Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Increases ANA First Class Pricing

Without any warning, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has increased the cost of redeeming miles for ANA First Class flights. This means that there has been a sudden devaluation to what was arguably one of the best sweet spots in the game, as the cost to book one of the best airline products has now increased by up to 42%.

While this is certainly unwelcome news, using Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book ANA First Class still remains competitive against other programs. 

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Increases ANA First Class Pricing

On March 2, 2023, Virgin Atlantic officially became SkyTeam’s newest member airline. While there weren’t any announcements about upcoming changes to redeeming Flying Club miles on non-SkyTeam airlines, many members of the Miles & Points community feared for the worst.

Today, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club quietly updated the redemption rates for ANA First Class, and they’ve increased across the board. Depending on the route, the cost has risen by up to 42%.

At this point, there haven’t been any changes to redeeming for ANA business class flights, which still offers great value. 

Previously, using Flying Club miles to book ANA First Class was perhaps the single best sweet spot in all loyalty programs. From the Western United States, you could fly one-way to Japan in First Class for just 55,000 Flying Club miles, and from the Eastern US, you could fly for just 60,000 Flying Club miles.

For the same flights, you’ll now have to fork over a few more miles, as the chart has been updated as follows:

As we can see, the cost of redeeming miles for ANA First Class from Tokyo to Hawaii (HNL) has increased by 28%, flights to Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) have gone up by 32%, and flights to Chicago (ORD), New York (JFK), or London (LHR) have gone up by 42% without any warning.

If there’s any good news that comes out of this development, it’s that you can still redeem Flying Club miles for ANA business class flights at outstanding value. One-way business class flights from Tokyo to Hawaii still cost just 35,000 miles, to the Western US and Vancouver still cost 45,000 miles, and to the Eastern US and Europe still cost 47,500 miles.

There’s no guarantee that business class flights won’t eventually be…