Through February 17th, Chase is offering a 30% bonus on Ultimate Rewards points transferred to Virgin Atlantic. While I don’t recommend transferring speculatively, these bonus opportunities can be a good time to plan future travel. You can also call Virgin Atlantic and put awards on hold before transferring points if you are worried the space might be gone when you are ready to book.
I have personally taken advantage of this same offer in the past, transferring 150k Chase points to Virgin Atlantic for 2 round-trip business class tickets to Europe for my wife’s birthday in 2023. Today I wanted to see what was available in the very short term, March 2025 specifically, as many people are looking to travel in this window. Hopefully you have your plans locked in already, but if not, there are still some great deals to be had, made even better with this 30% bonus. Let’s dive in!
Within the US
Most shorter Delta nonstop flights within the US are available for 7500 Virgin points as long as saver space is available. I covered these potential savings last week. But with the 30% bonus, these flights would only cost 5770 points per person each way. (Note, you can only transfer Chase points in 1000-point increments so in this example, buying just 1 ticket for 1 person would round up to 6000 Chase points). Here are several dates in March from Richmond, VA to New York at that price. I found many other options across the US at this price.
US to the Caribbean
Even with this being peak season to escape to warmer, tropical weather, I was able to find a few options on Delta such as New York to St. Lucia or Antigua for 12k points (only 9231 Chase points) or this flight from Atlanta to the Bahamas for only 11k points (8,462 Chase points)!
US to Europe
This is what we did for spring break last year, visiting France and Italy. Believe it or not, I was able to find a few options at great pricing to Europe on Virgin Atlantic flights such as this one with economy and premium economy seats for 6k and 10.5k points respectively which means you would only need 4,616 or 8,077 to book those flights! My wife and daughter flew Virgin Atlantic premium economy from Manchester, England to Orlando a few years ago and loved it.
US to Middle East
While this is a much longer trip than I would care to take in economy, this is a great price to fly to Dubai on points, with 18,462 Chase points becoming 24k Virgin points to take this KLM flight.
US to French Polynesia
I was surprised to find this award space with multiple dates available on Air France to Tahiti. Another long flight in economy, but a sought-after award for only 32,308 Chase points to get the 42k Virgin points required for this award.
US to Asia
I couldn’t find any award space to Japan but did find many dates with cheap economy and premium economy awards to multiple cities in India from Boston and New York. Here is an example to Mumbai for 12k and 21k respectively, or just 9,231 and 16,154 Chase points.
TL;DR: Taking advantage of bonuses from transferrable points to airline points can help book award flights at very attractive prices, but you should make sure award space is available before transferring. With the current 30% transfer bonus from Chase to Virgin Atlantic, we were able to find some great options to maximize value, even for peak spring break travel next month!
