Virgin Atlantic has been busy in recent weeks. Shortly after making some to their Flying Club loyalty programme, the airline restored many of its pre-pandemic flight destinations to the timetable and secured £400m of new investment from Delta Air Lines and its founder Richard Branson. Now it has announced an extended partnership with UK based short-haul airline EasyJet.
easyJet is the largest British owned low-cost airline and primarily operates flights within Europe. In contrast, Virgin Atlantic is a long haul carrier with a focus on flights from the UK to North American, Caribbean, African and Asian destinations. So their alliance makes a lot of sense since it allows both airlines to offer a combined network of connections from the UK that is more competitive with British Airways' extensive list of interconnected long and short-haul destinations.
The new arrangement between the companies means that passengers flying with EasyJet can now connect to Virgin Atlantic flights via Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast airports through an alliance called “Worldwide by EasyJet''.
Virgin Atlantic + Worldwide by EasyJet
Worldwide by easyJet originally launched in September 2017, allowing customers to book easyJet flights and onward connections with partner airlines at the same time. At launch, those connections were provided by Norwegian and Westjet through coordinated flight schedules at London Gatwick Airport.
Virgin Atlantic flights from Gatwick were then added to the scheme in 2018. Subsequently, Worldwide by easyJet has added partner connections at Milan Malpensa, Venice Marco Polo, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Orly airports.
Since Virgin Atlantic consolidated its London departures into Heathrow Airport at the height of the pandemic, its previous arrangement with easyJet had effectively ended. So, in the short term, the new partnership will only benefit passengers connecting between the airlines at Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast. Easyjet doesn’t operate any flights from London Heathrow. However, if industry rumours are to be believed, Virgin is considering a return to Gatwick that could see a revival of the alliance with easyJet there too.
The extension of the Worldwide by easyJet agreement will certainly open up more connectivity between easyJet’s UK bases outside London and across Europe with Virgin Atlantic routes, particularly to the US. Connecting destinations include Jersey to New York and Belfast to Barbados. easyJet serves over 130 European airports and recently announced an expansion of its 2022 autumn flying schedule, with more than 78,000 flights now available between 1 October and 30 November next year.
Juha Jarvinen, chief commercial officer at Virgin Atlantic, said: “We’re delighted to be welcoming EasyJet customers onboard Virgin Atlantic flights from Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast.
“We know there is huge pent-up demand for people wanting to get away on holiday whether to the Caribbean for a relaxing sunny break or Stateside to explore their favourite cities. Thanks to this new partnership with Worldwide by easyJet, customers from across the UK and Europe can now connect easily onto Virgin Atlantic destinations including New York, Barbados, and Orlando.”
Sophie Dekkers, chief commercial officer, at easyJet, added: “At easyJet we’re committed to making travel as easy as possible as well as providing great value and more choice for our customers when they travel. We are delighted to be working with Virgin Atlantic to open up even more opportunities for customers to connect across our European network onto North America, through our innovative Worldwide by easyJet platform.
Not A Traditional Airline Alliance
It is worth bearing in mind that Worldwide by easyJet differs slightly from traditional airline alliances such as Oneworld and Star Alliance. It is effectively a scheduling agreement that also allows connecting partner flights to be sold on the EasyJet website. The arrangement offers a two and a half hours minimum connecting time and flights are not held for connecting passengers. Passengers who miss their connecting flight are transferred to the next available service. Customers also have to collect any checked baggage during the connection time and re-check their luggage for the onward flight.
easyJet tickets cannot be booked as Virgin reward flights and you won’t earn Virgin Points on the connecting services flown by EasyJet. So Flying Club members who want to redeem their points for Virgin reward flights will be better off making a Virgin Atlantic booking at VirginAtlantic.com, then taking advantage of conveniently timed easyJet connections made through a separate booking at easyjet.com. Since it is a low-cost carrier, EasyJet frequently offers some very competitive prices. But unlike other Virgin partners, such as Delta Air Lines, you won’t be able to earn or redeem Virgin Points.
So for some itineraries, such as those with both a US airport and Amsterdam on the schedule, it is worth evaluating whether a redemption on Virgin combined with a cash booking on easyJet or a points+ taxes redemption, involving another Virgin partner, represents the best value.
Virgin Atlantic has existing joint venture partnerships with Delta, Air France and KLM and you can earn and spend Virgin points with all of these airlines. Flights with those airlines can be bought, with either cash or points, on the main Virgin Atlantic booking website. However, depending on the exact details of your schedule, the taxes and fees payable, on top of a points redemption, for the European leg of your trip, could be higher or lower than the cash price of an EasyJet ticket. Plus easyJet offers more flights from the UK, often at lower cash prices, than Virgin’s joint-venture partners. When making any comparisons, don’t forget to factor in the cash equivalent value of your points too.
