A positive change to Virgin Atlantic reward flights we were never told about!

Well, here’s some good news about Virgin Atlantic reward pricing.

This bit of good news actually took place a few weeks ago (February, apparently) but it took this long for any readers to notice it! No-one told us directly even though we originally flagged the issue.

Soon after dynamic reward pricing was introduced in October 2024, a problem emerged. We wrote about it in November 2024.

If you changed one leg of a Virgin Points reward flight, BOTH legs were repriced.

Here is what one reader wrote to us:

The death of my Virgin Points collection has just occurred.

I managed to bag two Upper Class seats to Orlando at 29,000 Virgin Points each way when the new scheme launched. Happy days.

I just went to change the outbound leg to a different date. I understood I would have to pay the difference in points (the seats now are 50,000 points) and the difference in taxes plus a £70 per person fee. I was ok with all that, but no.

If you change the outbound leg of a ticket they will now reprice the whole ticket. The points price of the return flight, which I wasn’t changing, had jumped to 108,000 Virgin Points. Just to change the outbound flight is 21,000 Virgin Points but they added another 79,000 Virgin Points to the return leg. 

This is the end of flexible points fares on Virgin Atlantic.

You’re committing to making no changes unless you want to risk massive points rises on both legs, even the leg you are not changing. 

It’s a very sad day. 25 years of Virgin miles collecting. Needless to say I didn’t make the change. BA here I come.

The only way to get around this was to book Virgin Atlantic flight redemptions as two x one-way flights. You could then change either leg without the other being repriced.

The downside was that a) most people didn’t know about this, b) taxes and charges were often higher and c) you would pay two x £70 cancellation fees if you decide not to fly.

Using a credit card voucher was also an issue, especially if one person wanted to upgrade both legs of a return trip.

For bookings from November 2025, this was changed

Tucked away on the Virgin Atlantic website, and flagged in our comments yesterday by Whatsthepoint (thank you), is this statement:

Can I make changes to my booking?

To make changes, log into My Booking and tap on the red web chat icon at the bottom of your screen. Alternatively, you can call us.

Each time you change your booking there is a fee per person:

• £70 for changes to flights originating in the UK
• $100 or local currency equivalent for flights originating outside the UK
• Some changes may require additional points, taxes, fees and charges to be paid, which we’ll tell you about when you contact us
• If the price of the reward seat you’re changing to is less than your original reward seat, we’ll refund the remaining Virgin Points, taxes and fees

If you’re only changing one sector:

For bookings made on or after 5th November 2025, only the sector being changed will be repriced.

For bookings prior to 5th November 2025, the full ticket will be repriced, per the fare rules and T&Cs that applied at the time of booking. 

So, good news.

If you book a return flight on Virgin Points, you can now change the route, date or flight time of one of the flights without the untouched flight being repriced.

PS. The comments below suggest that if you cancel one leg of a return ticket – perhaps because a better priced Avios seat opens up – the remaining flight is STILL being repriced.