I have been a Velocity member pretty much since the program started over 10 years ago, but have only started taking points collecting seriously in the past 6 months or so (since coming across your site; thanks!). By reading your site, and a few others, I’ve managed to get myself a decent way along, but I have hit a snag in my plans and I’m hoping you can give me some advice.
My main aim for points collection is to facilitate a European holiday to visit friends in London, for myself and my wife, where the long-haul legs of the trip are on Business Class. I have had one experience with Business Class before, when work sent me MEL-SIN-CCU return, on Singapore Airlines. It was awesome, and the main reason I’m so keen for my wife to be able to experience Business Class as well. Our friends are mainly in London, so that is a must destination, and we were thinking of spending time in two other places, most likely Paris and a major city in Italy or Spain. Because of how the award tables worked, I thought Rome could be a good choice.
I currently have ~200,000 points in my Velocity account. I’m planning to apply for the Platinum AmEx with a friend’s referral link, which should net me another 110,000. I also have a few others at work interested in the card, so I’m hoping to get 1-3 lots of 20,000 points for referring them once my application is (hopefully) approved. So soon I should have about 350,000 Velocity points and be ready to execute my plan.
My plan up until now, has been to transfer these points into my KrisFlyer account, (losing out on the exchange rate) to net me about 259,000 KrisFlyer miles.
Trying to get the most out of the KrisFlyer reward chart, I had thought we could buy our own flights MEL-PER (using a 2-4-1 deal I have on a different Virgin credit card), then redeem the KrisFlyer miles on Singapore Airlines to fly PER-SIN-FCO, meaning we’d fly from Zone 8 to Zone 11, for 70,000 points per person one-way (see Awards Chart). I remember reading that if you book online, there is a 15% discount, so this would mean I’d only need 59,500 per person one-way. Multiply that out (x4) means I need a total of 238,000 minimum. This plan would allow us to get into Europe, explore Rome for a week, then move on to Paris and London, before heading back for our return flight out of Rome and the only flights we’d pay for would be short-haul around Europe and to get ourselves between Melbourne and Perth. If we have enough points, I’d consider flying directly from London to Melbourne on our return, so we don’t have the hassle of too many connections on our way back.
Seems like everything’s coming up Milhouse. Except now it looks like perhaps I’ve made a mistake?
Up until now, I’ve been searching for flights using the front page of Singapore Airlines. They have plenty of flight options for PER-SIN-FCO, so I haven’t been too concerned. There are even some options to go PER-SIN-FRA-FCO, with the final leg on Lufthansa.
However when I logged into my KrisFlyer account recently, and went to the mileage calculator, I got this message:
Singapore Airlines and SilkAir do not operate the flight(s) which you have selected. Please refine your selection.
I had a look at other Zone 8-11 combinations, and Rome is the only one that isn’t possible when flying out of Perth (Rome also isn’t available out of MEL, SYD, BNE, ADL).
It might sound a bit silly, but the other three Zone 11 options aren’t really cities I would like to visit this trip, so if I have to redeem to those, I’m going to be going (e.g.) MEL-PER-SIN-AMS-CDG with the first and last flights in economy, it seems like a bit much to deal with, especially for inexperienced international travellers (me and my wife).
Is there a way to confirm if I can use points for my original PER-SIN-FCO plan? Do you have any advice for other good combinations if this isn’t possible, or should I adjust my expectations and start saving enough to fly Zone 9 to Zone 12?
Thanks in advance.
