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I don’t normally write about the search for award space. I rarely suppose that my readers are trying to book similar routes to myself. But I couldn’t resist writing about something that I noticed earlier today… I have previously written about the opportunity to fly First Class to Japan on All Nippon Airways, simply by buying 120,000 miles from Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. You can click here to re-read that post.
But this is what the award chart looks like…
You must book a return flight, and ALL CONNECTIONS are priced separately. But I’m sure that you wouldn’t mind flying to Tokyo (return!) for:
-
- 95,000 miles in Business Class
- 120,000 miles in First Class
Position to Munich
Of course, it’s not so simple to find award space in First Class. Award seats tend to be snapped up fairly soon after release. After all… this is one of the amazing bargains when using miles… and it is becoming more and more well known. In addition, if you choose to depart from London, you’ll be stung with that long-haul premium APD.
But recently I’ve been looking to spend 120,000 Virgin miles to visit Japan this summer and I noticed the following:
In simple terms… you can find one or two First Class seats on a huge variety of dates… starting on 1 July, 2020. You can even get yourself to/from Tokyo during the Summer Olympics! All you have to do is position yourself to/from Munich, Germany. Some Avios or a low cost carrier would do it – you can’t combine partners when booking Flying Club rewards…
It appears to me that ANA have recently decided to schedule a 777-300ER airplane to their Munich route. Since this is the only aircraft type with a First Class cabin – I must double-check to see whether it’s the new First Class layout that people are raving about – that scheduling decision would have resulted in the magic opening of substantial First Class award space.
I don’t expect that this award space will last long. So if you have 120,000 Virgin Atlantic miles and want to try out ANA’s First Class product… now might be your best chance.
Nice spot. I checked all departures from FRA and LHR a week ago and it was pretty sparse.
I actually just grabbed a HND-FRA a couple of days ago. Then I was curious to see whether my original NRT-DUS was back in inventory. Instead I found loads of F space…
Even better it seems to be from July onwards. So you can go in the better months of autumn and spring.
Hi there
Did you manage to find out if its the “new” First Class?
Thanks
Mark
Yes, this is really the crux.
Just checked and unfortunately it’s not.
Is it possible to do mixed cabin with virgin miles. So J one way, F the other? Both of the new products look great, would like to try each of them!
Yes. I think just not mixed carriers.
Yes, my wife did J out F back.
Yes. You can mix cabins. Even if you don’t want to travel in J, because of the return ticket requirement, it’s always wise to grab whatever F seats you can (going or returning in J or Y) and then pay a fee to upgrade the flights later should you spy award space on convenient flights.
What’s the fee for changing flights? And for upgrading flights? And do you lose any miles/cash payments?
The other day the fee was the sterling equivalent of $50 (when the ticket doesn’t depart from the UK), plus the difference in tax/surcharge. (which I had been too lazy to look up in advance but it wasn’t much…)
You can either add a few more miles or get them refunded.
Thanks. Does that mean you can also get the surcharges refunded if there’s a negative difference? And what’s the timescale?
Booked LHR to Tokyo in Business and then Tokyo to New York in First on ANA to try both the new cabins using Virgin Miles cost me 107,500 bargain
Very nice!
I thought that ANA were cracking down on Virgin Atlantic for allowing those mini RTWs that aren’t round trips at all.
Nice job getting it booked… but pay regular attention to your booking to ensure that it remains valid.