How do you calculate the required points for a flight redemption?

Frequent Flyer Programs
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Hi there, I’m looking to redeem points for travel from Melbourne to Tokyo using my Velocity points and wondering how the points are calculated for redemption. It’s approx 5080 miles one-way so under the Velocity points table 2, it falls under zone 6 which states business class is 78000 points each way flying Singapore Airlines. When I try to redeem, the cheapest I can find is 390,000 each way which is considerably more than their table!!! Am I doing something wrong? Cheers, ian

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Hi Ian,

How I figure it out is:

  1. Check what is the routing. In this case, you have to go via SIN. Hence, the route is MEL-SIN-NRT/HND.
  2. Calculate the total distance. I use gcmap.com . It comes to 7032-7068 miles.
  3. Check this on Velocity Point Table. Since this is flown on Singapore Air, you have to use the 2nd table.
  4. One way business class comes to 104,000 Velocity points.
This number is for a "Business Reward" seat. This is generally what you should aim for as "Reward" seats cost the least points (hence are more popular and harder to get). The higher number you see is a number tied to the cost of buying the tickets with $. This is generally low value for your points.

Singapore Airlines usually keep some award seats for Krisflyer members. So it might be worthwhile to check whether there are award seats on Krisflyer if you don’t see any on Velocity. If you can find seats on Krisflyer, you can transfer Velocity to Krisflyer at a ratio of 1.35:1 (either way). A one way business class via this method costs 112,050 Velocity points (83k Krisflyer). Transfers are instant too.

Hope that helps.

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