Changes to Velocity reward seat pricing from 21 January 2025

[AFF Editor]

At the suggestion of @elanshin, this thread is specifically for discussing the changes to Velocity reward seat pricing that were announced this week as part of the broader program changes.

Yesterday, Velocity decreased the minimum points required on some domestic Economy redemptions. But on 21 January 2025, the maximum points required for these redemptions will go up. The points needed for some international partner airline redemptions will also go up.

Velocity is also splitting off its reward charts into separate charts for:

• VA domestic
• VA international
• United & Virgin Atlantic
• Singapore Airlines, Etihad & Qatar Airways
• All other partner airlines (Hawaiian, South African Airways, ANA and Air Canada)

You can read our article on this topic here:

Velocity Changing Reward Flight Prices

Velocity Frequent Flyer has reduced the number of points needed to book some Virgin Australia Economy flights, but other reward seats will become more expensive.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

The new reward charts are available on the Velocity website:

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

 

[elanshin]

Thanks,

I was just trying to find the new charts again and it was a bit all over that thread.

 

[Human]

What I’m very keen to discover is what will happen if/when VA starts flying to Doha. Remember that these flights will be VA international flights even though they’ll be on wet-leased aircraft.

Obviously the vast majority of the people flying VA to Doha will then be flying on Qatar to other destinations. But as things stand, VA and Qatar are on different points tables.

That means that people using Velocity points on the VA flights to Doha will then have to book a second sector under a different rewards table, with the commensurate increase in the number of points required.

Will VA and Qatar eventually be on the same points table? Makes no sense to me if they’re not.

 

[elanshin]

I guess also from one angle, if you earn more points from flying than on the ground this is a double whammy. You earn less and it costs more. So its a much bigger devaluation than the ~10% increase in costs.

 

[levelnine]

I guess also from one angle, if you earn more points from flying than on the ground this is a double whammy. You earn less and it costs more. So its a much bigger devaluation than the ~10% increase in costs.

It makes sense when you consider the move to a revenue-based frequent flyer scheme. One of the key attributes of such a scheme is that earn from spend on the ground eclipses earn from time in the air.

While devaluations are always unwelcome, this is one of the smaller devaluations we've seen in the industry. The most disappointing part in my opinion is that Velocity already has very high partner redemption carrier charges, and they are going up even higher with Singapore redemptions.

 

[Digicola]

In light of this the velocity amex refresh makes sense… it better be good.

 

[L2.]

I had wondered how long until it would take until we had a devaluation because in recent times it's been good for customers, as many of us have been earning more points on the ground, yet the number of points needed for a redemption hadn't shifted in years.

My non-scientific justification for the above is that with significant inflation in the economy over the last 2-3 years in particular, pretty much everybody is spending a fair bit more money on goods and services, translating into more points coming through from credit cards etc, plus with Flybuys having increased the transfer rate back in 2021 and significant food inflation there's probably a fair few more points coming through to Velocity from that program too.

 

[burmans]

In light of this the velocity amex refresh makes sense… it better be good.

Good luck with that, not the way it’s gone recently!

 

[harryhv]

Walloping YQ increases will add injury to the insult of the points-devaluations, for awards on QR, SQ etc.

 

[MattA]

Just spotted that international award rates are going up from 21st Jan: Changes to Points earn and Reward Seats

That page announcing the change only has the new charts but the mileage calculator page has the before and after rates: Mileage Calculator

AU to Europe J going from 139,000 to 158,500
AU to US west coast from 95,500 to 102,000

 

[im.daniel]

Just dumped 750000 worth of VA points on J redemptions for family to Europe next year. Good riddance.

I really hate how VA have slowly introduced Reward Carrier Surcharges per sector over the last 2-3 years, to the point where EU redemptions from Australia carry an extra 800-900 USD per return redemption in J on QR in surcharges, and now SQ surcharges increasing 21/1/25 to around 500-600 USD per return trip to EU.

I think QF points have, on balance become more valuable than VA again, due to slightly lower taxes and more choice of partner redemptions. I didn't think I would say that 1-2 years ago.

There are some exceptions;
- EK redemptions via QF are terrible value with the mandated surcharges. Better off finding a 6-7k revenue fare in J than redeeming with EK (to Europe/USA).
- NH and UA redemptions via VA still present great value due to low carrier surcharges.

 

[BudgetFly]

With the fee increases on SQ would we be better off sending our VA points to SQ and then redeeming flights there?

 

[justinbrett]

I just snagged a J seat on HA AKL-HNL and cleared out my VA account. I had already booked this as a cash fare with HA as no seats were available but one came up so I cancelled my booking for a 3.5K refund.

I think I’ll switch my FlyBuys back to $ off in store and be done with Velocity altogether.

 

[Mattg]

With the fee increases on SQ would we be better off sending our VA points to SQ and then redeeming flights there?

Possibly, but it strongly depends on the route. For basic Australia-Singapore redemptions, probably not.