Melbourne to Europe, 3 people, making best use of VFF points

[Lawlass]

Hi all,

I'm trying to help my brother out. He, his partner and son (13) need to go to Europe in September. They have a family pool of around 238K points.

They also have their free VA domestic return flights, so can do positioning flights if it is better than leaving from Melbourne.

A little flexible with dates but they need to be in Rome by Wed 14th September and back at work in Melbourne on Tuesday 11 October. Happy to leave from any city in Europe.

I have found the Velocity site abysmal for trying to figure out best use of points. If anyone has any ideas, more than happy to pay the gratuity

Thanks AFF Brains Trust! :mrgreen:

 

[Lawlass]

*Bump* I realise they are nowhere near having enough points for them all, but was hoping somebody would have some ideas about:

- is it better for them to use points one way for all three of them and pay the return, or
- use points for one/two of them and pay cash for the other, or
- use points to fly to some other point and get cheap flights from there, also
- best airlines to use
- best cities to fly in/out of

Happy to pay $40 or more for some of that special AFF knowledge

 

[Ausbt]

Ok so all in Y we will presume? The points tables suggest 62,500 per pax, plus taxes. Of course availability is a different story. If they transferred to Krisflyer, they would have 154,700 to use and a search of SYD-SIN-FCO on 12/09/16 suggests 'Waitlist' availability of 47,500 points per pax Saver class. 90,000 points to lock those in Standard class.

 

[Lawlass]

Ok so all in Y we will presume? The points tables suggest 62,500 per pax, plus taxes. Of course availability is a different story. If they transferred to Krisflyer, they would have 154,700 to use and a search of SYD-SIN-FCO on 12/09/16 suggests 'Waitlist' availability of 47,500 points per pax Saver class. 90,000 points to lock those in Standard class.

I don't actually understand what you said, but I will attempt to parse it.

- Yes, all in Y
- Certainly haven't found anything within the realms of 62,500 points (the availability issue)
- How does one transfer to Krisflyer?
- What does 'waitlist' mean?

Thank you for your help

EDIT: I did the RTFM thing and got responses to my queries about how to convert and sort of what a waitlist is, though I'm still not sure how they work

 

[Ausbt]

Generally availability flying Singapore Airlines is thought to be better than Virgin & Etihad. When you transfer Virgin points to Singapore, you 'lose' circa 25% of their value however redemptions for Singapore flights are often cheaper, so it evens out. Transfering is really easy - open Krisflyer accounts (actually you may only need one), link them to your Velocity account and hit the go button. More info here: Virgin Australia, Singapore Airlines swap frequent flyer points - Australian Business Traveller (I have no affiliation with that website, BTW).

Singapore's 'Waitlist' is essentially a request to open up that seat for an award redemption. They will contact you when that occurs. You can Waitlist multiple bookings to increase your chances. Naturally, this may not suit all pax as the Waitlist may not clear until close to flight departure. More info here: Basics Of Waitlisting Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Award Tickets - One Mile at a Time

Were it me, I'd be looking at buying Virgin Flexi fares through to AUH and upgrading those (IF the pax are Gold or Plat VA members). Then doing AUH-FCO or other EU destination in Y. But that is going to cost more of course.

 

[greenfish]

Problem with Singapore Airlines reward flights is the high co-payment. It often isn't economical in Y.

I'd suggest the following:

1. What cities would they like to fly in / out of? e.g. In to Rome, out of Amsterdam - this is useful to give a starting point for searches

2. What is the acceptable date range? Earliest they can go, latest then can come back - and also the "ideal" dates too.

3. What is their goal - comfort or cost minimisation (e.g. use points for a single business class sector, or reduce total cost of trip by using points for economy tickets)

4. What is the best cash fare for the dates they'd like to travel?

5. Are there reward tickets available - they're not far shy of 2 return tickets to Europe?

If you can help with 1, 2 and 3, I can help with 3, 4 and 5.

Etihad is usually OK for redemptions in Y, their taxes are low and the cash fare is usually not too bad either. Happy to have a closer look if you can provide the additional info.

They should probably look at how they can earn an extra 12000 points too - fairly soonish. 250,000 points is the magic number for two free return trips in economy...

 

[Lawlass]

Thanks all for the replies so far. I spoke to my brother yesterday and he said his partner had found something she was happy with. They have no experience with points and no status, so if that's not right I'll come back here with some more details.

The knowledge here is astounding

 

[support]

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