How best to get from Melbourne to LA using Velocity points?

Hi there, I currently hold a Velocity Platinum status and have over 450,000 points to utilise. I have a trip to Vegas September 2018 and trying to work out how best to use my points to fly business. Is it best to buy a premium saver or freedom ticket and hope i can use points to upgrade to business as I hear the likelihood of getting a Business Reward seat on the Melb-LA route is very difficult to secure? Or any other suggestions eg Singapore Airlines/Air NZ/Delta? Any advice appreciated. Cheers, Ian

Hi Ian,

If you have sufficient points, I would generally suggest outright business class redemptions. However, the good thing about Velocity upgrade with points is that if there are Business Reward seats available, upgrade are supposed to be instant (i.e. you don’t have to wait till closer to departure date to find out whether you get upgraded).

If you are desperate to secure something, transferring your points to Singapore Airlines may offer more award seats. However, you would have to go via SIN.

Thanks mate for the reply. I’ll continue to hunt for that elusive Business Reward because those SA rewards require nearly three times the points as compared with Velocity’s Business Reward (if I can get one) :wink:

An alternative to consider:

Book Hawaiian Airlines in business HNL return (130K from BNE 156K from SYD).

Then book a first-class or comfort+ revenue fare (depending on price) on delta to LAS return and rack up some sweet sweet status credits on Velocity.

Could be a winner. Standard caveat in relation to availability of award seats.