Virgin Flying Club cannot book rewards with Air France or KLM; it is “expected” to work again “in early” August 2024

July 15, 2024

Last month we reported on booking Air France and KLM flights through Virgin Atlantic using the airline’s chat function. Within days, readers began reporting that they were being told that Virgin Atlantic had a known issue with booking Air France and Virgin Atlantic flights and that these bookings would not be possible until July 9th. Around the 9th we received a success report from a reader, but more recently readers have been told that bookings with Air France and KLM would not be possible until “early August” – and Virgin Atlantic has added messages to this effect to its website.

This is a truly unfortunate development. The timing of this issue coincided roughly with the time Virgin Atlantic was devaluing awards on Delta flights and adding ridiculous surcharges (in the range of $1,000 each way). When some readers were told there was a “known issue” with Air France and KLM and bookings would be down through July 9, I feared Virgin Atlantic was planning to increase award prices (and possibly surcharges) on those flights as well.

I was given new hope when we received a success report from someone who booked on July 9th or 10th, but then more reports followed from readers who were told that the rewards would not be available until “early August”. This is as clear as day, as it is pure speculation whether this means August 1st or early August and how much they “expect it”.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any way to book Air France or KLM flights through Virgin Atlantic at the moment. I really hope this doesn’t lead to another unannounced downgrade.

When and if bookings increase again, I strongly recommend checking availability by phone or chat. Before Transfer points to Virgin Atlantic. This is exactly what I had done when reporting my experience booking via chat – as most transfers are instant, I wanted to make sure they could see the seat and put the booking together first, and then I transferred the points to Virgin Atlantic while the agent put everything together.

One final note that might be helpful for anyone looking to book for next summer: I saw a lot of available cheap awards for next year on the Air France website. I previously reported on booking flights to Europe with Air France through Virgin Atlantic. Then I booked the flights home for 8 passengers in business class on the same flight for 50k per passenger (actually a little less since children ages 2-12 get 25% off, so I came up with an average of just under 47k per passenger). I saw 8 seats available from numerous cities in the few days I checked next summer. This isn’t helpful if you’ve already transferred points to Virgin Atlantic, but if you haven’t, it might be worth checking the Air France website if you’re looking to book towards the end of the schedule.

H/T: Tim in our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group