Once you click “Get Your Code,” the email with your code should arrive almost instantly.

When you’re ready to make your reservation, just enter the promotion code at the time you begin your search.

The promotion is valid for bookings made through February 29, for travel between January 10 and February 29, or between April 15 and June 15. The blackout dates are February 17, February 20, May 25 and May 28. Lastly, the promotion is only valid on non-refundable Main Cabin tickets in fare classes S, L, M, U, E, H, B, or V.

(Tip of the hat to Deals We Like)

Effective February 13, 2012 we will discontinue our OnePass partnership with Virgin Atlantic. Mileage accrual benefits are valid for travel through February 13, 2012. Please refer to the Mileage Credit Request Form for information regarding obtaining missing mileage credit. OnePass reward reservations for travel on Virgin Atlantic must be confirmed and ticketed by February 13, 2012, and they are valid one year from the date ticketed.

I think we all saw this coming, though I was hoping it would be later rather than sooner. I’m not so concerned about the mileage accrual side of things, though redeeming OnePass miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class was always a real bargain. Virgin Atlantic has a phenomenal business class product, and their lounge in London is one of the best business class lounges out there.

Anyway, you can still make reservations for travel over the next year, though if you need to change your reservation  after February 13, it will need to be for travel on a different airline that’s still a OnePass partner airline.

Keep in mind that you can use Continental miles to fly from the US to Asia via Europe, so you could conceivably book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from Los Angeles to London to Tokyo for 60,000 miles one-way, for example.

The worst part of this news is that I think once this relationship ends, there will be no way to redeem miles for travel on Virgin Atlantic without paying fuel surcharges.

I’ve received a few emails on this, so figured I’d mention it. Through December 20, 2011, Virgin America is offering a 100% bonus on purchased Elevate points. Through this promotion you can purchase Elevate points at 2.6 cents each. While the annual cap on purchased points is usually 20,000 per year, because they’re offering a 100% bonus with this promotion, that cap is really being lifted to 40,000 points.

This means that purchasing 40,000 points will cost you $1,040. So does taking advantage of this ever make sense?

Well, if you wanted to redeem your points from Los Angeles to San Francisco, for example, you have two options:

You could either pay 2,279 Elevate points:

Or spend $49:

So if you were redeeming points you would be doing so at 2.15 cents per point, about 0.45 cents per point lower than what you paid (not factoring in the points you’re missing out on by booking an award as opposed to a revenue ticket).

Now most would say it doesn’t make sense to redeem points for such a cheap ticket, though keep in mind that Virgin America’s award pricing is based on the revenue cost of the ticket, so it doesn’t matter how expensive it is, you’ll pay a proportional number of points.

For example, say you want to book a Main Cabin Select fare from Los Angeles to Boston:

You could either redeem points 41,210 Elevate points:

Or spend $886:

In this instance you would be redeeming points at… you guessed it, about 2.15 cents per point. So if you were buying those points at 2.6 cents each, that’s not much of a deal.

So unless you’re just short of the number of points required for an award, give this one a pass…

Once you register you’ll be asked if you’d like to invite five friends, and if you do you’ll get a 25% off coupon code for a Virgin America flight.

The fine print is that the promotion code is valid for main cabin fares in the S, L, M, U, E, H, B, or V fare classes, for travel between January 3, 2012, and February 15, 2012.

That’s an awesome deal if you’re planning on flying Virgin America!

(Tip of the hat to Deals We Like)

The cost is $60,000, which, when you break it down, is actually pretty reasonable given how much charters usually cost. That averages out to $410 per person roundtrip, which seems like a steal for a route like New York to San Francisco, given that a) it’s a charter b) you choose the name of the plane and c) it would be pretty damn awesome.

Not sure how they’d make any money on this, though.

So, who’s up for a Virgin Mega Do?

Katie and Chrise:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Larry and Gary:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Audrey and Maggie:

Click here to view the embedded video.

On one hand it’s a “cute” concept since Virgin America does offer a unique product that differentiates them from the competition, though the things they focus on are a bit deceiving, in my opinion. Complaining about the temperature on other airlines and that the movie “broke?” Talking about how great the “meals” are on Virgin America and that you can order anything you want off the menu without mentioning there’s a cost? Just seems they could have put more focus on the things that set Virgin America apart as opposed to ripping the competition, given that this seems pretty scripted to me.

