Virgin Australia flights to Doha now on sale

[I love to travel]

Still no reward flights it seems? Geez, what's the hold up.

There were tonnes of them a few months ago

 

[BriarFlyer]

There were tonnes of them a few months ago

Yes, I have a 2xJ booked home from London in August, but booked when they were released on the VA site.

 

[mt4789]

Still no reward flights it seems? Geez, what's the hold up.

There’s still a few floating around but you might struggle with getting beyond Doha, try secondary European airports if you’re having trouble

 

[BCons]

New VA + Qatar Euro promo fares - whats so special ?

VA email today announcing special fares in Y and J for June/Nov window and more in early '26 to promote its Qatar tie-up.

Use the promo code VA 125 they said.

So I had a look for mid Sep, both Mel and Syd departure, and typed in the promo. I would not call $12,500 for a J round anything 'special', even if its tagged as such.

The simplest of google flight searches shows that BA/CX/EY can all be had for $10.5/11k and SQ for $11.6k on the same dates. Didnt look at QF/EK but c'mon...

 

[PERLHR]

New VA + Qatar Euro promo fares - whats so special ?

VA email today announcing special fares in Y and J for June/Nov window and more in early '26 to promote its Qatar tie-up.

Use the promo code VA 125 they said.

So I had a look for mid Sep, both Mel and Syd departure, and typed in the promo. I would not call $12,500 for a J round anything 'special', even if its tagged as such.

The simplest of google flight searches shows that BA/CX/EY can all be had for $10.5/11k and SQ for $11.6k on the same dates. Didnt look at QF/EK but c'mon...

Yep a nonsense. VA think we are stupid! Plenty of flights around mid sept to Europe and UK in biz for around 7,000 AUD.

 

[mt4789]

I agree, Special means $8k or less in my mind:

Cheapo airline/ bad timings $5.5k
“Special” $8k
Normal $10.5k
Left it too late $12k

 

[PERLHR]

I agree, Special means $8k or less in my mind:

Cheapo airline/ bad timings $5.5k
“Special” $8k
Normal $10.5k
Left it too late $12k

I did find and followed a dummy booking from Perth to Paris CDG for Jan 26. Cost is 7.5k AUD return but as usual absolutely no seat selection on the QR sectors in biz so outbid the four sectors I looked at it was only the PER-DOH flight where seat selection was possible. It's rather pathetic. Who would ever do this by choice?

 

[BCons]

I did find and followed a dummy booking from Perth to Paris CDG for Jan 26. Cost is 7.5k AUD return but as usual absolutely no seat selection on the QR sectors in biz so outbid the four sectors I looked at it was only the PER-DOH flight where seat selection was possible. It's rather pathetic. Who would ever do this by choice?

another reason to ignore QR.. didnt know you cudnt seat-select.

 

[RooFlyer]

another reason to ignore QR.. didnt know you cudnt seat-select.

You miss out then. No seat selection only on the lowest of four business class buckets. And if you have status on OneWorld, you still get seat selection.

The smart money gets QR from an Asian port through to Europe.# I’ve had it at about A$5K, business return, others have reported lower. Get an easily available SQ business award flight from Australia to the Asian port and it’s a winner.

# not VA coded, but who cares?

 

[BCons]

You miss out then. No seat selection only on the lowest of four business class buckets. And if you have status on OneWorld, you still get seat selection.

The smart money gets QR from an Asian port through to Europe.# I’ve had it at about A$5K, business return, others have reported lower. Get an easily available SQ business award flight from Australia to the Asian port and it’s a winner.

# not VA coded, but who cares?

Nahh not missing much - these days vv happy up the pointy end with SQ, but as VA is my Dom choice (and QR are bound to juice their new 25% holding) I did hv to hv a look at what these special fares were.

If there was one reason to fly QR to Europe it wud be getting in a good night's sleep with late eve dep and long first flt, but these fares arent blowing my hair back..

 

[clifford]

Now that QR have got their extra flights out of Oz, VA is almost disposable. Who'd have thought it?

 

[SCM]

There were tonnes of them a few months ago

That was only to Doha.

There’s still a few floating around but you might struggle with getting beyond Doha, try secondary European airports if you’re having trouble

I have, and I have been looking for months, not once did I see any AU - EU any combination of airports rewards (J).

New VA + Qatar Euro promo fares - whats so special ?

VA email today announcing special fares in Y and J for June/Nov window and more in early '26 to promote its Qatar tie-up.

Use the promo code VA 125 they said.

Where do you enter these promo codes? I can never find it on the VA website.

 

[jase05]

I have, and I have been looking for months, not once did I see any AU - EU any combination of airports rewards (J).

2x J seats for July 20th, pretty much the first date I randomly looked. They are out there but they get snapped up quickly

 

[SCM]

2x J seats for July 20th, pretty much the first date I randomly looked. They are out there but they get snapped up quickly
View attachment 438713

Alright thanks, not the timeframe I have been searching (I need around 20th June), I do not think they are as common as you imply.

 

[jase05]

Alright thanks, not the timeframe I have been searching (I need around 20th June), I do not think they are as common as you imply.

I never said they were common but they are out there. You are looking at peak time for Europe travel though and most award seats would have been snapped up long ago.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

You miss out then. No seat selection only on the lowest of four business class buckets. And if you have status on OneWorld, you still get seat selection.

The smart money gets QR from an Asian port through to Europe.# I’ve had it at about A$5K, business return, others have reported lower. Get an easily available SQ business award flight from Australia to the Asian port and it’s a winner.

# not VA coded, but who cares?

Are you buying QR fares ex-BKK?

 

[MooTime]

And I quickly found 2 xJ from BNE to Poland early July just just week after.

If ppl don't find them on the day they want they complain.

Hardly worthless captain Ansett, $1600 return in J AU to EU. What they selling for $10k+.
I value velocity point lot more than qff.

 

[SCM]

I never said they were common but they are out there. You are looking at peak time for Europe travel though and most award seats would have been snapped up long ago.

They only started selling tickets for these new flights just a few months ago, and since they did I have been checking all the time, and never saw any reward seats.

There have been many conversations on these very forums about the new qatar/va flights and when they will put them in the reward system, I've never seen anyone say that they saw any.

There was the reward flights to Doha only a month or two ago, but again not all the time to Europe.

 

[mikenz]

They only started selling tickets for these new flights just a few months ago, and since they did I have been checking all the time, and never saw any reward seats.

There have been many conversations on these very forums about the new qatar/va flights and when they will put them in the reward system, I've never seen anyone say that they saw any.

There was the reward flights to Doha only a month or two ago, but again not all the time to Europe.

You miss out then. No seat selection only on the lowest of four business class buckets. And if you have status on OneWorld, you still get seat selection.

The smart money gets QR from an Asian port through to Europe.# I’ve had it at about A$5K, business return, others have reported lower. Get an easily available SQ business award flight from Australia to the Asian port and it’s a winner.

# not VA coded, but who cares?

Anyone have an answer on the best program to use when travelling on these QR for VA flights?
I'm VA and QF Gold.
From what I can gather:
QF gold gets me seat selection on QR (for onward flights only) but not on VA.
VA gets me a $20 in Doha
I'm guessing both gives me lounge access across the network (Aus/Doha/Europe)
Thanks

 

[SCM]

One thing I just noticed for example, there are reward J from for example CGK to AMS/FRA which is good, just have to edit the search URL.

The fees on those flights is insane though, $800-$900 for one way, both short 7-8h flights.