Leaving Charleston, you can understand why it’s called the Lowcountry! Photo by: Evan Berman

For the first leg on my trip to Norway, I was headed back to New York’s JFK Airport, less than 2 weeks after I last departed. I used Virgin Atlantic points to fly Delta for a great value in economy.

This is the first flight in the Nordic Expedition. For more info on this trip, follow these links:

Intro

Flight: Delta Comfort+, CHS-JFK (This Article)

JFK Lounges

Flight: Norse Airways Economy, JFK-OSL

Flight: Norwegian Economy, OSL-BGO

The Magic of Bergen, Norway

Christmas Markets

Hotel: Clarion Collection Hotel Havnekontoret, Bergen, Norway

Flight: SAS Economy, BGO-SVG

Flight: SAS Economy, SVG-OSL

2 Days in Oslo, Norway

Oslo Restaurants

Hotel: Comfort Karl Johan, Oslo, Norway

Flight: SAS Economy, OSL-TOS

Terrific Tromsø, Norway

A Whale of a Meal, Tromsø, Norway Restaurants

Seeing the Northern Lights

Hotel: Clarion Collection Hotel Aurora, Tromsø, Norway

Hotel: Clarion Collection Hotel With, Tromsø, Norway

Flight: SAS Economy, TOS-OSL

Flight: Norse Atlantic Airways Economy: OSL-JFK

December in New York

Lounges at LGA

Flight: Delta Economy, LGA-CHS

Conclusion

Flight Info:

Route: CHS-JFK (Charleston, SC to New York-JFK)

Date: Wednesday, 12/1/2022

Flight: DL 4963

Plane: Bombardier CRJ-900

Seat: 8D (Comfort+ Window)

Upgrades: Economy to Comfort+, 1st on waitlist for First Class

Est. Departure: 12:30pm EST (revised to 12:05pm)

Taxiing: 12:07pm EST

Takeoff: 12:21pm EST

Gate: A5 (Main Terminal)

Est. Arrival: 2:00pm EST

Touchdown: 1:46pm EST

Arrived at Gate: 2:02pm EST

Gate: B53 (Terminal 4)

Pricing:

Flight: I booked this flight as an award ticket using Virgin Atlantic miles. The flight costs 8,500 points and $5.60, but there was a 30% transfer bonus from AmEx to Virgin, so I ended up transferring 7,000 AmEx Membership Rewards Points.

Earnings: N/A, award flight

Booking:

As mentioned above, I booked this flight through Virgin Atlantic. Delta and Virgin are partners and on non-stop flights you can expect to pay 8,500 points each way on economy flights. This is a much better deal than the cash price of $149. Since I transferred 7,000 points, the value was: (149-5.60)/ 7,000* 100= 2.05. 2.05 cents per point is terrific value for a domestic economy flight.

It’s worth noting that the price to book using Delta points would have been 11,000 points. Since there are never transfer bonuses to Delta, it’s much preferable to use Virgin to book unless you need to qualify for elite status with Delta.

Since I booked via Virgin Atlantic, I needed to “Find My Trip” with Delta in order to have the flight register and get my status perks. I’ll explain in a future article this simple process.

Lounges:

I arrived relatively early for my flight in order to have a brief meeting. As such, I enjoyed the peace and quiet of the Club CHS, a lounge with which I am quite familiar with it being the only lounge in the Charleston Airport. Unfortunately, there were only the remnants of a buffet and as it was a bit early for alcohol, I just relaxed and caught up on work while having an orange juice.

Recap:

As mentioned above, this plane is a CRJ-900. These puddle-jumpers are what most Delta flights from Charleston to the New York airports fly. They are certainly not the best planes out there, but at least they are operated by Delta. Comfort+ really makes a difference on these flights as you get manageable legroom, compared to paltry legroom. Fortunately this time I was upgraded, but I believe these seats are worth the $40 extra that is common on these short-haul flights.

Despite the departure time moving up so that we took off “late,” we were still able to arrive early into New York. We had perfect conditions– it was a sunny day that felt much more like late Autumn than early winter.

I had a chance to order my usual Delta branded Sweetwater and catch up on some work during the flight.

The CRJ-900 we flew has a 1-2 setup in First Class and 2-2 Setup in the rest of the cabin. I recommend 5A if you sit in Comfort+. Unfortunately, since I was upgraded rather than purchasing outright, I could not choose my Comfort+ seat and I was assigned a seat in the last row of the extra legroom Comfort+ seats.

Meals:

As usual, we had a snack cart during the flight. I opted for a Biscoff cookie and Delta branded Sweetwater to drink. This truly is a snack cart– the only options are chips, cookies, and drinks.

Sleep:

This was a quick daytime flight and I did not need to sleep.

Experience:

The flight was short at just over 1 hour 30 minutes. We flew well above the clouds for most of the flight, but it was still beautiful as always looking out the window. After an uneventful flight, we touched down in New York 15 minutes early!

Customs:

Since this was a domestic flight, I did not need to clear customs.

Recap:

To begin my trip to Norway, I booked a flight to New York-JFK using Virgin Atlantic points and taking advantage of a transfer bonus to get an even better deal. I had 8 hours to kill in JFK before heading out to Oslo. I got the most out of 3 different lounges– all with very different experiences! Stay posted for the recap of the lounges at JFK Airport, the next portion of this trip.