Thousands of travelers, hundreds of flight deal subscribers, and nearly half of our own staff (including yours truly) will make their way to London in a lie-flat business class seat next year … for as low as just 21,000 points and $200-some in taxes and fees.
By now, the surprising upside of Virgin Atlantic's transition to dynamic award pricing had made the rounds on social media and countless travel sites. We all feared the worst, and yet Virgin wound up slashing both mileage rates and hefty cash surcharges, opening the door to one of the cheapest ways to get to London in business class.
It was the unicorn of all unicorn deals – and, while there's still two months to go, it will likely go down as the best flight deal of 2024. And it all started with this text message we sent bright and early to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members.
Here's a peek behind the curtain at how our service works – and a look behind the scenes at how the front-runner for the deal of the year came together.
A Pleasant Surprise
When Virgin Atlantic proudly announced last month that it would make “enhancements” to “revolutionize” its valuable Flying Club mileage program, we (and many others) feared the worst. We all had Wednesday, Oct. 30, circled on our calendars, certain that it would lead to sky-high rates.
So we dove in before the sun was up Wednesday morning, searching for award redemptions on VirginAtlantic.com to assess the damage. First things first: We confirmed that Virgin's changes haven't affected the excellent award rates when booking partners like Delta, Air France, KLM, or ANA – at least not yet. Whew.
But Jackson Newman, our editor covering all things credit cards and award travel, noticed something. Could it be? Was this one-way Virgin Upper Class flight from Boston (BOS) to London-Heathrow (LHR) actually … cheaper?
Yes, really. The days of paying nearly $1,000 or more and taxes and fees to book Virgin business class with the airline's own Flying Club points were over.
That find set off a frenzy. Within minutes, we discovered the changes were even better:
- Flying from East Coast cities like Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), or even Atlanta (ATL), business class redemptions actually dropped as low as 29,000 points and $255 in taxes – half the mileage and a quarter of the fees Virgin previously charged!
- While there was widespread availability at those lower rates in early 2025, you could also book a flight to London during the peak summer – July and August, even! – for just 35,000 points.
This was unthinkable. For years, we had warned travelers against using Virgin Atlantic points to book actual Virgin Atlantic flights (counter-intuitive, I know) because of those nasty, $1,000 fees.
No question, this was a flight deal – and a darn good one. It was time to spring into action.
The Unicorn Bat Signal Goes Up
There are flight deals, and then there are what we call Unicorn Deals – a designation we reserve for the best of the best flight deals. Think mistake fares or the rarest of rare award availability to redeem your points and miles.
These deals are so good, every second counts. So we send a text message to our Thrifty Traveler Premium members, following up with an email alert soon after with more details.
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After chatting briefly about what we were seeing, Jon Shallbetter – our resident flight deal guru who runs our flight deal service – fired up our internal company #unicorndeals channel to discuss.
We universally agreed: This was absolutely a Unicorn Deal. And we needed to get this deal in our members' hands ASAP.
Using just 29,000 points and $255 to fly Virgin Atlantic Upper Class – one of the best lie-flat rides to London – is tough to beat, easily among the cheapest ways to get to Europe in business class. But with a record-setting 40% transfer bonus from Chase to Virgin currently available, it's even better: You could transfer just 21,000 points from a card like the *chase sapphire preferred* and book these flights!
Jon and our two resident award deal experts – Peter Thornton and Katie Rollins – started working up an email alert. Meanwhile, I started writing out the text message. Sorry, but I'm definitely not going to show you the trial-and-error process involved with getting that down to 160 characters.
But before we could hit send on that text message, there was one critical step.
A Test Booking to Confirm
Sometimes, flight deals can be too good to be true.
Maybe there's an error on the airline's website that won't let you book a so-called deal? Maybe it's phantom award space – excellent award availability at low rates … that doesn't really exist. It happens often.
