I’m trying to decide what credit card to get to get the best bonus/earn capacity to plan for a Europe trip during Xmas 24. Initially I was learning towards getting the HSBC Star Alliance (for gold status) and converting my current points to Krisflyer but Krisflyer reward seats are largely unavailable, and you have to be on a waitlist which means a chance of not getting it after all the hassle! Whereas, Qatar reward seats are readily available and can be booked already (but Qatar Avios are far more difficult to come by, same with United).
As such I thought of booking the flights using velocity but my question is would I still get the benefits of being a star alliance gold member if I book a Singapore/Qatar/United flight through Velocity instead? I am just a velocity red member so no natural perks from velocity there.
If when booking, it doesn’t allow you to enter your Krisflyer number, you can ask at the counter during check in to change the frequent flyer account to Krisflyer. As long as the airline is a partner or alliance member of Singapore Airlines, you can put the Krisflyer number on your flight booking. Not so sure that Qatar and Singapore Airlines are partners.
You can then use your Krisflyer Gold to access lounges.
Would it be too much of a stretch to book a Qatar flight using velocity but expecting lounge access if you’re a star alliance gold with Singapore or United? (Since star gold also provides virgin gold benefits in Australia, can it be used then for Qatar gold level benefits? Or that’s a degree too much of separation?)
It is quite difficult to get award seats around Christmas, not impossible though.
I assume that you wish to use Velocity points for the booking. Lounge access depends on the airline and class that you are traveling in. So if the award ticket is on SQ (with a SQ flight number) and in business class, you will get access to the SilverKris lounge at Changi airport in Singapore. This is even if you do not have Star Alliance Gold.
If you are a Star Alliance Gold (with any of the Star Alliance carriers) and traveling on an Economy ticket on SQ (or other Star Alliance carriers), access will be available to the Singapore Airlines Gold lounge at Changi. The SilverKris lounge is a better lounge, and the lounge in Terminal 3 is the best imho.
If you are booking via your Velocity Points on Singapore Airlines, have the Velocity agent load on your phone number and email address. The SQ Call centre is unable to do this.
If using Velocity Frequent Flyer miles for your award seat, only your Velocity FF Number will appear on the ticket. Enrol in the Krisflyer program to have access to the free onboard wifi. After doing step 4 above, call the SQ Call Centre and have them load in the Krisflyer number on your booking. While it won’t replace the Virgin FF Number, that process will give you complimentary wifi. This is for any class of travel.
Just an observation on the HSBC Star Alliance card: It is a high spend amount in 3 months to get the bonus points and Gold status. I think the conversion rate to Krisflyer miles is not that attractive. Check the fine print first to confirm this.
Can’t comment on Qatar as I haven’t used any award travel on that airline.
So my whole reasoning for this was because I’ve had a Citibank Prestige credit card for the last 9 months that comes with 12 months of priority pass access (+1 guest) and the bonus offer when I signed up was 300k points which I can either convert to Qatar, Singapore or Virgin. I’m yet to decide which one to convert those to and it will ultimately depend on the best value for points award seats I can find.
Since having the priority pass, we’ve used it 18 times already (technically 36 visits) which more than makes up the discounted annual fee of $375 that I initially paid. I’ve tried to ask for another offer for renewal but the only thing Citibank can offer is interest free payments which I have no need or interest in.
This takes me back to starting point where, I’m now trying to decide which credit card to get for the bonus points that will ultimately help me with booking award flights for Xmas.
I’ve compared the points required between united, Singapore, Qatar and velocity and velocity/qatar seems to provide the most value. But there’s not card or offer that gives me the lounge access as liberally as priority pass. So my thinking was, can I book a Qatar flight using velocity, become a star alliance gold member (HSBC) then use the partnership between Singapore/united & Virgin to get lounge access for a Qatar flight given their partnership with Virgin. I know that star alliance gold reciprocates to virgin gold but would that then stretch to get Qatar gold status for the flight or is that too far fetched?
The main issue is that the Star Alliance gold status you get with the HSBC card is not literally translated into Virgin’s Velocity Gold status. You get mostly equivalent benefits when flying with Virgin, but not when you fly with Virgin’s non-Star Alliance partners like Qatar.
Say you get Aeroplan status from the HSBC card. Air Canada and Virgin are friends, so you get benefits on both airlines. But Air Canada and Qatar are not friends so you cannot get benefits on Qatar. Always refer to the original status offering airline and their partnerships. In fancier terms, airline status is not transitive. Just because Air Canada Gold = Virgin Gold and Virgin Gold = Qatar Gold doesn’t mean that Air Canada Gold = Qatar Gold also!
