What is Virgin Atlantic Math?

Have you heard of Virgin Atlantic Math? No? That’s because I made it up!

A few years ago, when I first started learning about Points & Miles, I bought my daughter a Dyson Airwrap for $600 — a big holiday surprise that I couldn’t wait to see her reaction to. But it turned out I was the one who got the surprise.

Thanks to a 10x promotion on Rakuten, that single purchase earned me 6,000 points. On top of whatever my credit card added. I was SHOCKED!

Around the same time, I had been searching for flights to London and discovered that a saver economy seat on Virgin Atlantic costs — you guessed it — 6,000 miles. One Dyson Airwrap. One way trip to Europe. From money I was already spending.

That was my aha moment. And that’s where Virgin Atlantic Math was born.

Now, whenever I’m shopping through a portal and see a big multiplier, my brain converts it: how many Virgin Atlantic economy seats is this worth? It’s a little silly, I’ll admit — but it makes the payoff of taking the few extra seconds to maximize my spending seem so worth it.

Virgin Atlantic makes it so easy to find the saver reward seats by using this tool. Note the red tag for their lowest price rates.

Reward Seat Checker

And don’t stop at economy — the Premium and Upper Class saver rates are where things get really exciting. Rates are dynamic so availability varies, but that’s exactly what the Reward Seat Checker is for. My family found Upper Class seats from the East Coast to London this Fall, and honestly, we’re already counting down the days

So next time you’re about to check out online, ask yourself one question: how many Virgin Atlantic seats is this worth? You may end up loving travel math more than you thought you would.