Anyway, cute concept and I certainly had a few laughs (not sure if it was with the actors or at the actors, though).

What do y’all think?

My friend was arriving on a United Premium Service flights just minutes after my flight was scheduled to arrive. Fortunately US Airways and United both use terminal 7 at JFK, so I just waited for him at his gate. Once he arrived we took the AirTrain over to terminal 4, where our Singapore Airlines flight would be departing from.

We had about six hours before our Singapore Airlines flight and Singapore check-in wouldn’t be opening for another three hours, so we headed straight to the Virgin Clubhouse.

At JFK, Singapore Airlines uses the Virgin Clubhouse for their first and business class passengers. In theory it’s a bit disappointing flying Singapore Airlines first class and only having access to a business class lounge, though as I discovered on my trip on Virgin Atlantic back in March, Virgin’s Clubhouses are better than your average business class lounge. I was actually quite looking forward to comparing the Virgin Clubhouse in New York to the one I experienced in San Francisco a few months earlier.

In terminal 4 all of the airline lounges are located landside. For the most part this is bad news since you have to leave the lounge early to leave plenty of time for clearing security. At the same time it meant we could easily use the lounge even without boarding passes.

The good thing about the Clubhouse is that they have a list of all Singapore Airlines passengers that are eligible for lounge access, so as long as your name is on the list you don’t need a boarding pass to enter.

The lounge is located on the second level across from the check-in area, right next to the Swiss lounge.

Terminal

At the entrance we were welcomed and given a tour and explanation of the lounge, which I felt was a nice touch.

Lounge entrance

The lounge is beautiful, with plenty of areas to sit, either for lounging, working, or eating.

Dining area

Lounging area

Bar

Bar

The tarmac views were spectacular, both of the gates and the runway.

Tarmac view

My one major complaint is that the lounge itself is “open air” and not separated from the rest of the terminal, meaning you hear all the announcements and noise from the terminal.

Terminal view from lounge

My friend and I both hadn’t eaten a whole lot that day so decided to have a meal in the Clubhouse as soon as possible so that it wouldn’t interfere with our dinner on Singapore Airlines several hours later.

We sat down at a table and within moments a cheery waitress introduced herself to us and explained the menu. I ordered a Diet Coke with lime.

Menu

The menu looked fantastic, so I went with a shrimp salad, mushroom quiche, and best of all, butterscotch dessert.

“Laughing Bird” shrimp salad

Wild mushroom quiche

Tandoori chicken

Butterscotch budino

The pace of the service was great and refills were constantly offered. I would assume it’s tough to find “good help” at JFK given that they probably don’t pay their servers especially well and working in the airport as a waitress isn’t all that desirable, though the service was spectacular. I left the waitress a tip (I didn’t feel pressured to, though she was just so professional that it felt right) and my Diet Coke wasn’t once less than half full over the next several hours.

After lunch I tried to log onto the internet to get some work done, only to get this error message:

No comment…

It took a bit of help from one of the agents, though within about five minutes my internet was working just fine. Unfortunately the internet was incredibly slow, making it very tough to get any work done.

Around that time I decided to take a shower. The lounge boasts multiple spacious shower rooms featuring Bumble & Bumble products. The water pressure and temperature were also excellent.

Shower room

Overall the Clubhouse was awesome, much like the one in San Francisco. The service, food, and design of the lounge were all great. Comparing this lounge to San Francisco, I’d probably give San Francisco a slight advantage since the lounge is “enclosed,” meaning it’s much quieter and peaceful given the lack of terminal noise.

About two hours before departure we decided to head to Singapore Airlines check-in just to get a boarding pass reprint and ensure our bags were properly checked through.

Terminal 4 check-in

Singapore Airlines check-in

While there were long queues for economy, there was no one in the first class line.

First class check-in

The agent was friendly though had a puzzling expression on her face when I presented her with my handwritten baggage tag. After asking me some questions and making a few calls she assured me the bag would be checked through properly all the way to Bangkok.

