I have 400K in Velocity Points that i want to convert to Krisflyer points, and redeem on flights next year.
Essentially i want to take the family of 4 to Europe in Economy to AMS or FRA( for a month), and then return via SIN, where i want to stop off and take side flights at own expense, and then continue back to MEL. I am looking at spending 2 months in Asia before continuing home.
Questions:
Is this possible?
Is there a best way to go about this to get best bang for points, i.e booking each sector individually, or a multi stop ticket?
Is it too late to get reward flights for July next year with SIN?
Is 400K converted enough points?
For 4 people return economy class to Europe you will need 323,000 Krisflyer miles, (436,050 Velocity points will convert to this). If you are a bit short you can buy Krisflyer miles at US$40 per 1000 points, or perhaps find some more Velocity points with a credit card application, or beg/borrow/steal from friends and family.
Check availability on Singapore Airlines’ website, then call to book. Remember to ask for the 15% discount to be applied as it’s not possible to book awards with stopovers online. As your ticket is a return, your stopover on the return is free.
It will likely take more points, but you could also book it directly with Virgin. If you do have enough points, this is a good way to go, as the cash component will be lower. I’m not sure if they allow stopovers on award tickets, you’d have to check with them.
Thanks for your response and the information. I like the idea of a stopover.
How long can a stopover last? We would like to spend a couple of months somewhere.
Can i get to Kathmandhu on a stopover from SIN?
On second thoughts, I am not sure if we should go down the points route. Looking at paying directly, and that the kids are under 12, the total return flights would cost $5300 total for all of us. That is pretty cheap, and would generate a lot more points with family pooling.
Whereas the redemption flights would likely cost us $3250 in fees etc. It would not seem that there is a lot of value in the points from that perspective.
Then the wife and I could later use the points for first class travel…
Stopover has no defined length. Maybe maximum is a year. So a month or 2 is no problem as long as there are availabilities.
You could do AU-SIN (transit/stopover)-FRA/AMS-SIN (transit/stopover) - AU. With the stop over in SIN, take a side trip to Kathmandu.
If you book return via Krisflyer, you get 1 free stopover. Otherwise, its U$100 per stopover.
Yes, redemption with KF has relatively high surcharges/taxes.
Depending on the value you place on Velocity points, you compare that with the following figure:
(Revenue Fare-Total out of pocket cost of award flights)/number of points used for redemption
e.g.: [$5300 (buying ticket with cash outright) - $3250 (surcharges/tax)] / 436,050 VFF = 0.47 cents per point.
Keith’s valuation aim’s to redeem at 1.9cpp but your value may be different. Cpp for redemption of Econ seats are often less than business or first. Hence, why there is a general suggestion that premium seats are better value in redemptions.
IMHO, if you have travel plans in the next 1-3 years, I would use it for first class. For example, AU east coast to EU in first class is 112,625 KF (152k VFF) one way per person. cpp is much higher as you would imagine. Everyone’s circumstances are different so you will have to decide yourself.
Another bonus with revenue fares are, you earn status and points. Plus you generally don’t have to worry about availabilities as much as award availabilities. Which means more flexibility. Stopover becomes free.
I think I was thinking along those same lines.i don’t using all of my points and having such high fees/ surcharges is great value for money.
For me, i think paying just over 5k for convenience of booking and the ability to throw in a stopover wherever is quite reasonable. With 2 of the passengers being kids, it brings the return price to 1400 pp. return. That is way lower than what i would’ve expected.
And I can pool points/ status from the flights for gold/platinum status, and chase first class flights in the future which i agree achieve a higher yield per point.
I think this is the path i will go down unless there are other suggestions.
Yes, based against the price of cash fares, the cash fares look like the better option. w-hiew’s advice is correct, the technical value you’re getting per point is low. This is fine if those 400k Velocity points have effectively no value to you. However if you have another more valuable use for them (like first class with the wife), it makes much more sense to save them for that.