For many years, if Delta One Business Class wanted to fly to Europe, its best option was to use Virgin Atlantic points. It used to cost 50,000 points plus $ 5.60 for that unidirectional flight. Then, in July 2024, Virgin changed his delta prices. Point prices are still quite good (especially on the east coast), but prize rates are now typically More than $ 1,000! In the last year, it could avoid the worst crazy surcharges flying in one sense of Europe to the United States instead of the other way around. Now, even that option is dead. Now we are seeing rates of more than 1,000 euros for that travel address!

Fortunately, I have encountered some ways to fly Delta One through the Atlantic with virgin points and without those amazing surcharges. That said, Delta releases very little commercial awards space to its partners. I used seats. Aero to find some flights available for this analysis, but do not wait to find these awards for the dates you really want to go. On the other hand, you are likely to have better luck using its points Virgin Atlantic to fly the Virgin Atlantic, the Delta Economy or other associated airlines.

Here are three suggestions to book Delta One with lower surcharges …

Limitariza de Europa

When unidirectional booking from Europe, surcharges are high, but when I reserve round trip, it is not so bad. In this example, I looked in multiple cities to fly Delta One from Amsterdam a Detroit and after Detroit to Dublin. Total rates for this round trip reach 452 euros (around $ 490). That is less than half of the rates to reserve a single one -way flight!

Reserve with this multi -cities trick

Since the round trip trick from Europe worked, I decided to play with broader definitions of “round trip” to see what would happen. I discovered that I could reduce surcharges using the search for multiple cities of Virgin Atlantic to start with a flight that originates outside the United States and then add the unidirectional business class flight from the United States to Europe that I really wanted. It is important to understand that you will have to fly that first stage to fly the flight you really want. As a result, I doubt that this trick is useful for many people, but it was fun (in a very nerd way) to find it!

Here is an example:

• Multiple cities routing:
  • April 23: Luxembourg A Amsterdam Flying Klm Business Class
  • June 16: Detroit A Dublin Flying Delta One Business Class
  • Total cost: 65,500 more points 174 euros

Here is another:

• Multiple cities routing:
  • April 19: Cancun to Miami Flying Aeromexico Executive Classion
  • May 12: Detroit A Amsterdam Flying Delta One Business Class
  • Total cost: 63,000 points plus $ 405

In additional tests with this approach, I found the following:

• Starting the first leg in the United States not working. For example, starting with Lax to Mex or JFK to Yyz does not reduce surcharges.
• From Canada, it seems to work to reduce surcharges (for example, Toronto to JFK in Delta, followed by Detroit to Amsterdam in Delta), but the process is often wrong, so I do not have great hope that you can really reserve.
• I could only obtain the previous examples to appear when you find a first leg in executive or first regional class. When the first leg was in the economy, Virgin Atlantic would not show me the second flight in executive class.

Reserve with Air France/Klm Flying Blue Miles

If a Delta flight is available to book with Virgin Miles, it must also be reserved with Air France/Klm Flying Blue Miles. Flying Blue often charges more in miles, but much less on rates. For example, Delta One Business Class of Detroit A Amsterdam costs 78,000 blue miles flying plus $ 33.

Awards search tools often do not do a good job by being able to find Flying Blue Partner awards like the one shown above. And Flying Blue itself will not show the prices of partner flights in its awards calendar. So, the best way to find Delta flights that are counted with Flying Blue Miles is to wear a prize search tool to find Delta flights Virgin Points Reservable And then look for those exact dates on the Air France or KLM website.

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