Just booked NZ J via VS for 62.5k!

I wanted to share this win as I've been struggling to find use cases for my VS points.

I had just come back from Japan a few days ago and naturally have started itching to plan for my next trip. My original trip was planned from 12/29/24 - 1/15/25 but was delayed due to a change in work schedule. I was quite sad as I had managed to book both ANA F via VS for the departure and JAL J via QF for the return. Was looking forward to this as I've only flown non-Y once this past summer.

The research and booking process:

- Checked for common VS sweet spots by searching via Google "Virgin Atlantic points sweet spots" to find this AwardWallet article mentioning that NZ via VS was possible, but was one of those "unicorn" redemptions.

- Checked options for direct routes between NA and AKL using Google Flights. Saw the only options were from SFO, LAX, YVR, DFW, IAH, and JFK.

- Searched for flights using seats.aero (paid version) for the full year out. Filtered for flights operated by NZ only. Cross-checked with UA and AC as NZ flights don't show up via the VS search engine (similar to ANA via VS).

- Found a few flights that worked with my schedule - I was pretty flexible as I was looking to fly any time from late Feb to early April and only need a one-way flight as I am not planning to return to NA.

- Called up VS. Was on hold for ~10 minutes and fed the flight details to the agent. Seamless process, the agent was able to see the flight and book it immediately. Received both the VS and NZ booking reference numbers.

- The flight details: IAH-AKL in NZ J on 3/26 for 62.5k points + ~$40 USD, ~15 hour red-eye flight.

CPP calculations (just for fun):

- Realistic (comparing with one-way Y): 62.5k + ~$40 USD vs. $946, or around 1.45 CPP.

- Exaggerated (comparing with one-way J): 62.5k + $40 USD vs. $6542, or around 10.4 CPP.

Additional Notes:

The AwardWallet article mentions that the pricing on the VS website is inaccurate. It shows 45k from "South Pacific to LA" for a one-way flight, but it's actually 62.5k in J (which is still a steal for a 15-hour TPAC flight) and also applies to routes outside of NA west coast. You may also notice that the AwardWallet article contains the old award chart with roundtrip prices, whereas the official VS website award chart now shows one-way prices for half, which means at one point they updated the chart but chose not to fix the pricing lol.

Edit: Just made another booking, NZ J AKL-NRT for 40k points + ~$40 USD! Finally used up my VS points now lol.