Congratulations, your upgrade using Velocity Points has been confirmed

[serfty]

Sorry to be negative but wouldn’t it have been better value to just redeem points for a reward flight if the seats were available?

It's 191,000 velocity and ~$620 in +++ for a return award in Business. Multiply that by three.

Freedom is around $2500 so you balance $1900 against the 101,000 points difference (+ earn at least 160 SC and 15000 Velocity points).

 

[traceyy]

Sorry to be negative but wouldn’t it have been better value to just redeem points for a reward flight if the seats were available?

no as i would not have had enough points or would have done the flight in economy!

 

[traceyy]

Well done - did you check for business award availability on the flights before booking first, or was it just luck?

i did check and had to play around with my flights a little as was slightly flexible, just got lucky i guess also as i think it is def harder to find 2 x seats there and back straight off. right on xmas too

 

[muppet]

no as i would not have had enough points or would have done the flight in economy!

Yes, I definitely misunderstood the quoted points cost price as 180,000 one-way, but return for two people is different equation. (I'm not big on VA rewards anymore).

 

[muppet]

It's 191,000 velocity and ~$620 in +++ for a return award in Business. Multiply that by three.

Freedom is around $2500 so you balance $1900 against the 101,000 points difference (+ earn at least 160 SC and 15000 Velocity points).

Yep, very different equation to what I first thought was 90,000 points per person each way. I now understand the deal correctly being Freedom fare + 45,000 points each way.

However, given you have to buy the Freedom fare, my personal valuation still preferences full points booking over expensive economy fare + upgrade.

I don't think I value 116,000 point at $2k - I'd prefer the $2k, points are way too easy to earn for less than that.

 

[QF WP]

I have a similar flight to ADL for Nov. Do they entertain upgrade me with points requests for Velocity silver ? I haven't tried doing it online as I was too lazy.

They entertain any pax who wants to spend extra $ or points to upgrade, thus giving them the chance to sell the Economy seat you've made available. But status and ticket type has a bearing on success, along with spot in the queue.

 

[knagelli]

They entertain any pax who wants to spend extra $ or points to upgrade, thus giving them the chance to sell the Economy seat you've made available. But status and ticket type has a bearing on success, along with spot in the queue.

I tried bidding for upgrade and the minimum I could go was $100 for MEL to ADL ( booked elevate ). However still no luck with the option to upgrade using points as the velocity site is so difficult at times. Will try again and then probably call the Velocity guys to sort this out. I remember reading that Elevate to Business will be 10000 points per pax however not sure about the minimum points for upgrademe bidding.

 

[QF WP]

I don't percieve value in the UpgradeMe bid option - so have never used it. Points are easy to obtain and similarly, I buy Elevate.

 

[openseat]

I've had success with a SYD - PER flight and a PER - BNE flight. Elevate fares. 30000 each way to upgrade.

I don't percieve value in the UpgradeMe bid option - so have never used it. Points are easy to obtain and similarly, I buy Elevate.

Hmmm. I need to think on this, but thanks QFWP for raising the question.

 

[knagelli]

I don't percieve value in the UpgradeMe bid option - so have never used it. Points are easy to obtain and similarly, I buy Elevate.

Just wondering if you predominantly use points for international reward seats.

Sometimes I just try to book reward seats when I am not able to gain anything from the revenue ticket. Having said that when we have overseas travel it's quite easy to book the tickets well in advance without having to worry about scavenging for deals often.

I am not an expert and still learning to make best use of points , without really calculating the c/p value.

 

[Mexpirate]

I've had success with a SYD - PER flight and a PER - BNE flight. Elevate fares. 30000 each way to upgrade.

30,000 points to upgrade from elevate seems like bad value when outright J reward seat is only 35,000 points?

 

[openseat]

30,000 points to upgrade from elevate seems like bad value when outright J reward seat is only 35,000 points?

Yes. You're right of course. In this case, however, work paid for the flight. So you could say I saved 5000 each way.

 

[QF WP]

Just wondering if you predominantly use points for international reward seats.

Sometimes I just try to book reward seats when I am not able to gain anything from the revenue ticket. Having said that when we have overseas travel it's quite easy to book the tickets well in advance without having to worry about scavenging for deals often.

I am not an expert and still learning to make best use of points , without really calculating the c/p value.

Quite the reverse, never use points to buy a seat outright (whether international or domestic), just for the upgrade as I perceive better value. The vast majority of my flying is domestic and using my (own) company coin, so it's buy economy (flexible fares) and upgrade. Any time spent flying with wife and kids is always VA Economy and family pooling the points and SC's to me.

 

[clipped_wings]

Just wondering if you predominantly use points for international reward seats....

As @QF WP illustrated above - the method you choose is subject to your needs and situation. We will pay Premium and upgrade long haul if it's just the two of us with all points & SC pooled to Mr Clipped. But for our latest trip - we redeemed SYD-LAX J reward seats outright for us - and mixed redemption & revenue Y+ fares for our six (adult) children. (I do have to migrate pooling family members). The small points + SC haul will be negligible, but always welcome.

It gets complicated - but fun if you like messing with the numbers. I do spreadsheets and comparisons to make sure we are getting the best value for our points, according to the review dates.

 

[QF WP]

I'll go further and say that I never use points to upgrade for BNE/SYD or BNE/CBR flights (and vice versa), unless I have over 100K points in kitty. But every flight that is longer than 2 hours (BNE/MEL, BNE/ADL and BNE/MEL/PER or SYD/PER and vice versa for all), then I'm trying to upgrade. I don't live with regret....and I'm getting too old (and still too tall) to comfortably sit in whY.

 

[clipped_wings]

Amen to that @QF WP

Mr Clipped's new robot knees cost way too much to risk. No more Economy for us I'm afraid.....

 

[g-lock]

Booked Getaway Y for MEL-BNE-WLG next month. Upgrade cost to J was 17500 for MEL-BNE and 16000 for BNE-WLG. Upgraded BNE-WLG, insta-approved. A pleasant surprise for this NB.