Melbourne to Europe in Business

[Deon]

Hello,

I'm looking to book a trip to Europe in June-July, most likely covering off UK, Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Czech Republic - 1 pax travelling.

I'm not too worried about the intra-Europe flights but I'm set on J class at a minimum for the AU->EU->AU legs.

I currently have:

• Velocity Platinum
• 360,000 Velocity Points
• 140,000 flybuys points (which should be worth about 75,000 V-Points in the absence of a transfer bonus promotion)

This totals approx 435,000 Velocity Points, but the Business reward seats on VA have an eye-watering price (2.5 - 3.0 million return!)

Someone suggested I try SG instead, and from what I can tell my 435,000 points will become around 280,000 KrisFlyer miles. Although this looks like a winner from a points perspective (MEL -> LHR is about 130,000 - 150,000), availability looks fairly poor with only a single date in July being available. I'm not too fixed on the location I arrive into, even if I arrive at say Manchester or Paris or Amsterdam that would be fine, but naturally these are all booked out as well.

So I'm coming to the experts to hopefully hear any advice you might have for how I can make it from Melbourne to somewhere in Western Europe in Business, utilising the points I've been saving since the dawn of time

Thanks!

 

[Gianni S]

The eye watering price you are seeing on the virgin website is because there is no reward availability for the flight and to be able to book you pay the full plexible rate so to speak. Normally one way to Europe from memory is approx 139,000 velocity points one way + surcharges etc.

As you have mentioned you could try searching flying into any of the European cities but leaving it so late to book for July I'm not too sure you will have much luck(for business anyway)

Keep checking daily though as often things change and award availability can randomly appear. Prepare to be flexible with flights, especially when using points.

 

[Oxy]

Business class using velocity points classic reward is 139k each way, with the options to fly on Singapore, Qatar or Etihad aircraft. Availablity will be tight during that busy season but you might find something if you are flexible.

Watch out for the surcharges!

 

[Scr77]

Seems to be good availability out of Melbourne for August, if you can go later. Could even find F if you transfer to Krisflyer.

 

[Deon]

Thanks for the replies guys

The eye watering price you are seeing on the virgin website is because there is no reward availability for the flight and to be able to book you pay the full plexible rate so to speak. Normally one way to Europe from memory is approx 139,000 velocity points one way + surcharges etc.

Definitely makes more sense now!

Keep checking daily though as often things change and award availability can randomly appear. Prepare to be flexible with flights, especially when using points.

Yeah I'm trying to be somewhat flexible, but am of course trying to fit in accomodation plans, sight-seeing, etc which is a bit tricky. SG have 'waitlist' availability but if I only get 2 week's notice that the trip is on and dates locked in, it'll be a bit of a rush to get everything else locked in

Business class using velocity points classic reward is 139k each way, with the options to fly on Singapore, Qatar or Etihad aircraft. Availablity will be tight during that busy season but you might find something if you are flexible.

Watch out for the surcharges!

I must be doing something wrong, because I definitely don't see this your screenshot shows MEL-MAN on 13/6, dep 1510 but I can't even see that flight much less reward availability!?

Seems to be good availability out of Melbourne for August, if you can go later. Could even find F if you transfer to Krisflyer.

My dates are slightly flexible, but August will probably be too late I'm trying to arrange to catch an event running between 17/06 and 07/07 so I have a little bit of wiggle room but not too much

 

[Oxy]

It wasn't there for long, I can't see it either this morning.
Hopefully you now have an idea of what to look for to find a classic reward. The bad news is your were doing it right, and there isn't much left.
Don't forget that using aa.com to search for QR flights, and United.com can help for SQ flights. They should have the same seats available as velocity members.
Sometimes in QR there is better availablity from ADL. Also from Perth mostly in F since they upgauged to the A380.
Good luck!

 

[jase05]

Good availability in F on QR ex PER

 

[Matty F]

Is there a tool that helps search availability easily, or is it still just a click-a-thon?

 

[bam71]

Www.expertflyer.com. It’s a subscription service, not TOTALLY infallible, but it’s only US$99/year. You can also set alerts to email you when a seat(s) become available. I set alerts at times, and have my email set up to literally scream if I get an alert saying a seat is available.

 

[Deon]

Okay, taking into account all the great advice in this thread, I'm pretty close to booking my first ever Reward flight!

I have one (hopefully last!) question - I found a flight which goes ADL-MEL-DOH-LHR, which departs ADL at 09:40, arrives at MEL at 11:30, then after a bit of a stopover, departs MEL for DOH at 15:15.

The flight has reward availability when booked on the ADL-MEL-DOH-LHR route, but if I want to get on that same flight from MEL instead, there is no Reward availability in J, only in Y. Is this normal? Seems counter-intuitive for me to fly MEL-ADL only to change aircraft and fly back to MEL again for the stopover

 

[Gianni S]

Cant explain it but i have read about this happening, something to do with linking cities, not sure what the correct terminology is. but if i was you id be jumping on it straight away before it disappears.

 

[Vic]

Okay, taking into account all the great advice in this thread, I'm pretty close to booking my first ever Reward flight!

I have one (hopefully last!) question - I found a flight which goes ADL-MEL-DOH-LHR, which departs ADL at 09:40, arrives at MEL at 11:30, then after a bit of a stopover, departs MEL for DOH at 15:15.