Before she let us go she made us place our carry-ons on the scale. Singapore’s cabin baggage allowance is a measly 15 lbs. and suffice it to say we were both carrying substantially heavier bags. Believe it or not out of hundreds of segments in international first and business class, this was the first time I was ever asked to weigh my bag – and I’ve flown tons of airlines with very strict baggage policies.

Of course I wasn’t about to check my carry-on given how complicated the routing was, so as I placed it on the scale intentionally made it so only half of the bag was on the scale while the other half was hanging over. The agent didn’t bat an eyelash.

After that we had boarding passes in hand and decided to head to the Swiss lounge to see if they had faster wifi. Unfortunately we were only admitted to the business class lounge, though at least the wifi was faster, which is all we wanted.

The lounge was reasonably nice for a business class lounge. It wasn’t as nice as the Clubhouse and certainly wasn’t anywhere close to a first class lounge, though as far as business class lounges go, it was decent.

Swiss business class lounge

Swiss business class lounge seating

Swiss business class lounge

The lounge featured plenty of seating and a buffet with a variety of fresh items, like pasta, potatoes, fruit, desserts, etc.

Food spread

Food spread

About an hour before departure we decided to head towards security given that we were expecting long lines since many flights to Europe were leaving around the same time as our flight.

There’s no doubt that Membership Rewards needs new partners to remain a leading program, given that Continental OnePass will no longer be a partner as of September 30, 2011.

Unfortunately Virgin America being added as a partner is about as useful as a class about how to let people finish taught by Kanye West.

While the exact details of the redemption rates have not yet been published, the issue is that Virgin America bases their redemption rates on the revenue cost of a ticket. That means there’s no way to get a great redemption value. A $1,000 ticket will cost you about ten times as much as a $100 ticket.

The reason this is an issue is because American Express actually has a “pay with points” option, through which you can book any flight, and the number of points it charges you is based on the revenue cost of the ticket.

So the redemption value through transferring points will have to be considerably better for this to be even a little bit interesting.

American Express really needs some new transfer partners. They should be talking to programs like US Airways Dividend Miles. Given that US Airways consistently sells miles for less than 1.5 cents each, I can’t imagine they would be opposed to a partnership with Membership Rewards, which I imagine would pay them a similar amount for points. I also can’t imagine that Barclays has US Airways by their you-know-what quite as much as Chase has Continental and United by their you-know-what, so I doubt they’d have the power to stop it.

Anyway, check it out (if you’re in the US, since I don’t believe Hulu can be broadcast outside the US). He seems like a pretty good guy!

For example, a roundtrip award from New York to London is just under 7,000 miles in distance, and in business class that costs 63,000 miles through Mileage Plan. That’s either on one of their Star Alliance partners, or otherwise on their partner Virgin Atlantic.

That’s an amazing deal, given that New York to London roundtrip through Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer program, Flying Club, would run you 90,000 miles. But there used to be something that made the deal even sweeter. Virgin Atlantic, like most non-US frequent flyer programs, imposed fuel surcharges on their award tickets, meaning in addition to 90,000 miles you’d be paying hefty surcharges.

As you can see in the example above, the taxes and surcharges come out to $794.30. Ouch!

What was interesting about All Nippon Airways is that while they charged fuel surcharges on most of their partners, they didn’t charge fuel surcharges for travel on Virgin Atlantic. So not only would you save 27,000 miles on the above award by booking through All Nippon Airways, but you’d save over $500 in surcharges.

I’m not sure if it was an oversight or intentional, though as of a couple of weeks ago that’s no longer the case. All Nippon Airways is now imposing full fuel surhcarges on Virgin Atlantic awards, and according to this post on FlyerTalk, the same award now costs around $800, the same Virgin Atlantic would charge.

The other strange thing is that sometimes ANA didn’t charge the UK luxury departure tax, which will run you about $192 nowadays.

Some of you may remember that I flew from San Francisco to London and London to New York on Virgin Atlantic in Upper Class last year. The mileage cost was 68,000 miles, and the taxes were only $153.60. No clue how they calculated them, but that’s what the computer auto-priced it at.

So the moral of the story is that if you have to fly Virgin Atlantic, you’re still better off going through All Nippon’s frequent flyer program than you are going through Virgin’s. However, what was easily one of the best award redemption values out there is no longer…