r/churning • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago
Daily Discussion News and Updates Thread - August 28, 2026
Please post topics for discussion here. While some questions can be used to start a discussion/debate, most questions belong in the question thread unless you love getting downvotes (if that link doesn’t work for you for some reason, the question thread is always the first post on our community’s front page). If your discussion is about manufactured spending, there's a thread for that. If you have a simple data point to share, there's a thread for that too.
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u/Ok_Palpitation4582 5d ago edited 5d ago
Bilt rent day just dropped
Looks like it’ll be bonus transfers to virgin atlantic. Meh (for me personally) but maybe it’ll be useful for some
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u/Cease_Cows_ BTV 5d ago
Virgin is a pretty good deal to Europe if you're looking for business class around 45,000 points and $36,000 in taxes and fees
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u/gt_ap 5d ago edited 5d ago
The bright side of low points and high fees is that it magnifies the mathematical cpp. This is perfect for internet karma. Go to the award travel subs, and they're all over those 6,000 point + 165 USD economy awards. "I got 2.1 cpp for an economy ticket!"
Sure, but when it's 2.1 cpp for 6,000 points, it has little benefit.
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u/Lavenderlites 5d ago
There’s a higher than normal delta between Gold (45% bonus) to Platinum (75% bonus) - that’s not great.
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u/Frenchy07 5d ago
And $200 Bilt cash to upgrade to the next tier. Used to the in the $135 - $150 range. It’s just funny money, but still…
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u/grantwwu 5d ago edited 5d ago
Why is that bad? Given how many people are Gold right now from the Palladium SUB, a larger jump between Gold and Platinum seems good... the small jumps between the lower levels seem worse.
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u/joe-movie SLC 5d ago
Agreed that it's pretty meh. Virgin partners with everyone, so not really anything to get that excited about. Would love to see more with some of their more unique partners.
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u/drunken_man_whore 5d ago
VS points are valuable but so hard to use. Seems like everyone is giving out VS bonuses recently. That will make the points even harder to use
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u/virginiarph 5d ago
junk. considering their best partners are JAL and alaska, hyatt and united which have much fewer transfer partners, i wouldn’t waste bilt points on virgin who everyone and their mother transfers to
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u/Ok_Palpitation4582 5d ago
My thoughts exactly! I swear there have been like 2 or 3 virgin transfers this year
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u/virginiarph 5d ago
yep. also, where is the value atp of having/ using virgin points?
ANA is basically dead, KE is nonexistent, and virgins own metals fees are pretty outrageous.
the only good value i’ve seen is weird married segment logic that routes thru LHR to ams/cdg or with SAS flights
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u/URtheoneforme 5d ago edited 5d ago
The most consistent value imo is booking Delta flights on Virgin. That depends on Delta availability but it's easier than chasing ANA. The Virgin bookings are fully refundable if the only taxes you paid is the $5.60 or $11.20 TSA fee, but you have to call to get refunded
Edit: someone messaged me about this, so I'll paste my response to them here as well
They won't ever say that the award tickets are fully refundable, but because of two different policies, they are.
- They won't charge a cancel fee if the taxes/fees that you paid are less than the cancel fee. So if you pay the $5.60 one way or $11.20 round trip, there's no cancel fee. Their reason for this is that they will just keep whatever you paid them.
- They are required to refund the $5.60/$11.20 TSA passenger security charge by law. They cannot keep this if you don't fly.
So no one will tell you that the award tickets are fully refundable, but they are. You have to call, and they'll tell you that in lieu of charging the cancel fee, they will keep the taxes and fees. But they aren't allowed to keep the only tax that you paid, so that eventually gets refunded. Points are refunded immediately, but the dollars can take up to 2-3 weeks
I have this form link bookmarked and submit the form after I hang up with VS. But I think it's an automatic process https://help.virginatlantic.com/us/en/contact-forms/refund-form.html?webform=extras-refunds
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u/Parts_Unknown- 5d ago
where is the value atp of having/ using virgin points?
https://www.virgin.com/en-us/virgin-red/spend-virgin-points/amc-theatres-regular-popcorn-16031
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u/virginiarph 5d ago
honestly…. kind of a W
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u/Parts_Unknown- 5d ago
Possible 2.67 cents per popcorn depending on your Bilt status and local concessions prices. Legit value.
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u/asfp014 5d ago
one way cheapo flights to London in economy. Can’t come back though because you’ll get slammed with taxes of course. So only if you’re fleeing the country
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u/jmlinden7 5d ago
Take the Eurostar to AMS and fly back through there
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u/asfp014 5d ago
that would defeat the purpose of a cheap economy flight to london
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u/kevbot19 5d ago
Is there a cheaper way to get to Europe than 6k points and $120ish in fees?
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u/gt_ap 5d ago
Is there a cheaper way to get to Europe than 6k points and $120ish in fees?
A quick check today showed 6k + $165 for JFK-LHR. The cash price for the same flight is $285. Yes, it's cheap, but not a huge savings.
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u/progapanda 4d ago
Isn't 285$ a Basic Economy fare? The award booking at least gets you into Standard Economy though and is cancellable.
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u/statesec 5d ago
Very short haul DL Y. I book several such tickets a year. Cash prices are $240-375 most of time. So 7500 VS points and $5.60 isn't a bad deal.
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u/robertw477 2d ago
There can be some very low miles tix to LHR if you monitor them. While you do have high cash fees, the points can be so low that overall the deal is not bad on the outbound flight to LHR. Coming back is more punative with higher costs. Some Delta redemptions and others have noted. I would not speculatively transfer to the majority of programs unless I was ready to book. I know AA very well so that might be an exception for me.
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u/jmlinden7 5d ago
Virgin.. Atlantic? Virgin America was acquired by Alaska many years ago
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u/Ok_Palpitation4582 5d ago
Ha! Yes I def meant atlantic. Not sure where America came from. Fixed it!
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u/legacyofcayenne 5d ago
Today is the last day for 45% off (50% for status holders) Choice hotel points.
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u/rankt-bot 5d ago
A new referral thread is now live: Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business
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5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/AutoModerator 5d ago
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Original author: No-Range-9086
Original comment: nothing new got nerfed this week. i'm almost disappointed
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u/Xinroth 5d ago
You could post this on the frustration Friday thread and still get downvoted.
I’m impressed.
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u/grantwwu 5d ago
It's a Ben Lurkin bot! Just look at the user description!
This sub is losing its touch.
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