England-based airline Virgin Atlantic is known for its fun and lively marketing, which reflects the personality of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. Virgin Atlantic employees are dressed in bright red uniforms, Virgin Atlantic airport lounges often have pool tables in them and the general reputation of the airline leans more toward over-the-top than understated luxury. So, it might surprise you to learn that Virgin Atlantic was ranked the 10th-best business-class airline in the world in 2025, according to a Skytrax ranking.

In Virgin Atlantic’s beloved Upper Class product, you’ll enjoy an extra large seat that turns into a fully flat bed, generous baggage allowance, a glass of champagne to welcome you on board, a luxury four-course experience with pre-order options available and access to airport lounges before your flight and during layovers. Unfortunately, Virgin Atlantic Upper Class seats can come at a high cash price. But, by booking Upper Class seats through frequent flyer programs with points or miles, you can experience Virgin Atlantic’s business-class product at a low out-of-pocket cost.

In this article, we’ll identify some of the best frequent flyer programs through which to book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award flights, factoring in the rates that each program charges for these awards as well as how easy it is to earn points or miles with each program. We’ll also briefly take a look at what you can expect when flying in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class.

Traveler using credit card and smartphone to book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class with points and miles

What to Expect in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

First of all, to clarify, Virgin Atlantic’s business-class product is known as Upper Class. Virgin Atlantic flights don’t currently offer a separate cabin for first class. So, if you’re flying with Virgin Atlantic, the highest cabin class you can book is Upper Class, which is comparable to business-class products offered by other airlines.

The experience and amenities you’ll receive in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class depend on the type of aircraft on which you’re flying as well as the duration of your flight. In general, you’ll enjoy the best experience when flying long-haul on Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, which are the most updated in the Virgin Atlantic fleet.

Airbus A350-1000 aircraft feature seats that are 20 inches wide and have a length of up to 79 inches when reclined into a fully flat bed. These seats feature retractable privacy screens, two USB charging ports and a 110-volt AC port compatible with U.K. and U.S. plugs. Each seat is equipped with an 18.5-inch touchscreen entertainment system with access to Vera (Virgin Atlantic’s onboard entertainment service with over 1,900 hours of content).

On A330neo aircraft, Upper Class seats have a width of up to 22 inches and a length of up to 79 inches when reclined into a fully flat seat. You’ll have two USB charging ports, a 110-volt AC port compatible with U.K. and U.S. plugs and a 17.3-inch touchscreen entertainment monitor. These seats also feature dividers and “do not disturb” lights to ensure maximum privacy.

Also available on A330neo aircraft is The Retreat Suite, a pair of spacious suites at the front of the Upper Class cabin. These suites are the closest thing to first class that Virgin Atlantic currently offers. In these seats, you’ll have an ottoman that can double as a seat so you can invite another passenger to enjoy dinner at your spacious table. You can also lower the partition between these two seats so you can enjoy socializing with up to four people (using both ottomans). There’s also a 27-inch touchscreen that’s perfect for enjoying a movie.

On Boeing 787-9 and Airbus A330-300 aircraft, your seat will be 22 inches wide and will have a length of 78 inches when laid out fully flat. These lie-flat beds have a width of 33 inches, the widest in the Virgin Atlantic fleet. The seats also have a 110-volt charging port compatible with U.K. and U.S. plugs. The touchscreen entertainment system on these aircraft, however, is significantly smaller at 11.1 inches.

One very unique aspect of Virgin Atlantic Upper Class is the inclusion of social spaces. When flying in Upper Class on Airbus A350 or Airbus A330neo aircraft, you’ll have access to The Loft, a relaxing social area that includes a 32-inch TV with Bluetooth connectivity, a wireless charging station, a refrigerator full of complimentary beverages, a freezer full of frozen treats and complimentary snacks on the countertop.

On Airbus A330 and Boeing 787 aircraft, Upper Class passengers have access to The Bar, an onboard bar-style social space offering a complimentary selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as well as spacious seating and several places to charge your devices. Note that The Bar on 787 aircraft is being phased out.

Upper Class passengers on all Virgin aircraft will receive a luxury four-course meal service, which you can order up to 24 hours before your departure. Current entree options include seared tofu salad with a teriyaki glaze, grapefruit and miso chicken with seared bok choi and maple and miso-glazed pork belly with roasted pumpkin.

You’ll also be able to order complimentary craft cocktails, many of which are inspired by your destination. For instance, you can order an American Dream on flights to the U.S., a Rum Punch on flights to the Caribbean and an English Garden on flights to the U.K. Of course, there’s also an extensive list of beers, wines and spirits from which you can order as well.

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class passengers always have access to a dedicated Upper Class check-in desk, fast track security at certain airports, priority boarding and priority baggage delivery. Plus, you’ll receive complimentary access to Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse lounges before your departure or during your layover.

Because Virgin Atlantic is a member of SkyTeam Alliance, Virgin Atlantic Upper Class passengers also have access to SkyTeam partner airport lounges. To see if there are any SkyTeam lounges at a specific airport, you can use the Lounge Finder tool on the SkyTeam Alliance website.

Best Programs Through Which to Book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class

Since Virgin Atlantic is a member of SkyTeam Alliance, there are several SkyTeam partner frequent flyer programs through which you can book award flights in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class. And, of course, you can also book Upper Class awards through Virgin Atlantic’s own Flying Club frequent flyer program.

However, each of these programs prices Virgin Atlantic awards differently, meaning that the same flight may cost a different number of points or miles through two different programs. Also, certain programs are much easier to earn points or miles with because they allow transfers from credit card rewards programs.

