Article: How Qantas & Velocity Point Values Have Changed Over Time

[Duffa]

Reality is that the best international redemptions are for the places that you want to go. Don't travel far for the sake of travelling far, just so that you can hit some points per dollar metric.

Totally disagree !!
I will travel anywhere to anywhere on points just so I can turn left on boarding. I just LOVE that feeling!

 

[Julio Lamont]

That's not a reward seat...using 500,000 points for that is, sorry to say, madness!

This is how much a oneway economy reward would be.

View attachment 352122
...and business class:

View attachment 352123

Can you explain why when I inputted exactly the same parameters on the Velocity site of my daughter's last trip it was quoting me 441,600 points and $889.60, then?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Can you explain why when I inputted exactly the same parameters on the Velocity site of my daughter's last trip it was quoting me 441,600 points and $889.60, then?

There are two types of ways you can use velocity points.

Either a true ‘award’ seat, which is priced according to the redemption tables, OR use your points as quasi cash.

In the latter, points are worth about .6cents each. Virgin is offering you the chance to buy a regular paid seat using your points, but at the .6c rate.

True reward seats are very limited, maybe only one or two on each flight in premium cabins, and maybe a couple more in economy. They get snapped up fast. True reward seats are seats the airline doesn’t think they’re going to be able to sell, so they make them available as part of their FF program.

The cash fares/rewards are pretty much unlimited, based on the going cash rate at the time. You’re simply using your points to buy a normal airfare.

In your case, if the going cash fare was $2800, at .6 of a cent conversion, it works out to around 466000 points, give or take.

If you had been able to find and book a true award it would have been just 65k points. Plus taxes and carrier fuel surcharges.

 

[AIRwin]

True reward seats are very limited, maybe only one or two on each flight in premium cabins, and maybe a couple more in economy. They get snapped up fast. True reward seats are seats the airline doesn’t think they’re going to be able to sell, so they make them available as part of their FF program.

They will be flagged with a Velocity logo and the text "Reward Seats available" under the search results - see examples in screenshots:

Limited Time: Virgin Reward Seats From 5,200 Velocity Points

Virgin Australia has discounted Tier 1 Economy Reward Seats by 15%, with seats available to book from just 5,200 Velocity points (plus taxes) until 7 November 2024.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

More info:

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[bcworld]

Can you explain why when I inputted exactly the same parameters on the Velocity site of my daughter's last trip it was quoting me 441,600 points and $889.60, then?

It's not about your inputs...it's about the interpretation of the results presented.

Take this example...it's the same flight...but Velocity is offering 2 options.

Economy: 44.8k + $113.19 OR
Economy: 236.9k + $146.30

The former is a reward seat as noted by the purple text.
The latter is booking a commercially available fare using points. You'd earn points and status credits but that's the only difference for the extra 192k points.

 

[Julio Lamont]

There are two types of ways you can use velocity points.

Either a true ‘award’ seat, which is priced according to the redemption tables, OR use your points as quasi cash.

In the latter, points are worth about .6cents each. Virgin is offering you the chance to buy a regular paid seat using your points, but at the .6c rate.

True reward seats are very limited, maybe only one or two on each flight in premium cabins, and maybe a couple more in economy. They get snapped up fast. True reward seats are seats the airline doesn’t think they’re going to be able to sell, so they make them available as part of their FF program.

The cash fares/rewards are pretty much unlimited, based on the going cash rate at the time. You’re simply using your points to buy a normal airfare.

In your case, if the going cash fare was $2800, at .6 of a cent conversion, it works out to around 466000 points, give or take.

If you had been able to find and book a true award it would have been just 65k points. Plus taxes and carrier fuel surcharges.

Thank you for explaining that to me, I'm glad I made the effort to join AFF now.

Post automatically merged: Nov 1, 2023

They will be flagged with a Velocity logo and the text "Reward Seats available" under the search results - see examples in screenshots:

Limited Time: Virgin Reward Seats From 5,200 Velocity Points

Virgin Australia has discounted Tier 1 Economy Reward Seats by 15%, with seats available to book from just 5,200 Velocity points (plus taxes) until 7 November 2024.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

More info:

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Thank you for pointing that out, I'll never make the same mistake again.

 

[Julio Lamont]

It's not about your inputs...it's about the interpretation of the results presented.

Take this example...it's the same flight...but Velocity is offering 2 options.

Economy: 44.8k + $113.19 OR
Economy: 236.9k + $146.30

The former is a reward seat as noted by the purple text.
The latter is booking a commercially available fare using points. You'd earn points and status credits but that's the only difference for the extra 192k points.

View attachment 352237

Thank you, now I get it. It was worth publicly embarrassing myself to find out!

 

[SYD]

Thank you, now I get it. It was worth publicly embarrassing myself to find out!

You’re not the first and won’t be the last. Both VA and QF are a bit mischievous presenting “any seat” awards so prominently, whilst to some extent obfuscating real “classic rewards” seats.

Regular users know the difference but the occasional user who logs in and searches a specific day only to see in horror 1,000,000 pts to fly one way from SYD to LAX not realising that their hard earned 100s of ‘000s of points can actually go further.

 

[Julio Lamont]

You’re not the first and won’t be the last. Both VA and QF are a bit mischievous presenting “any seat” awards so prominently, whilst to some extent obfuscating real “classic rewards” seats.

Regular users know the difference but the occasional user who logs in and searches a specific day only to see in horror 1,000,000 pts to fly one way from SYD to LAX not realising that their hard earned 100s of ‘000s of points can actually go further.

Well, as they say, "once bitten, twice shy"! Now that I have that arcane knowledge, I'm going to use it. Thank you for your reply.

 

[AIRwin]

Thank you for pointing that out, I'll never make the same mistake again.

At least your daughter would have earned points (and status credits) for her flights?

 

[Julio Lamont]

At least your daughter would have earned points (and status credits) for her flights?

Indeed she did!

 

[AIRwin]

Indeed she did!

Almost enough for Silver status?