Virgin Atlantic vs British Airways - How Are Reward Seats Priced Differently?
- Helena
- Sep 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 14
Ah, the glamorous dream of “free” flights with your hard-earned points. Both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways promise to fly you away on loyalty alone. But of course, “free” actually means “after you’ve paid enough taxes, fees and surcharges to buy a round of G&Ts for the entire Upper Class cabin.” Still, there are some important differences in how the two airlines handle redemptions.
Virgin Atlantic: Any Seat, Any Plane… If You Can Afford It
Virgin like to brag about their trump card: you can use Virgin Points to book any seat, on any flight, in any cabin. Yes, even that last-minute Upper Class throne on the Friday night New York run. Sounds fabulous, doesn’t it? Don't get us wrong, it is. We love that you can buy a ticket on any plane with points!
The catch, of course, is that pesky dynamic pricing. Because while you technically can buy any seat with points, you might need a balance the size of a small nation’s GDP to do it. Maldives for 700,000 Points each? I think not!
One day your flight is 47,500 points, the next it’s 120,000. It’s the difference between a crisp Martini at the Clubhouse bar, or a warm G&T at Wetherspoons. We've previously written twice about the joys of dynamic pricing, firstly how Sam Got Burned by Dynamic Pricing and also this story on how Sam's Parents also suffered under the dynamic pricing model.
Look, it can work out. We've just published a piece about one-way fares to The Maldives for only 35,000 points, but on 31st August they were priced at a ridiculous 350,000 Virgin Points one-way! Say you're a Virgin Points millionaire, Virgin don't really want you to be buying that seat for 350,000, as they'll discourage you by jacking up the taxes and fees massively into the thousands of pounds! Hardly selling the dream...
British Airways: Predictable but Scarce
British Airways, meanwhile, go for the old-fashioned chart system. They’ve got fixed Avios prices based on zones and distance, so you know roughly what you’ll pay. Want to fly to New York in Club World? It’s 100,000 Avios return off-peak, 120,000 peak. No nasty surprises, no losing out because you checked a week later and suddenly they've added a zero to the end of the price!
But, and it’s a big but, BA only release a fixed number of reward seats per flight. At least 8 seats in Economy, 2 in Premium Economy and 4 in Business are guaranteed on every flight, with some extras sprinkled on at their discretion. These seats are released 355 days in advance, which means if you don’t book quickly to some of the most popular destinations such as Tokyo, Sydney, or The Maldives, those reward seats disappear faster than Prosecco at a hen do. So yes, the prices are predictable, but the supply can be about as generous as an airline sandwich.
They can release more, but they only do this if the flight itself is not selling well. Lets call it "Dynamic Releasing".
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Virgin Atlantic vs British Airways - How Are Rewards Seats Priced Differently: The Verdict
With Virgin, you get flexibility: any seat, any time, but at wildly fluctuating prices that can leave you gasping. With BA, you get predictability: fixed prices, but very limited stock, blink and you’ll miss it.
So which is better? If you’re organised, BA’s Avios can be a steady, dependable date, slightly boring, but they’ll always turn up on time. Virgin Points, on the other hand, are like dating a rock star: thrilling, unpredictable, expensive, and you’ll probably wake up wondering what on earth just happened to your balance.
Helena
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