transferable points currencies which can be transferred to a number of airline and hotel loyalty programs at varying transfer rates (many at 1:1).
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Citi ThankYou Points
- Marriott Rewards (Previously SPG)
Let’s take a look at the transfer rates from each of these programs to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club frequent flyer program.
Chase Ultimate Rewards – 1,000 Ultimate Rewards = 1,000 Flying Club miles
American Express Membership Rewards – 1,000 Membership Rewards = 1,000 Flying Club miles
Citi ThankYou – 1,000 ThankYou points = 1,000 Flying Club miles
Marriott Rewards – 3,000 Marriott Rewards = 1,000 Flying Club miles (get a 15,000 point bonus when 60,000 points are transferred)
As you can see, if you have points in any of these credit card points programs, or Marriott Rewards points, it can be easy to build up enough Virgin Atlantic miles to take advantage of this – or any other – award deal.
In theory, you could transfer 10,000 points from each of the credit card programs and 23,000 Marriott Rewards points and have enough Virgin Atlantic miles to book your one-way, first class trip to Hawaii on Delta Air Lines.
Double those transfer amounts if you want to book a roundtrip award.
These may sound like large amounts of points, but they really aren’t if you follow our big-picture Miles and Points advice.
Partner Airlines
There are three major airline alliances, each comprised of airlines from around the world.
The three alliances (and the associated U.S. carriers) are:
If you have miles in one airline’s frequent flyer program, you can book travel on any other airline that is part of the same alliance.
The airline with which you have miles is the award chart (or number of miles associated with a specific deal) that you will use to book your award travel.
And it’s these differences between airline award charts that create award “sweet spots” for certain routes.
And why having a nice stash of transferrable points from a variety of sources can prove extremely lucrative.
The Virgin Atlantic Hawaii Deal
You may think Virgin Atlantic is part of the SkyTeam alliance since Flying Club miles are being used to fly on Delta Air Lines.
If only it were that simple.
Unfortunately, it’s not.
Virgin Atlantic, you see, is not a member of any of the three major airline alliances.
Rather, it has its own alliance, the members of which are:
Air China, Air New Zealand, Delta, Flybe, Jet Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Australia.
Which means, Flying Club miles can be used to book award travel on any of those airlines.
And in this specific instance, on Delta for this terrific first class deal to Hawaii.
Which award ticket would you rather book?
Or
Same exact travel day and flight, except when using Virgin Atlantic miles your one-way, first-class ticket will cost 37,500 miles and $5.60. Using Delta SkyMiles, that same exact flight will cost 107,500 SkyMiles and $5.60.
Here’s a look at the 5-week award calendars for each airline during the deal period.
Virgin Atlantic’s award calendar.
and Delta’s 5-week award calendar for similar dates.
To be fair, Delta does have significant first-class availability during 2019’s summer months on this route, but its lowest SkyMiles price is 55,000 one-way, still higher than Virgin Atlantic’s 37,500 miles.
And if you need additional SkyMiles, you’re limited to only 2 transfer partners – American Express Membership Rewards (1:1) and Marriott Rewards (3:1), rather than all four for Virgin Atlantic.
Wrap Up
Virgin Atlantic has significant first class (Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic) award availability for travel from Detroit to Honolulu, Hawaii from June 29, 2019, through September 8, 2019.
You can fly on Delta Air Lines, in first class, for only 37,500 Flying Club miles and $5.60 one-way. Rountrip awards would price at 75,000 Virgin Atlantic miles and $11.20.
While this is an incredible award deal for those with Virgin Atlantic miles, the bigger picture of this post is that similar outsized award deals are available if you’re familiar with the various airline alliances and the award “sweet spots” that can be taken advantage of. And it’s transferrable points that make taking advantage of these award travel deals possible.
So, do a little research on airline alliances, the award “sweet spots” for destinations to which you want to travel, build up a nice mixture of transferable points, and before you know it, you’ll be enjoying award travel at rates you never thought possible.
Are you jumping on this Virgin Atlantic award deal to Hawaii?
H/T Frequent Miler