That's why we personally test every one of these Unicorn Deals we find – the last thing we want is to send our members a lemon of a deal that they can't actually book. In this case, our founder and CEO, Jared, fell on the sword and volunteered to book a flight with some of his orphaned Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points to make sure it was really bookable.
It worked. This was real.
Later on Wednesday, Virgin Atlantic's website started struggling to process many bookings – clearly, there was more demand for those 29,000-point business class fares than the airline could handle. Sorry, Virgin!
But with a successful booking in hand, it was time to hit send and get this deal in the hands of fellow travelers.
Hitting Send
You know that euphoric feeling when you click “book”? A mix of anxiety of and electricity, waiting to see the confirmation come through?
Imagine that feeling before hitting “send” on an incredible flight deal … to tens of thousands of travelers, so they can book a once-in-a-lifetime trip themselves.
Less than an hour after first stumbling upon these unbelievably good business class award fares to London, one of our signature “TT Unicorn Fare” texts was on its way. It hit our members phones within minutes – and in some cases, seconds – of hitting send.
After a final proofread to ensure all the step-by-step booking instructions and next-level tips (like the fact you can visit the new Delta One Lounges in New York City and Los Angeles, even when flying Virgin business class!) were in place, our team followed up with a full email alert. That hit members' inboxes soon after the text.
It's been just over 24 hours since that alert went out, and the response has been overwhelming. I've lost count of how many comments, emails, and DMs our team has received from Thrifty Traveler Premium members who booked one of these dirt-cheap Virgin Atlantic deals to London next year.
Easily one of the most popular deals of the year – maybe ever. Here's just a small sample of what we've seen:
This is why we do what we do. Whether you're reading our site or booking our flight deals, it's our mission to help you travel more for less – to book trips that maybe you'd maybe only ever dream of taking. If a 29,000-point business class flight to London doesn't fit the bill, I don't know what does.
But there's one more reason we're dedicated to finding the best deals…
Booking for Ourselves, Too.
Don't tell Scarface or The Notorious BIG, but we have our own rule here at Thrifty Traveler: “Always get high on your own supply.”
At the end of the day, our whole team is really just a bunch self-professed “sickos” who love travel just as much as the rest of you. If there's a lightning-hot flight deal in your inbox, you can bet at least one of us booked it, too.
Within minutes – OK, I'll be honest: seconds – of finalizing this Virgin deal and sending it on its way to members' cell phones and inboxes, it was time to get selfish and book this amazing deal ourselves. And not just one or two of us booked.
No, seven Thrifty Traveler employees have used this deal to book a trip to London next year.
- Jackson, our eagle-eyed credit card editor who first spotted something good was happening, booked business class flights for his family of four next year
- Jon – you know, the guy who actually sent the deal – turned around and booked it to London himself, the final piece of a trip to Europe this spring with his wife he'd already been planning
- Katie, our newest award deal analyst, knows a good deal when she sees one. As she put it: “Had no idea I was going to London next year but no complaints at all!”
- Our marketing manager Amber Leick booked her very first business class flight with her husband
- Our social media manager Lauren Sohn-Ahn followed all the instructions in our email alert to transfer 21,000 Chase points (for the first time ever!) and book flights from Boston to London next spring
- Nick Serati, our co-founder, booked business class for his entire family and his in-laws, too. Yes, six business class seats across the pond … for just 125,000 Chase points total!
- My wife and I were previously booked to fly Virgin Atlantic economy to London … in the summer of 2020. Almost five years later to the day, we'll finally be making the trip – this time, in Virgin Atlantic business class
Here's a few of us inside the Thrifty Traveler offices in Minneapolis, feverishly booking our flights.
And here's a photo of Nick on the phone with his wife, trying to explain why he booked flights for the family without talking to her … again.
Bottom Line
We live for this.
Finding flight deals is what we do here at Thrifty Traveler, 24/7/365. But this one was special: You just can't beat a lie-flat seat to London for 21,000 points.