Buying Velocity points

Australia's highest-earning Velocity Frequent Flyer credit card: Offer expires: 21 Jan 2025
- Earn 60,000 bonus Velocity Points
- Get unlimited Virgin Australia Lounge access
- Enjoy a complimentary return Virgin Australia domestic flight each year

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If only you had enough time, you could churn a VA earning card with this transaction and probably come close to hitting the target spend, thus yielding points from the transaction, points for the credit card spend and the signup bonus. :-) Buying with this offer essentially short circuits a credit card churn, except you explicitly paid for the points rather than used everyday, "anyway" transactions.

In all seriousness, it's a fairly decent deal on paper. Certainly competitive against the mileage rates for other popular airlines that sell miles, even if the nominal amount of miles required by VA can be higher with less flexible routing rules and possibly higher surcharges.

It also seems like a rather roundabout way to be able to purchase KrisFlyer miles, though whether $1540 to obtain around 71k KF miles is good value is another story...
 
Anyone purchased recently and know how long it took for the points to arrive? Needed just a few for an award seat and purchased about 1 hour ago, and they haven't arrived. Transaction is showing up on the card. I know Ts&Cs say up to 24 hours, but nearly all guides I read said should be available instantly

For everyones information, I purchased points yesterday at 7.04am to top up to a rewards booking, expecting them to arrive within a few minutes (as mentioned in the article on AFF and in other places online), they didn't arrive until about 7.08am this morning (24 hours later), I called them yesterday but they wouldn't do anything as they said takes up to 24 hours.

So be aware in some circumstances it can take a while (maybe a backlog with the promotion? Or first time I had done it on my account?) I was sweating on it but thankfully the seats I needed were still there, would not have been happy if they had gone
 
For everyones information, I purchased points yesterday at 7.04am to top up to a rewards booking, expecting them to arrive within a few minutes (as mentioned in the article on AFF and in other places online), they didn't arrive until about 7.08am this morning (24 hours later), I called them yesterday but they wouldn't do anything as they said takes up to 24 hours.

So be aware in some circumstances it can take a while (maybe a backlog with the promotion? Or first time I had done it on my account?) I was sweating on it but thankfully the seats I needed were still there, would not have been happy if they had gone
Maybe it's just how it is.

I know that with most other programs where I buy miles (many processed by points.com, of course), the crediting is immediate and miles can be put to use straight away. But that's them.
 
It's certainly taking longer than usual - I did a transfer from my CC on Saturday that still hasn't shown up. Normally, the points show up next business day.
 
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That makes no rational sense.

If you could only get a Europe business class return for $9,000 by buying points, you'd then change your value of a European business class return to $9,000?!

That's a classic valuation mistake — value precedes price, not the other way around.
So agree, the whole argument of that's the value because that's what it costs flummoxes me, not only in an economic theory sense. This kind of rules out the option of us saying I'm not prepared to pay that for the service, come back when its half price.
 
So agree, the whole argument of that's the value because that's what it costs flummoxes me, not only in an economic theory sense. This kind of rules out the option of us saying I'm not prepared to pay that for the service, come back when its half price.
But that’s not the valuation. A benchmark has to be set. For me it’s $4500 which is a quality flight (not just airline, but transit points and route network).

Using the $4500 determines whether a paid fare is good value (for example if SQ or CX or QF were to ever offer that price).

I would not be paying $9000 worth of points, because I could buy the fare and earn points and SCs.
 
Such a strange thing to get bogged down in given the thread. Seems simple enough to me; spend less fiat and get a comfy seat at the expense of flexibility/availability and status credits.

But then again, I understand the love for semantics, so have at it 😄
 
Seems simple enough to me; spend less fiat and get a comfy seat at the expense of flexibility/availability and status credits.
Since you're buying something that has no value until redeemed, you certainly want to make sure the sums make sense before purchasing. That can be quite a finely balanced equation when purchasing points because you're never getting them at a price where you're guaranteed not to lose money.
 
What's the difference between recall and from memory? 😅
Memory refers to what you actually remember whereas recall is what comes to mind when you are on the stand in a trial. For instance, a politician may have a memory of cutting a cheque for a romantic partner (who may also be a politician) but may not recall such an instance on the stand of an anti-corruption tribunal.

-RooFlyer88
 

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