Many Velocity Partner Redemptions Becoming Unattainable

[clifford]

Just looked at availability for a 1-way business reward CBR-IST over quite an extended period. And this wasn't the only city pair that I checked.

I couldn't find anything that wasn't completely silly in terms of points required (see attached example).
This is starting to make Qantas look pretty reasonable, and make VA somewhat irrelevant for intl partner redemptions.

It seems that I am probably wasting my time crediting points to Velocity.

 

[kyle]

Just looked at availability for a 1-way business reward CBR-IST over quite an extended period. And this wasn't the only city pair that I checked.

I couldn't find anything that wasn't completely silly in terms of points required (see attached example).
This is starting to make Qantas look pretty reasonable, and make VA somewhat irrelevant for intl partner redemptions.

It seems that I am probably wasting my time crediting points to Velocity.

not so bad flying to SIN

 

[goldenhorn]

Just looked at availability for a 1-way business reward CBR-IST over quite an extended period. And this wasn't the only city pair that I checked.

I couldn't find anything that wasn't completely silly in terms of points required (see attached example).
This is starting to make Qantas look pretty reasonable, and make VA somewhat irrelevant for intl partner redemptions.

It seems that I am probably wasting my time crediting points to Velocity.

Have you tried using seats.aero to find award availability? I've used it to book 5 international business rewards with VF points in the last 6 months.

I'm not surprised there's nothing in April, though (from your screenshot). I generally book 6-11 months out.

I did a quick search from MEL - Europe and there's decent J awards from 09-24 onwards.

 

[ChrisMars]

Just looked at availability for a 1-way business reward CBR-IST over quite an extended period. And this wasn't the only city pair that I checked.

I couldn't find anything that wasn't completely silly in terms of points required (see attached example).
This is starting to make Qantas look pretty reasonable, and make VA somewhat irrelevant for intl partner redemptions.

It seems that I am probably wasting my time crediting points to Velocity.

I think your screenshot is not showing reward seats, but the point+pay (or whatever it's called in Velocity) cost. Also, you may try to search departing from MEL or SYD instead of CBR

 

[bcworld]

It seems that I am probably wasting my time crediting points to Velocity.

Melodramatic much?

Booking less than a month out you could still find options around the date you've mentioned.

 

[levelnine]

Edit: I see bcworld beat me with an alternative date.

 

[bcworld]

And here's the "reasonable" Qantas for 11 April

 

[billmurray]

Just looked at availability for a 1-way business reward CBR-IST over quite an extended period. And this wasn't the only city pair that I checked.

I couldn't find anything that wasn't completely silly in terms of points required (see attached example).
This is starting to make Qantas look pretty reasonable, and make VA somewhat irrelevant for intl partner redemptions.

It seems that I am probably wasting my time crediting points to Velocity.

I am fully aligned with Virgin, no Qantas points what-so-ever. Redemptions seems to be significantly better compared to Qantas, judging from other peoples reports.

I just managed to book business return to Europe (LHR) for 3 people with relative ease (watching flights for approx 1 week) with Singapore. Depends on how long you were hunting for the flights and using resources like seats.aero.

 

[Human]

I've been able to pick up business class reward seats for two to Europe and back on Qatar more-or-less whenever I've wanted, but I'm one of those freaks who is up at midnight AEST, 330 days before the flight, so I can pounce as the seats are released.

I agree that if you're trying to use Velocity points to book seats less than 11 months out, it will be frustrating. But the same is true of most FF programmes (including Qantas), not just Velocity.

 

[bcworld]

I agree that if you're trying to use Velocity points to book seats less than 11 months out, it will be frustrating. But the same is true of most FF programmes (including Qantas), not just Velocity.

United generally offers up a whole lot of last minute availability. And now that is pretty much the default setting for Etihad too (for all EY partners, not just Velocity).

 

[clifford]

not so bad flying to SIN
View attachment 374177

Yes, but I don't see 92,500 points as being good value (and that is on the low side for VA). I could see plenty of availability all over the place, but at 1 million + points I didn't think it was particularly good value.

As a Platinum with QF, VA and UA, I can honestly say from my point of view that Qantas has the most cost/effective overall reward situation at the moment, at least for my needs. Never thought I'd say that.

Of course, that will probably change when the forthcoming enhancements to QFF are implemented.

I accept that many people may view VA as being a better program for redemptions, but personally I'm not seeing it at the moment. But each to their own. I was just commenting on it from my own personal perspective.

 

[Thibault]

but at 1 million + points I didn't think it was particularly good value.

