Can I use Velocity points to travel to London?

• 

  cimrak on 08/11/2017 - 16:01

  You can book or get a quote via the Virgin website, it will just tell you that the "Operator" of the flight is one of their partners like Singapore or Etihad.

  I don't think 400k points will get you business return, but it should get you economy return or business one-way (if you do this, I personally would go business on the flight back to Australia).

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 08/11/2017 - 16:15

    +2

    400k points will definitely get you a return business class flight to London from Melbourne.

  • 

    lockmc on 09/11/2017 - 09:12

    I had a loko and the prices were anywhere from the 600k to the 900k mark! I'm guessing these arent the basic business tickets but flexible tickets maybe?

• 

  donbot on 08/11/2017 - 16:13

  400k points is definitely enough to fly business return for 1 person to london.

  Look into booking Singapore with Velocity points, or transferring them to Krisflyer (Singapore scheme).

  Can book Etihad with Velocity points, but the surcharges are $$$$$ compared with Singapore.

  • 

    [Deactivated] on 08/11/2017 - 16:16

    Beat me to it.

• 

  Pecan on 08/11/2017 - 16:14

  You can upgrade only if:
  a) you fly to Hong Kong or LA on VA aircraft (in your case, you could go to London via HK)
  AND
  b) you have Platinum or Gold status
  Source

  If you don't meet both those conditions, then you can use your points to purchase a business class ticket in full. Easiest way is to log into your Velocity account then do a dummy booking ensuring the "points + pay" box is checked. It will tell you how many points you need. I don't know where you're flying from but you can do SYD-AUH on VA points, despite it being with Etihad.

• 

  spiff on 08/11/2017 - 17:24

  +1

  I'm from Perth and recently booked business class flights from Singapore to London, and Rome to Perth (via Singapore). Singapore to London cost 94k points inclusive of tax. Rome to Perth cost 121k points + ~$90 in tax. A few things I learnt in the process:

  • Virgin's biggest 2 partners that fly to Europe are Singapore Airlines and Etihad. You can still search on the Virgin website and it will tell you which airline the route is being operated by.
  • Business class rewards seating becomes available around 330 days/11 months prior to the date of travel, and popular routes do tend to book out quickly. Get onto it right away.
  • Not sure why, but availability returning to Australia was much more limited than travelling to Europe
  • From Perth, going via SIA was much better value using points than Etihad. May be the same going from Melbourne. For my routes, it was slightly better using Velocity points directly, rather than transferring to Krisflyer points and booking directly through SIA.
  • If you're booking more than 1 flight, use one Velocity account to book all seats, because the Virgin Airlines website doesn't tell you how many seats are left. You'll have to get all others' points transferred to you before you book. Alternatively you can call up and they can tell you how many seats are left.
    -Booking over the phone will incur a surcharge. Booking online doesn't.

  For the travel dates you mentioned, better start looking asap!

  P.S. I didn't look into the possibility of buying a full price flexible economy and using points to upgrade to business as I wanted to outlay as little cash as possible.

  • 

    lockmc on 09/11/2017 - 09:13

    94k for business class??

    • 

      spiff on 09/11/2017 - 12:00

      Yep.. for one person, one way, Singapore to London. Obviously will cost more going from Australia.