Flight to London, British Airways or Virgin Atlantic

I have flown British Airways several times and have never had a problem.

There is a hefty fuel surcharge for BA flights into London. That should be taken into consideration because it's not just the points. I just did a check from IAD to Heathrow off-peak, It's 42500 Avios plus $280 each way per person.

I don't have a Virgin account so I can't give you a comparison there.

FYI, business class on BA is 80000 Avios plus $350.00.

I've flown both and they're both fine. Few years ago I did a last minute ride to Heathrow on a well-worn Virgin in coach and it was not bad at all.

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I believe Virgin has some fairly steep fuel surcharges as well.

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If OP has Chase is there a benefit to booking with points as opposed to just using the Chase travel portal? I guess you could get a better deal with points direct? OP I'd suggest setting a flight tracker on Google and book using the Chase Portal, or at least keep it as an option. You can get a good deal that way and through the portal is 25% off.

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points. I just did a check from IAD to Heathrow off-peak, It's 42500 Avios plus $280 each way per person

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Virgin has flights for 17500 points per person plus $350

Yes, premium economy

Fuel surcharges stay. I just flew BA FCO-LHR-IAH in Business on points and the taxes and fees were over $400 per person.

The taxes/fees in and out of London are crazy and more airlines/countries are jumping on board. My Air France JFK-CDG was almost $300 in taxes and fees per person when booking on points

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Absolutely, however my understanding is that technically you booking through Expedia when you do that. That absolutely won’t matter if everything goes smoothly, but if SHTF I’m wondering if it would be better to be booked directly through the airline and not 3rd party

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It’s not Expedia it’s the chase travel portal but it looks like Expedia, may be ran by them IdK?

You get to pick seats and what not, you basically book direct through the airlines their portal just helps find and pay for the flights. But you are right in regards to likely not getting the same preference. But does points give you a high preference also?

Either way saving 25% is pretty significant. Unless it’s a great points transfer which is very unlikely on Virgin or BA then it would be hard to beat.

I haven’t used Expedia for many years and I know there were times I wasn’t able to pick seats. Picking seats is the biggest issue with low priority as if you don’t have a seat you may be bumped.

This past fall I used the chase portal to book delta/ Air France and I could pick all 4 seats and we talked to the airlines directly about a seat issue with my 3 kids. This is anecdotal certainly.