This would be the equivalent of a commercial fare but paid with your miles instead of cash which explains why the figure quoted is astronomical.

QF used to also offer those fares on the booking page with points that confused many customers - it has now been moved to the payment page - still terrible value.


Two same sectors - however, the 75k figure shows a reward seat available on QR prime sectors.

The first offer is the equivalent of a cash fare on a VA codeshare paid with miles (terrible waste of miles).

 

[clifford]

View attachment 374180

Edit: I see bcworld beat me with an alternative date.

That's fine if you are completely flexible and have no commitments whatsoever (as I'm sure most people don't). Yes, they are randomly out there and have a nice co-payment as well. But it doesn't justify the 1M+ points offers that come up too, and they weren't points+pay (does VA even have that?)

 

[levelnine]

That's fine if you are completely flexible and have no commitments whatsoever (as I'm sure most people don't). Yes, they are randomly out there and have a nice co-payment as well. But it doesn't justify the 1M+ points offers that come up too, and they weren't points+pay (does VA even have that?)

Which award program provides saver level availability all the time? Absolutely none.

Ignore the 1m+ offers — they are the equivalent of points+pay. Pretend they don't exist.

 

[clifford]

Ignore the 1m+ offers — they are the equivalent of points+pay. Pretend they don't exist.

I ignore them completely, but they should't be there at all. Questions the airlines credibility.

As for award availability, I think I have a pretty good handle on it, being elite with AZ, BA, QF, UA and VA.

And in my opinion, VA does have reasonable availability, but with high points requirements and large co-payments. If that's what you want, then fine.

 

[levelnine]

I ignore them completely, but they should't be there at all. Questions the airlines credibility.

As for award availability, I think I have a pretty good handle on it, being elite with AZ, BA, QF, UA and VA.

And in my opinion, VA does have reasonable availability, but with high points requirements and large co-payments. If that's what you want, then fine.

They are there for people who want to spend 1M points on a flight. That's not you, so ignore it.

The title of this thread is that Velocity redemptions are becoming 'unattainable'. Now you concede they have reasonable availability, and the problem is the points/payment price. What is it? Get your story straight.

 

[clifford]

They are there for people who want to spend 1M points on a flight. That's not you, so ignore it.

The title of this thread is that Velocity redemptions are becoming 'unattainable'. Now you concede they have reasonable availability, and the problem is the points/payment price. What is it? Get your story straight.

They were unattainable for those dates that I looked. If you want to go for other dates, you might find something you could use. I was trying (unsuccessfully in your eyes) to point out the stupidity of quoting 1M+ points redemptions.

The issue that sent me off on this whole tangent is when VA cancelled my confirmed booking from DPS to ADL and offered me DPS-SYD-ADL, with no decent seats left for DPS-SYD. Of course I cancelled this and looked for alternatives. That's when I discovered the ridiculous 1M+ redemptions.

I even came across this as an alternative, but thought cost was too high, so I booked Scoot+ revenue for less than $600.

 

[levelnine]

Your situation is really unfortunate, but no airline is always going to give you availability on the exact date and route you want. Not AZ, not UA, not BA, not QF not VA.

Award travel has always been for people with a lot of flexibility, and even more so at the moment. Sometimes you have to save the points for a future trip when you do have the flexibility or get lucky with availability.

 

[justinbrett]

I was refused redemption on a couple of UA flights. Turns out the VA/UA agreement excludes the western Pacific (ie anything in/out of GUM and SPN). No idea why, QF let me redeem JL out of GUM.

 

[anat0l]

Award travel has always been for people with a lot of flexibility, and even more so at the moment. Sometimes you have to save the points for a future trip when you do have the flexibility or get lucky with availability.

This.

It's not quite correct to say there is award availability but at the 1M point level. "Availability" of awards has always been taken to mean the seats which is a controlled, limited subset of those currently available, paid at the lowest points cost (usually from a published table of prices, at least in the case of QF and VA).

In QF parlance, these are the Classic Rewards and in VA it's Velocity Rewards.

The more expensive seats that you can use points to obtain are basically buying normally as if you paid cash (and in fact both airlines will award normal points and status credits for such purchases). The airline is essentially offering you to use points in place of cash at a nominally unfavourable exchange rate.

Now maybe it's insulting to offer seats that cost 1M points in the same way that selling Swiftie tickets for $100000 would also be similarly mocked and criticised, even if someone would pay that kind of money. I prefer to see it as one of life's hints to keep moving on - that which you seek is not here. It would be nice if VA had a filter on its searches that limited visible results to only Velocity Reward seats, but oh well.