Help with Points + Pay

[Airbumps]

Hey guys,

I'm hoping somebody might be able to clear this up for me. I was under the impression that with VA you could make a booking with a combination of points + pay. I've been able to do this when I have the required number of points for the total fare + taxes, but cannot seem to get it to work if I'm short the total required points and want to supplement the difference with cash.

For example, I want to travel OW MEL-LON in Nov in J. A J award is 141000 miles. I've only got about 90000, so I was wanting to use my 90000 and pay what would be the difference with cash.

Is this possible?

Cheers,
Kael

 

[Moopere]

Is this possible?

I just had a look at random date in November. I have less points than you do. MEL-LHR one way

Points + pay: 141,800 + $75
All points: $151,200

Travelling on EY.

I'd not be tempted to spend 9400 points to save only $75 myself.

There used to be a much more generous points + pay system, at least domestically, about 8 months ago or so. This might be what you are remembering. Certainly a lot of folk here made good use of minimum points spend + a few hundred dollars to fly all over the country in J. This got tightened up and now you see what we have, points + pay means a pretty high points minimum and only a relatively small allowable pay component.

[Edit: Its interesting isn't it? Given that $75 = 9400 points that makes a points worth 0.7c according to VA. 151,200 points for the one way ticket in J has a VA estimated value of $1058.40 then .... its a loooooong way from the asking retail price of a J ticket.]

 

[ms1]

I just had a look at random date in November. I have less points than you do. MEL-LHR one way

Points + pay: 141,800 + $75
All points: $151,200

Travelling on EY.

I'd not be tempted to spend 9400 points to save only $75 myself.

There used to be a much more generous points + pay system, at least domestically, about 8 months ago or so. This might be what you are remembering. Certainly a lot of folk here made good use of minimum points spend + a few hundred dollars to fly all over the country in J. This got tightened up and now you see what we have, points + pay means a pretty high points minimum and only a relatively small allowable pay component.

[Edit: Its interesting isn't it? Given that $75 = 9400 points that makes a points worth 0.7c according to VA. 151,200 points for the one way ticket in J has a VA estimated value of $1058.40 then .... its a loooooong way from the asking retail price of a J ticket.]

I thought the $75 component is a tax?

 

[Moopere]

I thought the $75 component is a tax?

It may well be. I didn't check the breakdown. In any event, there appears to be few choices to offset large points requirements on awards flights with cash.

 

[Airbumps]

Thanks for the replies guys, but I must not have made my question clear.

The total number of points required is around the 140,000 mark. I've only got 90,000. So what I was hoping to do was BUY a J fare but use points to cover a portion of the cost.

I don't see a way to do this so I must have been mistaken thinking that it was possible.

 

[Moopere]

but I must not have made my question clear.

The total number of points required is around the 140,000 mark. I've only got 90,000. So what I was hoping to do was BUY a J fare but use points to cover a portion of the cost.

I understand. Yes, there was more possibility for a larger pay component about 8-12 months ago - no longer I'm afraid.

You can't transfer any from amex/diners/hilton honors/etc???

In my opinion the VA classic awards went from being about the best value in the country to pretty much the worst with the last program changes, and I've still not worked out a decent value proposition for the VA version of Any Seat Award.

 

[markis10]

AFAIK Point and Pay for international trips can only cover the taxes.

 

[Blinky]

AFAIK Point and Pay for international trips can only cover the taxes.

I believe this is true. I had 497,000 points with no new flights on the horizon, and wanted to redeem two J class returns to Europe. I asked if I could pay to cover the 3,000 difference. I got an absolute no. I was able to earn the 3,000 points quickly, and it all then worked.

Of course I had to pay several hundred dollars in taxes.

 

[oz_mark]

Thanks for the replies guys, but I must not have made my question clear.

The total number of points required is around the 140,000 mark. I've only got 90,000. So what I was hoping to do was BUY a J fare but use points to cover a portion of the cost.

I don't see a way to do this so I must have been mistaken thinking that it was possible.

The minimum point requirement for an award flight from MEL - LON is 125,000 points. As mentioned above, you used to be able to wind the point requirement below the minimum, but they have had a few goes at restricting people doing that.

 

[Airbumps]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it. Looks like I'll just have to transfer some points across. Didn't realize you could transfer FROM hilton to VA ... that may solve a few problems..

Cheers!

 

[Moopere]

Didn't realize you could transfer FROM hilton to VA ... that may solve a few problems..

Ahh, sorry, my mistake. You can transfer from HH to VS (wrong virgin) and to EY (the metal you'd actually be flying on), but not VA - I do apologise.