What am I doing wrong here? Delta vs. Virgin

A few possibilities here, and I’m not well versed in the Delta/Virgin relationship. Sometimes one airline’s website can’t “see” a partner’s available award space, but an agent can. I’d call Virgin and ask if they can see/book the Delta award space.

Thanks, Scudder. I'll try doing that.

Delta does not share all reward seat availability with its partners

Carol, does that mean I should try to call Virgin as suggested?

You are still gnawing over this, eh?

As I said before, this is a game in which the rules constantly change. Don't think you're
doing anything wrong; it can just be complicated. And you may need to think creatively.
E.g.:

• look at all the transfer partners for Chase and Cap One.
  
• think about alternative routings that can get you where you want to go

There's one JFK<->LGW flight per day on Delta and one on BA. There are 8 from JFK to LHR,
and nonstops from Newark to Heathrow as well. You're going to have many more options if
you consider Heathrow and not just Gatwick, for example.

I think the airlines are pricing right now thinking/hoping demand is like it was this year.
I am seeing this on United premium cabin redemption pricing as well. Whatever you do,
book something refundable, so if the required amount goes down, you can rebook.

The taxes/fuel surcharges are usually ~constant. If you flew Upper Class with VA before,
did you not pay more or less the same amount as they are showing now? I'm saying that
the fees should more or less be the same as when you traveled before, and if the miles
required are different, that's supply and demand.

Since you have a more or less fixed schedule on a route that is usually very high in demand,
in a cabin with not that many seats, approaching the summer busy season, your choices are
going to be limited.

Virgin Atlantic has a 30% bonus on miles transferred between Chase Ultimate Rewards and Virgin Atlantic from October 1st to November 15th. I would certainly look into this as a possible money saving option!

Other transfer partners are : Aer Lingus, Air Canada, British Airways, Emirates, Flying Blue, Iberia, Jet Blue, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United.

Beyond that, you can often have an even more expansive reach through the airlines. For example, you can book reward flights on Turkish Airlines through United.

I just did a quick check. If you are willing to fly into Heathrow there are multiple flights available in Premium Select on Virgin Atlantic's website for 35,000 miles and $1212 round trip. Since there is the 30% transfer bonus you would really only need to use 27,000 Chase points from your account for this. They have a travel value of 1.5 cents each so the cash/points cost of this trip would be $1617 RT in Premium Select. This same ticket can be bought with cash only for $1978, so you would save about $360.

These are the sort of calculations that can help put options in perspective.

Hi, shoeflyer, last year I paid about $1k in surcharges. I don't recall exactly how many points I used but I think it was close to 90k. Now I'm seeing surcharges of $2000+ for Upper Class. Premium cost is closer to what I paid a year ago.
Thanks for the tip about refundable fare. I had ev considered it.

Carol now retired, thank you for figuring that out. I'm not too savvy when it comes to reward flights so that is very helpful.

Note that Delta points and Virgin Atlantic points are not the same thing. This is one
reason the points required may be different when booking the same seat with one
airline vs another.

Also, the codeshare airline may be allocated a certain # of seats and may price them
differently than the carrying airline. In this case, VA may have decided it can sell all
of its share of premium cabin seats for JFK-LGW and so none of them can be booked
with miles. At least for now.

I think OP is starting to drive herself crazy trying to play a game that is everchanging
and has somewhat artificial constraints which are making things tougher.

Fly into Heathrow. I know it is a bit less convenient but not so much as to decide to
pay a baron's ransom to fly into LGW. You've probably spent the extra 45 minutes
a few times over on your computer already.

One last note - I think Carol's calculations are assuming the cash value of Chase points
with a Sapphire Reserve card. If you only have a Preferred card, the cash value is $.0125
per point. I doubt this makes a difference because you'd need ~130,000 points to "buy"
the tickets with Sapphire card, and even more with only Preferred.

More to the point, if the cash ticket is $1978, and the redemption is 27,000 points + $1212,
your 27,000 points are saving you $766. Which comes out to about $.028 a point. Which
is almost double what you get when using the points as cash. This is not bad, but in general,
the fuel surcharges that BA and VA pass on to customers really slams the value of the points.

UPDATE: I bought a refundable ticket on American Airlines, leaving from JFK at 9:45 a.m. May 25 and landing at LHR. My return was booked through AA on British Airways, leaving from LGW at 3 p.m. and landing at JFK. I know there are many more flights leaving from LHR but I find the trip from Lewes to Heathrow very difficult. I wish there was an easier way to get from London to Lewes than the train, but that's another story.

I'll keep an eye on the friendly skies in case a better deal comes by but I am feeling much better about the whole thing, even though I didn't use any points for the trip. My points will keep.

Thanks, everyone, for your help!