ANA partnership with Virgin Australia

[garrence]

Noticed I could book ANA tickets via Virgin Australia. Inquired with Velocity about it, and they mentioned it launched recently (12/07). Sounds like the Velocity-ANA teamup is fairly close. Be interested to see what the ANA offers velocity plat members. Anyone heard any inside information about when the velocity-ANA teamup will land?

 

[Zanzaid]

According to Aeroroutes the codeshare starts on the 18th, so we'll probably get an announcement around then!

 

[garrence]

Very interesting thanks!

 

[PERLHR]

Wonder if you can select seats etc through VA site for ANA metal? I believe that you cannot via SQ for flights on their metal when booking through VA. Also prices can be different if booked through VA compared to SQ. It would be nice if there was actual unity between the sites of ANA and VA at least.

 

[hachoo]

Wonder if you can select seats etc through VA site for ANA metal? I believe that you cannot via SQ for flights on their metal when booking through VA. Also prices can be different if booked through VA compared to SQ. It would be nice if there was actual unity between the sites of ANA and VA at least.

You can choose seats on SQ flights booked through VA. They can be selected on the SQ site with the SQ booking number provided. I assume VA will provide the ANA reservation number allowing seat selection as well.

 

[Digicola]

The price differential is on purpose, depending on VA’s agreement with NH/SQ they might need to bake in their own cut. It is not a JV so there can’t be price coordination, if VA believes it can charge more for a VA coded flight they will gouge as much as possible (which they pretty much do on all partners from my experience).

But it also means there is a bit of an arbitrage opportunity where you can shop around and pick the cheapest for essentially the same product. Minus qualifying sectors and some bonus miles I suppose.

 

[HS-TQE]

Considering VA has departed away from JV's for the foreseeable future (and it also costs money/CapEx to operate a JV), it's unlikely we'll see VA returning to JVs anytime soon.

It's likely that VA under current ownership will want to get as much cut from the codeshares, if VA believes they can 'gouge' more for a VA coded flight on a SQ, QR, UA or NH flight, they'll price it as such.

 

[bam71]

Same as QF re EK and AA codeshare

 

[bernardblack]

This promo was in the Velocity app (Android) this morning:

 

[Digicola]

The ANA partner page is up and running and benefits are rather disappointing.

All Nippon Airways

experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com

-Benefits only apply on flights between Australia and Japan.
-No lounge access.
-Extra points only apply on VA codes flights.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Bit sad that one, as mentioned by Digicola above.
More onus, if rev fare paid, is to put SQ KF # into booking, and then transfer points to VFF.
Yes, this is a "downgrade", but if you are flying ANA J, its still better, than no lounge.
If you want to burn points, and have a lot of VFF points, can transfer VFF points to KF miles, and use redemption that way.

 

[HS-TQE]

The ANA partner page is up and running and benefits are rather disappointing.

All Nippon Airways

experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com

-Benefits only apply on flights between Australia and Japan.
-No lounge access.
-Extra points only apply on VA codes flights.

This is just VA and AC all over again, although AC's implementation was a mess going back to VA 1.0.

 

[justinbrett]

It's not much of an alliance.

 

[bernardblack]

This is underwhelming but it's a start.

Status earn rates are consistent with the major international partners. VA-coded points earn is good, and NH-coded is comparable to other partners. Checking just now, it looks like UA is the only partner with the status points bonus for both partner and VA codes.

Lounge access is a pretty glaring gap but I would expect to either be travelling in J for long-haul and to have alternate access modes for short-haul Y so it's not a dealbreaker for me personally.

On the other hand, it adds baggage allowance which QR (the Big Shiny New EMEA Partner) doesn't.

Redemptions are TBD. That's the most likely thing I'll want from this partnership so I wait with bated breath.

Also: AC added the lounge access years later (admittedly COVID was in the interim) so maybe that will be forthcoming.

 

[bcworld]

Status earn rates are consistent with the major international partners. VA-coded points earn is good, and NH-coded is comparable to other partners. Checking just now, it looks like UA is the only partner with the status points bonus for both partner and VA codes.

Etihad offers bonus on EY flight numbers...I don't think VA codeshare on EY is a thing any more.

 

[Digicola]

The fact these meager benefits only apply to flights to/from Australia and VA coded domestic flights makes this partnership rather weak. Hainan group airlines offer the same benefits on all flights.

I’ll be flying NH J to the US tomorrow so the timing is convenient, the SCs will definitely help, but I flew them from SYD to HND 3 days back and I missed out there. You win some you lose some.

 

[randompunter]

Just tried to add my Velocity number to an existing ANA booking. Velocity now appears in the list but I get an error message:

We were unable to verify your mileage number.
If you have recently registered as a new member, it may take some time for your registration to be processed, so please try again tomorrow or at a later date.

I wonder if it is because their system merges first and middle names so the record doesn't match Velocity's, but I doubt it is that sophisticated. May just have to get it added at the airport.

 

[roby]

Regarding lounge access, I think I can understand NH's hesitation. If you have been to NH's lounges in Japan recently, you will find yourself struggle to even find a seat. Perhaps when the peak season is over, they will re-visit reciprocal lounge access but wonder how many people would jump ship from QF if VA had been in *A.

 

[justinbrett]

Velocity means Caveats!

 

[bernardblack]

Etihad offers bonus on EY flight numbers...I don't think VA codeshare on EY is a thing any more.

Yeah looks that way.

EY (no codeshare): EY code only
NH, SQ, QR (codeshare): VA code only
UA: both UA and VA code