Looking to use your Virgin Atlantic points for flights to Europe on Air France or KLM – a sweet spot in the points and miles world? You're out of luck, at least for now.
Due to a “system issue,” Virgin Atlantic is temporarily blocking Flying Club members from booking Air France/KLM award flights online or over the phone until at least early August, according to a message on the airline's website.
The news doesn't come as a huge surprise, as many travelers have reported seeing phantom award availability on Virgin's website for the past few months. Virgin's website would show dates that appeared bookable with points, but weren't actually once you clicked through to book.
Calling Virgin and speaking with an agent was the only way to confirm whether the award space they were seeing for an Air France/KLM flight was real. For travelers who transferred credit card points from the likes of American Express, Capital One, or Chase to Virgin to book those flights, they may now have a stash of Virgin points they'll have to find another way to use.
For now, it appears Virgin has simply pulled all its award inventory for Air France and KLM while it works to resolve the issue. Those flights won't even show up when you search for award flights on Virgin's website. A search for the exact same flights shown above yields this result right now, for example.
For now, the problem appears isolated to Air France and KLM award flights. Redeeming Virgin points for flights on other partner airlines like Delta or ITA Airways aren't affected.
Read our full guide to earning and redeeming points with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club