We have been competently collecting Velocity FF (500,000) points for a little while & also have gold status however when it comes to booking flights with the points, we have absolutely no idea!!
Thinking about a trip to Europe at the end of next year (during Xmas/New Year) for the two of us however we are a little daunted by all of the information out there on the best way to tackle it. In the “experienced” opinion of you guys, I would love to know what your thoughts are on our best options. I hear a lot of people saying that they cant access reward seats etc so wondering if there is a realistic option out there & which airlines would be best.
I am also having trouble finding out what 500k of Velocity points would get us. Any info on that matter would also be greatly appreciated. I am wondering if we do have enough points & if so is there a First Class option on offer with Virgins partner airlines & your opinions on the product if there is?
I’m relatively new to this frequent flyer game here in Oz but have recently booked a trip using points from Melbourne through to London Heathrow and back again, albeit in one-way trips as we are going through Bali first and then onward via Singapore on the outbound; the return leg is just through Singapore.
Some of my observations in doing so might be useful for your planning. I’ll assume for now that you’re based in Melbourne but do correct me if i’m wrong. I’ll also assume Singapore Airlines as the partner carrier.
Availability is sparse/sporadic for reward flights, especially if you are looking to do the full MEL-SIN-LHR return without an actual stopover of a few days in SIN. But I was able to find the flights I needed by booking the MEL-SIN and SIN-LHR legs separately, that increased the available flights significantly.
Booking one way flights incurs a separate set of taxes each way. However when I booked the SIN-LHR-SIN as a return flight, I found that the taxes were reduced by around half of what I would have anticipated booking as separate flights. So I’d look at doing the same and book a MEL-SIN-MEL return, and then you could also benefit from a few days in SIN as a stopover (I generally stopover in Asia to help with the jet-lag anyway.)
You can’t immediately select seats on SingAir flights when booking reward seats from the Virgin website. But once your ticket is issued, look for the SingAir booking reference number in the itinerary - it will be a different reference number to the one issued by Virgin. Log onto the SingAir website and manage your booking through there using the SingAir reference, it will allow you to choose seats from there.
As for number of points, I did a quick calculation and I reckon it’ll cost you 314k points minimum for the pair of you to get from MEL-SIN and then SIN-LHR one-way flying business on SingAir (that’s paying a bit of extra cash to reduce the points required, otherwise you’d need around 361k for the two of you). So you’re probably a bit short of doing the full round trip in business with 500k points.
Play around on the Velocity website to see what flight options are available - it’s pretty easy to use and then you can see what the different price points are depending on whether you want to go full business or a mix of business and premium economy etc, as well as seeing how much cash top-up you want to apply to reduce the points requirements.
I didn’t do first class but I think you need to convert to Krisflyer to open up the option. With a similar points balance to you at the time, I decided the 1.55:1 conversion ratio was a bridge too far.
Will be interesting to see what the other more experienced travellers on this site will make of my first contributory post! Happy to get feedback from those in the know.
PS. With regards to point 2 above, thinking about it now, the taxes might have seemed lower because the taxes out of Singapore are cheap, whereas the taxes out of London are expensive. So the taxes would probably still be the same if booked as separate trips.
Sorry for the late reply, thanks so much for all of your input. Time for me to do some flight hunting & will definitely take on your ideas when looking.
For a novice you certainly seem to be all over it (well compared to me anyway ). I am actually based in BNE however your detailed reponse is certainly relevant even if based on a MEL departure. I will poke around in the coming months & if I come up with something I will let you know the end result. Thanks so much for all of the effort put in.
). I am actually based in BNE however your detailed reponse is certainly relevant even if based on a MEL departure. I will poke around in the coming months & if I come up with something I will let you know the end result. Thanks so much for all of the effort put in.