With these factors in mind, let’s take a look at a few of the best programs through which to book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue

One program through which you can find Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award availability is Flying Blue, the frequent flyer program of both Air France and KLM. This program prices many of its awards dynamically, meaning that the award rates will correlate with cash prices and you typically won’t be able to find very good value per mile.

However, Flying Blue does offer some “saver-level” awards, which are priced according to a fixed award chart. And, it’s relatively easy to find these saver-level awards by using a certain trick.

When searching for business-class awards on Virgin Atlantic-operated routes through Flying Blue, which you can do through either the Air France or the KLM website, you can simply leave the “Travel dates” field blank. This will trigger a calendar view where you’ll be able to easily see the dates on which saver-level awards are available.

Air France flight search showing business class round trip options from London to Delhi

As you can see below, all dates on which saver-level awards are available are denoted in green.

Air France award calendar showing business class flights from London to Delhi in August 2025 starting at 85,000 miles

Using this strategy, we found a saver-level Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award flight between London (LHR) and Delhi (DEL) for 167,000 miles and about $764 in taxes and fees. Unfortunately, the out-of-pocket cost for this flight is relatively high. Nonetheless, it’s still far lower than if you were to book the flight entirely with cash.

Virgin Atlantic business class reward flight from London to Delhi showing round-trip booking for 167,000 miles plus taxes.

Through the Virgin Atlantic website, the same exact flights purchased with cash would cost you about 3,278 British Pound sterling (about $4,433).

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class flight summary London to Delhi with return Delhi to London showing fare details and baggage allowance

So, considering the taxes and fees you’d have to pay for the award flight, this Flying Blue redemption would give you a value of about 2.2 cents per mile, which is good.

One major advantage of the Flying Blue program is that it’s a 1:1 transfer partner of every major U.S. credit card rewards program, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Brex, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards. This makes it very easy to earn Flying Blue miles if you have a credit card from any of the aforementioned U.S. issuers.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Another good program through which to book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards is Virgin Atlantic’s own Flying Club program. Through this program, you can find more Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award space than through any other frequent flyer program. Unfortunately , Virgin Atlantic uses a dynamic pricing model to price its own award flights (as well as all partner award flights), which means that it’s hard to find outsized-value redemptions through this program.

Nonetheless, you can still find Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards that offer decent value through the Flying Club program. For example, we found a round-trip Upper Class award itinerary between New York (JFK) and London (LHR) for 174,000 Virgin points and $1,282 in taxes and fees. So, once again, the out-of-pocket cost for this award flight is high, but not nearly as high as it would be if you paid for the entire itinerary with cash.

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award flight from New York to London and return London to New York with 174,000 points plus $1,281.71 in fees.

If you were to book the same itinerary with cash instead of points through the Virgin Atlantic website, it would cost you about $3,876.

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class flight summary from New York to London and return, showing fare price and baggage allowance.

So, factoring in the taxes and fees you’d have to pay for the award flight, this redemption would give you a value of about 1.5 cents per point, which is decent.

Aside from the fact that there’s an abundance of Upper Class award availability, another major advantage of the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program is that it’s a transfer partner of most major U.S. credit card rewards programs. You can make 1:1 points transfers to Flying Club from American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards and Wells Fargo Rewards. This makes it quite easy to earn Virgin points if you have a rewards credit card from any of these U.S. issuers.

Other Frequent Flyer Programs

There are several other frequent flyer programs through which you can book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award flights, but these other programs either don’t offer good rates, don’t make it easy to earn miles or don’t make it convenient to book Virgin Atlantic awards.

One of these programs is the Delta SkyMiles program. While SkyMiles is popular among many U.S. travelers and is a 1:1 transfer partner of the American Express Membership Rewards program, this program uses a dynamic pricing model to price all partner award flights, including Virgin Atlantic flights. So, it’s nearly impossible to find much more than 1 cent per mile in value on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards through this program.

ANA Mileage Club is another program that offers Virgin Atlantic Upper Class award flights. Unfortunately, you can’t book these awards through the ANA website. You have to call ANA customer service. However, ANA Mileage Club is a 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and this program prices Virgin Atlantic awards according to a fixed award chart, which means you can find outsized value on these awards. So, if you have an Amex card and you’re willing to book through ANA’s customer service phone line, you can find high-value Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards by searching for award space through other programs (such as Flying Blue or SkyMiles) and then making your booking through ANA Mileage Club.

Virgin Atlantic Upper Class awards can also be booked at favorable rates through the Korean Air Skypass program, as this program uses fixed award charts to price partner flights. Unfortunately, the Skypass program isn’t a transfer partner of any of the major U.S. credit card rewards programs.

The Bottom Line

Although mostly thought of as a fun and quirky airline, which reflects the personality of its billionaire founder Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic is capable of delivering a comfortable and luxurious flight experience. The airline was ranked the 11th-best business-class airline in 2024 by Skytrax, offering amenities like lie-flat beds, onboard social spaces with spacious couches and large TVs, complimentary four-course gourmet meal service, large in-seat entertainment monitors and more.

As with most business-class products, booking Virgin Atlantic Upper Class with cash can be rather costly. By booking these Upper Class awards with points or miles through certain frequent flyer programs, you can keep your out-of-pocket costs low and still experience Virgin Atlantic’s top-tier luxury.

In general, the best programs through which to book Air France-KLM Flying Blue and Virgin Atlantic’s own Flying Club program. Both of these programs allow transfers from most of the major U.S. credit card rewards programs and you can find outsized-value redemptions through both Flying Blue and Flying Club.