When Australia’s international border reopened in November 2021, Velocity Frequent Flyer resumed offering reward seats on most partner airlines. But there were some exceptions, including Singapore Airlines. Hainan, Capital, Tianjin and Hong Kong Airlines redemptions also didn’t return then, and still haven’t.
In early 2022, Velocity progressively resumed offering Singapore Airlines reward seats in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class. But First Class redemptions still remain off-limits to Velocity members to this day.
The Velocity Frequent Flyer website currently says: “We are working closely with Singapore Airlines to restart Reward Seat redemptions in First Class”.
The same message has appeared on the Velocity website for the past two years. The text unfortunately appears to be out of date, because it also says that Reward Seats on Singapore Airlines are not available to or from China and Hong Kong. This hasn’t been the case for some time. Right now, you can easily book Singapore Airlines reward flights to China and Hong Kong on the Virgin Australia website.
Singapore First Class rewards unlikely to return soon
Singapore Airlines continues to make First Class Saver and Advantage award seats available to its own KrisFlyer members…
We’re quite sure that Velocity Frequent Flyer would love to be able to offer Singapore Airlines First Class reward seats to its members as well. But the reality is that Singapore Airlines hasn’t released First Class award availability to any airline partners since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Velocity probably doesn’t have much of a say in this. Even Air Canada’s Aeroplan program, which also partners with Singapore Airlines and appears to have some excellent negotiators, hasn’t been able to convince Singapore Airlines to release First Class award seats for their members.
Velocity members can still transfer points to KrisFlyer
Although you can’t currently redeem Velocity points for Singapore Airlines First Class or Suites directly, there is another trick you can keep up your sleeve.
As a unique feature of Velocity and KrisFlyer, you can transfer points or miles between both loyalty programs at a 1.55:1 rate.
By converting your Velocity points into Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles, you can book Singapore Airlines First Class awards through the KrisFlyer program. In general, it’ll cost you more points to do it this way… but at least you have the option.
Booking First Class rewards with Velocity points
Virgin Australia does have two partner airlines that open up First Class reward seats to book using Velocity points: Etihad and Qatar Airways. In fact, Qatar Airways offers First Class on its Airbus A380 from both Perth and Sydney to Doha.
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