The flight has reward availability when booked on the ADL-MEL-DOH-LHR route, but if I want to get on that same flight from MEL instead, there is no Reward availability in J, only in Y. Is this normal? Seems counter-intuitive for me to fly MEL-ADL only to change aircraft and fly back to MEL again for the stopover


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That's pretty normal. Awards are, according to advice here, between city pairs, so ADL- LHR is has award seats regardless that MEL-LHR doesn't.

Now in terms of my recent experiences booking awards in November for May 2023. There could be some benefit in breaking up your searches.
A classic example is I could only get MEL-FRA in economy on Singapore airlines. But if I searched MEL-SIN and SIN-FRA I could get business on Singapore airlines.

Booking two separate flights will cost more. But the benefit is having the business seats.

edit: agree it's easy to get from MEL to ADL... so

 

[jase05]

Okay, taking into account all the great advice in this thread, I'm pretty close to booking my first ever Reward flight!

I have one (hopefully last!) question - I found a flight which goes ADL-MEL-DOH-LHR, which departs ADL at 09:40, arrives at MEL at 11:30, then after a bit of a stopover, departs MEL for DOH at 15:15.

The flight has reward availability when booked on the ADL-MEL-DOH-LHR route, but if I want to get on that same flight from MEL instead, there is no Reward availability in J, only in Y. Is this normal? Seems counter-intuitive for me to fly MEL-ADL only to change aircraft and fly back to MEL again for the stopover


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That’s the QR flight using the loophole to get an extra service in. There is a decent amount of award availability across the coming months for the ADL-MEL-DOH route. There has been some talk on here about that flight and what it entails

 

[Deon]

I've managed to book the ADL-DOH-LHR leg, but still can't find any return flights.. and the more I look the weirder the behaviour on the VA website

Eg, if I search for LHR-ADL on 14/7, there are about 10 flights on the day and about 3 of them have Business Reward seats available, however when I select it and check out, I get an error during payment.

If I go back to that same route and day, the 10 flights are now only 3 and none of them have J Reward Seats. Surely 7 people didn't buy 7 reward seats in the 90 seconds it took me to go from the flight section page to the payment page?

And what's stranger, if I wait until tomorrow, the same flight with the same reward seats will be available again, and then fail to purchase with the same error - as if the fare never existed at all.

Any suggestions for what I can try? I've tried searching from CDG, MAN, LHR, BER, etc and arriving into ADL, MEL, SYD, BNE, etc but I still keep encountering these strange ghost fares that I can't buy.

 

[Deon]

I called Velocity and the guy told me it's impossible to book a flight originating from outside Australia into Australia. He went on to tell me that every single flight I'm seeing in those searches doesn't actually exist and the fares are only there to show someone how much it would cost (to book a flight that doesn't exist)

He then told me that I could consider flying from London to Melbourne via Qantas(!) instead.

Can't tell if I actually called VA, or if it was a prank call...

 

[Luke B]

Very unusual, if it helps you I managed to book LHR-SIN-MEL in J on a reward seat two weeks ago with Singapore Airlines as a one way fare.

 

[Vic]

Are you looking for awards? Velocity guy was wrong. Hang up, call again.
I had some strange errors with trying to pay for awards back from europe a month or so back. I don't even know how it got fixed.
But I think that error was more like not even being able to get to the payment page.
My partner booked SIN-FRA with Eithad virgin award. I booked them back to SIN on Qatar, and both of us SIN back to Oz.
Certainly possible to book departing from outside Australia. If it was not possible, it would be like cash fares where you cannot even search anything from Europe back.

 

[Deon]

Yeah, Award in J

I've broadened my search to most of Western Europe travelling to almost any airport in Australia, and still not seeing any availability

I thought calling Velocity might have been a good idea to help me find some reward seats, but seems it was a waste of time.

I pressed him a bit on how ridiculous it would be to have hundreds of fares searchable on the website, prices, seat selection, everything for flights which simply didn't exist but he was adamant he was correct and just kept repeating the same lines verbatim until I gave up and hung up. I definitely miss the days of Gold/Platinum having access to the on-shore call centre!

 

[mitchd]

Your guy on the phone was wrong obviously, but to chime in - what he’s saying IS true for one way non-reward (cash) flights, according to a long conversation I had on the phone recently. For example SIN-BNE, even though Virgin will sell a BNE-SIN-BNE ticket for cash, and the BNE-SIN leg one way, they won’t sell the SIN-BNE leg.

Something I couldn’t find explicitly documented anywhere!

The one you spoke to on the phone must have been confidently conflating reward seats with revenue fares.

 

[MattA]

I called Velocity and the guy told me it's impossible to book a flight originating from outside Australia into Australia. He went on to tell me that every single flight I'm seeing in those searches doesn't actually exist and the fares are only there to show someone how much it would cost (to book a flight that doesn't exist)

I think you already know this but that's absolute nonsense, clearly. I've successfully booked a one way J reward through Velocity originating in Europe and terminating in Australia. Perhaps it might be true for revenue fares but given that VA don't operate any of these flights you can simply book the same revenue itinerary elsewhere.

Also have seen something similar to your weird availability thing: I've had cases where J award space has shown up on the velocity site for multiple flights on one day, and then I've clicked to a different day's result and then back onto the original day and they were all gone. I presume it's some dodgy coding by VA's legendary IT team and these were phantom award results that never really existed (rather than someone suddenly booking them all).