Virgin Atlantic recently released a new award calendar that makes previewing award seats easier. It’s pretty simple — you select between Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines, enter your city pairs and desired travel month. Then, you can view a month’s worth of award space in all cabins.
If you select Delta Air Lines, you can only preview award space on departures from London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR), Gatwick Airport (LGW) and Edinburgh Airport (EDI).
However, as one Reddit user reports, you can adjust the URL to search for Delta Air Lines award space across the Delta route map. Here’s how.
Run a search
First, enter “Delta Air Lines” in the “Flying with” field. You can select any airport in the “From” and “To” fields and then click “Check for reward seats.”
I searched for Delta reward seats from LHR to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) in June.
On the next screen, remove “LHR” and replace it with your desired origin. And no, it doesn’t have to be LHR, LGW or EDI. You can do the same with the destination.
Here’s a search from Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (HND). In particular, note the URL.
This shows the dates there’s Delta award space on this route. Fascinatingly, our tests show this works throughout Delta’s network — even on domestic flights.
Related: Virgin Atlantic to join SkyTeam on March 2 — here’s what this could mean for existing elites
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A way to simplify Flying Blue searches
By using this trick, you can effectively see all of Delta’s award space — which simplifies partner bookings.
For example, Flying Blue doesn’t have a real-time award calendar for Delta flights. After confirming the award space on June 2 from DTW to HND using the Virgin Atlantic calendar, I headed to KLM’s website to preview this award.
Sure enough, you can book a nonstop from DTW to HND on June 2 for 45,500 Flying Blue miles.
Related: These are the Flying Blue redemption sweet spots you need to know
Bottom line
Since Delta uses dynamic pricing and shows real-time award calendars for its own award flights, this trick isn’t too helpful if you’re hoping to redeem SkyMiles. But if you’re interested in booking a Delta flight using a partner currency (i.e., Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points or Flying Blue miles), this feature makes award searches much easier.
You can even use three-digit U.S. airport codes for domestic flights.
Unfortunately, this feature doesn’t work on Virgin Atlantic’s other partners like ANA and Hawaiian Airlines, but this trick can make Delta searches much easier.
