Virgin Atlantic has long been an airline loved by customers for their on board experience and unique quirks, but there was always one thing that kept frequent flyers away – status benefits. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offers great benefits to its own flyers, but with the exception of its partner Delta, staying loyal to Virgin Atlantic, or flying Virgin Atlantic left you limited in terms of perks across a large network of airlines.
As of this week, a new joint venture between Virgin Atlantic, Air France, Delta and KLM has passed regulatory muster, which means you can all but expect new benefits and ways to earn miles, almost imminently…
Virgin Atlantic’s New Transatlantic Joint Venture
A joint venture is basically the airline version of “let’s all work together, and split the money evenly”. All airlines in the joint venture share profits across the Atlantic, so they really don’t care whether you fly on one airline or the other, as long as it’s in their joint venture group.
Regulatory approval has now been granted for Virgin Atlantic to form a brand new joint venture across the Atlantic with Air France, KLM and Delta, meaning the airlines will officially be cooperating, in the very near term. You’ll be able to book tickets on any of the above, through any of the above, and the joint venture will help facilitate onward connections too.
Why You Care About The Virgin Atlantic Joint Venture
The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club can be extremely lucrative in terms of the “burning” side of loyalty, with great rates on fantastic airline partners. But on the earning and benefits side of the equation, there was always the problem of partners. Earning status with Virgin was great if you flew Delta, but it did not do all that much for you on other airlines, and there were also limited opportunities to earn miles on other airlines.
Though details are yet to be released, you care (and can get excited) about this new joint venture because it will mean earning, burning and status opportunities across the joint venture partnership in the very near term. In other words, you should be able to earn and use flying benefits with each of the airlines, regardless of which one your loyalty is with. In addition, you’ll presumably be able to earn Virgin miles for taking Air France, KLM and Delta flights – or vice versa.
Details of the expanded joint venture partnership are expected within the next few weeks, which means more opportunity to fly with perks across more airlines for Virgin Atlantic loyalists, and a great new airline (Virgin Atlantic) where KLM, Air France and Flying Blue fans can continue to benefit.
