When I first learned about this partnership, I was confused, shocked, and then amazed. For those of you not familiar, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic are part of two completely different alliances, which makes this collaboration even more interesting.
Virgin Atlantic has some incredible redemption opportunities for Singapore Airlines when flying outside of the United States and Europe. In this article, we’ll explore the award chart, highlight some specific high value routes, and how to actually book this flight (hint: you can’t just search it up on Virgin’s website).
The Virgin Atlantic x Singapore Airlines Award Chart
The following award chart covers award pricing for booking Singapore Airlines award flights using Virgin Atlantic miles:
What’s interesting is that you cannot book Singapore business or first class via any USA or Europe based routes. So this award chart is mostly designed for people traveling in other directions/regions.
How To Get Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Points
Virgin Atlantic is a British-based airline that is part of the SkyTeam alliance, enabling flyers to use their points and benefits across a wide range of airlines. Interestingly, despite Virgin Atlantic’s SkyTeam relationships, you can still book Singapore Airlines flights (Star Alliance) through the exclusive partnership between the two airlines.
Fortunately, Virgin Atlantic points are relatively easy to come by even for non-UK-based flyers. You can get Virgin Atlantic points by transferring your points from any of the following card issuers at a 1:1 ratio.
Here are some of our favorite cards to quickly get more Virgin Atlantic miles:
How To Find Singapore Airlines Awards With Virgin Atlantic Points
To book Singapore Airlines awards on Virgin Atlantic, you can't just search on their website. You'll need to call Virgin Atlantic directly and have an agent find and confirm the award spot for you. If you have any experience with award searches, you know that availability can vary widely, especially for long-haul business or first-class flights.
Virgin Atlantic’s award availability for Singapore Airlines flights should reflect what you can find on partners like United Airlines, Air Canada, or Velocity (where you can actually search award availability online). As long as you find a valid award spot on either website, you should be able to call Virgin Atlantic to verify, hold, and book the award spot. If you can find it on two or more partners, then I’m a lot more confident you can find it through Virgin. You can also use Roame to search for these flights, which will help you find options more quickly across all carriers with the right filters.
How To Actually Book Singapore Flights With Virgin Atlantic
Now that you've found a potentially eligible flight via United or Air Canada, you need to call Virgin Atlantic to complete the process. Fortunately, Virgin Atlantic agents are quite knowledgeable.
From United or Air Canada, you can provide the representative with the flight number and cabin you want to fly in. The Virgin Atlantic representative will then look up the flight and confirm if the award availability is indeed there.
Virgin Atlantic should be able to hold Singapore Airlines awards for up to 48 hours. To be clear, agents request the award space from Singapore Airlines, and then they have 48 hours before the space drops. This should be plenty of time to transfer points; in fact, most issuers allow these transfers to happen instantly. However, it’s been a bit iffy on whether or not agents will actually do this nowadays, so don’t get your hopes up.
Here's a step-by-step process on how to do this:
- Give Virgin Atlantic a call at 1 (800) 862-8621.
- Confirm the award availability with the agent and request the award booking to be held for 24-48 hours.
- Transfer your points to Virgin Atlantic.
- Call Virgin Atlantic again at 1 (800) 862-8621 to pay for your booking.
- Note the Singapore Airlines Record Locator and navigate to Singapore Airlines' reservation page to access and edit your booking.
What Are Virgin Atlantic’s Award Cancellation Fees?
- Amendment fee of £30 for changes to international flights originating in the UK
- US$50 for changes to international flights originating in the US or local currency equivalent of US$50 for changes to flights originating in any other region
- If canceling an award flight more than 24 hours from departure: cancellation fee of £30 for changes to flights originating in the UK / US$50 for changes to flights originating in the US or local currency equivalent of US$50 for changes to flights originating in any other region will apply
All things considered, this gives you a lot of flexibility with your Virgin Atlantic points at a very reasonable rate.
Is This A Good Deal?
To make things very simple: yes, this is a fantastic deal, especially if you are actually able to take advantage of it. Some of the pricing for these routes is absolutely berserk relative to the length and cash price of the flight. For instance, roundtrip business class fares from Australia (Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne) start around $2,700. With this deal, you could get that for just 85,000 pts—a 3.1+ cents per point valuation before taxes/fees. That’s a great way to travel stylishly while saving a lot of money.
Example Virgin Atlantic x Singapore Airlines Sweet Spot Redemptions 2024
Singapore Airlines services a lot of routes, so there’s ample opportunity for fantastic deals.
Fly Singapore Airlines Business Class To Tokyo For Just 35,000 Pts
Singapore <> Tokyo is a much longer flight than meets the eye—it’s actually just about 7/8 hours long in each direction. Taking that route in one of the best products in the sky sounds like a fantastic deal to me. Singapore services this route with a mix of their Boeing 787 and Boeing 777s, so I’d try to get onto their 777 to fly on their best seats.
Take Singapore Airlines Business Class To Hong Kong For Just 30,000 Pts
While Singapore <> Hong Kong (HKG) is a much shorter flight at just 4 hours each way, Singapore Airlines business class (even on their regional variants) is still such a pleasure to fly, with incredible food, service, and seats (read my review on the Singapore Airlines A350 medium haul configured planes).
Conclusion
Virgin Atlantic is slowly growing on me with all of its incredible partner redemptions. While booking award flights flying directly on Virgin Atlantic is rarely a good deal, the program has some of the best partner awards in the game. If you ever find yourself needing to fly Singapore Airlines around Asia/Australia, this sweet spot is extremely valuable.
