I won’t go into too much detail here, as this has been widely covered today and I’ll share a few links below for those that want more.
What’s Happening?
Virgin has announced that starting October 30th, they will move to a dynamic reward pricing model. This is akin to what every US airline except Alaska MileagePlan has done in recent years. The price fluctuates based on the cash price, meaning if the flight is more expensive, you are likely to pay more points. If the flight is cheaper, you are likely to pay less points.
Those that aren’t points enthusiasts may welcome this news. After all, you’ll now be able to use points to book any Virgin flight you want (regardless of if you get good value for points) and believe it or not, many in the general public prefer that as they don’t even try to see what kind of value they are getting for any of their points.
For those of us that DO care, it nearly almost means that it’s hard to find outsized value which, to most of us, is the entire reason to care about earning points.
Like a broken record, I say over and over that if points become worth a fixed amount, then it’s time for me to find a new career. If Virgin were to peg a point as being worth say 1 cent, why would you care about them at all? Just go ahead and pay cash then (I could go down a rabbit hole of points multipliers and transfer bonuses, of course, but that would be a tremendous digression and I’m on about 2 hours of sleep.
Now, if this only affects Virgin metal flights, then nobody will get to crazed about this. After all, given their insane surcharges on Virgin flights, the value is in partner awards like Delta, Air France, and ANA. So we have to see what happens there.
But with Virgin 49% controlled by Delta, an airline hellbent on making their miles have the absolute least possible value, this trend could worsen. I did transfer some points to Virgin from Bilt when there was a 2.5 to 1 transfer bonus and if I could go back in time, I would not, even at that insane ratio. At the time I planned to use them to fly to Europe on Delta metal for 50k a seat in business – something ended with no notice at all (so hey, at least we get a month to burn here).
With no expiration, I’m sure I’ll eventually use my 100k+ miles, but I have a bad feeling it won’t be on Virgin metal in business class. Heck, I’d probably book that flight using Air France Flying Blue miles!
Note that they do claim (without detail) that there will be some cheaper rewards than even now – but how many and in what cabin class? We don’t know but I guess we’ll find out.
Want more details? Check out:
Thoughts?
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