Having been at college for over a month now, my desire to travel has made me miss this past summer’s fast-paced trips. So while now may not be the right time to for me to jump continents and take off exploring, it doesn’t mean I can’t start planning for next summer.
As luck would have it, this month American Express announced 12 limited-time transfer bonuses with some of its most powerful transfer partners. In turn, this effectively puts many of the best Amex Membership Rewards redemptions on sale. Most of these transfer bonuses end Sept. 30.
With Japan inching closer to reopening, I wanted to see if I could maximize the 30% transfer bonus with Virgin Atlantic to book my first trip to Asia.
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Let’s take a look at how I did it — and why you might want to do the same.
Virgin Atlantic’s ANA sweet spot award chart
One of the best possible ways to redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points is on ANA due to its extremely reasonable award chart. As you can see, from the West Coast to Japan is only 90,000 points, not one-way, but round-trip.
| Route | Economy class | Business class | First class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic Japan | 15,000 points. | – | – |
| Japan-South Korea | 18,000 points. | 35,000 points. | 50,000 points. |
| Japan-China/Guam/Hong Kong/Philippines/Taiwan | 23,000 points. | 45,000 points. | 60,000 points. |
| Japan-Malaysia/Myanmar/Singapore/Thailand/Vietnam | 40,000 points. | 65,000 points. | 80,000 points. |
| Japan-Hawaii/India/Indonesia | 45,000 points. | 70,000 points. | 90,000 points. |
| Japan-Australia/Canada/Western USA | 60,000 points. | 90,000 points. | 110,000 points. |
| Japan-Europe/Central and Eastern USA/Mexico | 65,000 points. | 95,000 points. | 120,000 points. |
Now that we can book one-way award tickets, the prices come out to half the round-trip rate. This means that you can book Los Angeles to Tokyo in first class for just 55,000 points. That’s less than half of what some other loyalty programs charge.
Although first class sounds unbelievable, when business class from Tokyo to my home airport of Dulles International Airport (IAD) became available, I knew I could not turn down the opportunity — especially while Amex is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic.
How I booked ANA business class for 37,000 Amex points
Earning Virgin points is easy enough with its extensive list of transfer partners. You can transfer nearly all major reward currencies to Virgin, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One miles and Marriott Bonvoy.
Luckily, this is where Amex’s 30% transfer bonus was able to help me. For every Membership Rewards point I transferred, I got 1.3 Flying Club points. Note that this transfer bonus ends Sept. 30, so act quickly if you want to take advantage of it for your own trip to Japan.
| Flying Club points needed | Transfer bonus | Membership Rewards points needed |
|---|---|---|
| 47,500. | 30%. | 36,600. |
Since you can only transfer in intervals of 1,000, transferring 37,000 Membership Rewards points was just enough for me to book the ticket. So, I logged in to American Express, entered my Flying Club information, keyed in 37,000 points and the transfer was submitted.
How I booked the flight
After finding the availability, I called Virgin Atlantic to confirm. Despite the long wait times noted on the website, I could get through to an agent very quickly. The agent confirmed that an award seat was available and told me that 47,500 miles were required to book.
Unfortunately, the taxes and fees for the reservation were higher than usual. Due to high fuel prices, the ticket cost $409.27 in addition to the points. This is more than the typical sub-$150 in taxes and fees pre-pandemic, but it was worth it for nearly 13 hours in business class.
The agent could not hold award space for ANA, but most transfers are instant, allowing you to transfer points and confirm the ticket while on the phone.
Unfortunately, this time the transfer wasn’t instant for me and I had to wait five hours for the points to appear in my account.
Once the points were in my account, I called Virgin Atlantic and booked my tickets in minutes.
Bottom line
Despite the transfer delay, I was able to book a ticket that would have cost nearly $8,500 for 37,000 Membership Rewards points, plus the taxes and fees. This means that I got an insane 22 cents per Membership Rewards point, 11 times higher than TPG’s current valuation of 2 cents per point.
Not only will I be able to fly back from my first trip to Asia in style, but I will be able to do so for fewer miles than what United charges for a seat in economy on the same route (despite higher taxes and fees).
Even better, ANA offers one of the world’s best business-class products and booking through Virgin Atlantic’s sweet spot is something I have always wanted to test. Having American Express add a transfer bonus this month was the cherry on top of a sundae, and an offer I simply could not refuse.
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