British Airways and Virgin Atlantic relaunches Shanghai with great reward availability

After being absent from China’s market for three years and having permanently discontinued Hong Kong, Virgin Atlantic is resuming its daily service between London Heathrow and Shanghai Pudong on the first of May.

Reward availability was released this morning, and you can book literally any single day, although seats over China’s festive periods are selling fast.

Here is a reminder what a one-way ticket in Upper Class costs, and the respective fees from Shanghai / London:

  • Economy: 12,500 points + 833 RMB / £208
  • Premium Economy: 22,500 points+ 1,565 RMB / £360
  • Upper Class: 57,500 points + 1,719 RMB / £411

You need to add another 10,000 points if flying at peak. Shanghai is operated by the older B787 aircrafts, although I think they are less bad compared to the A350 suite.

British Airways on the other hand, is also relaunching Shanghai on April 23rd and Beijing on June 3rd. However Avios seats have been available for quite a while now so it’s not as exciting.

BA’s new RFS pricing wants 200,000 Avios + £550 for a return trip to Shanghai, which is ridiculous. Unless you are looking to book first class with a companion voucher, Virgin Atlantic is the more favourable option by a large margin.

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