What's the best use of 100,000 Velocity Points to get to Europe?

Flights & Airfares
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Hi everyone,

I’ve just received my Velocity Platinum Amex card and am starting to rack up my $1000 spend to get the 100,000 velocity points offer.

I intend to use the 100,000 points to purchase either a flight to, or from, Europe as I have to buy three long haul tickets next year (one to Europe in early June with a partner, one back to Aus by myself around August for a few weeks for a wedding and then back to Europe to meet up again with my partner).

I’m new to the points game and have been having a read of the helpful articles trying to get my points “IQ” up.

I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on how to get the most value out of my points for redeeming those flights as either:

A) A single standard one way economy ticket (points only or points and pay)
B) A ticket class upgrade (for either one or two people, I will be travelling with my partner)

Some of the reading I’ve found suggests that buying economy tickets with points offers less value compared with redeeming for business tickets, however I don’t think I would have enough points - would I? Or would a points + pay option make this affordable? I am  also unsure of how to apply for or research an upgrade using points.

I’ve also read that converting my points to Krisflyer may open up some good value deals through Singapore Air. Would this be advisable?

Obviously I will be limited by my 100,000 points from the offer and however many i can accumulate in between. However, generally: on the flight with my partner we will be in economy and I would look at options  to upgrade us both; On the flights by myself I would be looking at either an economy or business ticket or upgrade - which ever makes the most sense.

Any advice is appreciated, I just want to make sure I make my points work as hard for me as I work to get them!

Kind regards,
Josh

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Hey Josh!

OK, I’ll dig into some of your questions.

I’ve found suggests that buying economy tickets with points offers less value compared with redeeming for business tickets, however I don’t think I would have enough points – would I?
That's right, Economy tickets come with surcharges and when you start comparing the value proposition of redeeming for Economy over Business Class, then Business quickly comes out ahead - if you have enough points, AND if you value travelling in Business (most do, but others couldn't care less).

Would you have enough points? Not quite. Etihad to Europe is 125,000 Velocity Points one way in Business. If you can keep collecting then you are pretty close.

Or would a points + pay option make this affordable?
Points+Pay I don't think is offered on Velocity partner airlines... and usually the value offered in points+pay isn't great when you buy points from the airline like this.

On upgrades, KrisFlyer upgrades are not great value, almost the cost of the flight when redeemed outright, and Velocity doesn’t offer upgrades using points on it’s partners.

I’ve also read that converting my points to Krisflyer may open up some good value deals through Singapore Air. Would this be advisable?

You can get a one way Business Class ticket Sydney -> London on Singapore Airlines for 80,750 KrisFlyer miles (when booked online) . That’s just over 109,000 Velocity Points. If you fly into Amsterdam it’s less, 68,000 KrisFlyer miles (when booked online) or 91,800 Velocity Points.

However, what this shows is that you’ll probably not be able to meet your goal for you and your partner of both being in Business Class unless you both have 100,000 points to work with.

As a result you might want to target both of you in Business Class for just some of your journey - this is not quite achievable with 100k points, but not too far off, with a one way Business Class flight on Singapore Airlines from Sydney to Singapore at 46,750 KrisFlyer miles or just over 63,000 Velocity points. You could then buy a return from Singapore to Europe, and a one way Scoot or Jetstar flight on the missing flight between Australia / Singapore.

If you are happy to settle for an Economy redemption, your points will get you further, but at less value than if you saved them for another trip. But your points are not worth anything until you use them, so if that’s more important to you (using your points to save some money) then that’s totally valid.

So I see three scenarios -

  1. Saving your points for another trip entirely and paying using cash
  2. Redeeming for Economy to save money on this trip
  3. Saving your points harder and seeing if you can earn enough to get you some of the way in Business
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