Most efficient way to get to Europe with Velocity

[FlexedCookie]

Hi all,

I've been in the Velocity points collection game for nearly 2 years now, but I'm new to actually redeeming the points for flights. I'm looking for guidance on what the best way to get to Europe (any of the Western capital cities is suitable) from Brisbane is, in Business class with Velocity points with my wife. Preliminary details are that we'll be looking to travel around mid-2021 (tentative, but certainly more than 12 months from now), I expect we'll have just over 500k Velocity points total and I can't foresee either of us having a Status of greater than Velocity Silver. What would be the most efficient use of points for a trip that looks like this? Is it even feasible to aim to do this type of trip in Business with 500k points?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Mogul]

You will probably need another 100K points.

I have recently booked 2 return J trips on Singapore next June from Sydney to Germany for 156K points each way x 2.

Just keep putting dates into Velocity and see what pops up, when you are happy lock it in.

 

[PPOW]

Yep around 580k points will give you both Etihad and Singapore as options. Etihad comes with a fairly hefty carrier surcharge though.

 

[Denali]

I booked 1 J return reward seat to Amsterdam by transferring points to KrisFlyer and booking via SQ website. I did a dummy booking, saw availability, did everything online I could, then transferred points to KrisFlyer and then held my breath for about 90secs and the points came through to complete my booking.

You have to link your Velocity membership to KrisFlyer first.

There was only one availability at the time but about 3 weeks later another one showed up and I nabbed that the same way

I prefer SQ website so I can build in a stop over and the taxes are affordable (EY are high).

 

[Mogul]

I booked 1 J return reward seat to Amsterdam by transferring points to KrisFlyer and booking via SQ website. I did a dummy booking, saw availability, did everything online I could, then transferred points to KrisFlyer and then held my breath for about 90secs and the points came through to complete my booking.

You have to link your Velocity membership to KrisFlyer first.

There was only one availability at the time but about 3 weeks later another one showed up and I nabbed that the same way

I prefer SQ website so I can build in a stop over and the taxes are affordable (EY are high).

How many points and $$$$$ out of interest.

 

[Denali]

By memory, 1 person return J flight was about 280K Velocity points transferred to KF (there's a conversion rate when transferring) plus about $70 in taxes

I think VA reward was about 242k points.

Do a couple of dummy bookings and play with different routes.

 

[jase05]

BNE-SIN-AMS is 116,000 KrisFlyer miles plus $103 per person.
AMS-SIN-BNE is the same miles plus around $88 per person.
So a return trip for 2 would cost 464,000 miles plus and around $400.
If you were to transfer Velocity to KrisFlyer you would need 719,200 Velocity points.

 

[Meggsy]

BNE-SIN-AMS is 116,000 KrisFlyer miles plus $103 per person.
AMS-SIN-BNE is the same miles plus around $88 per person.
So a return trip for 2 would cost 464,000 miles plus and around $400.
If you were to transfer Velocity to KrisFlyer you would need 719,200 Velocity points.

Yep, these are the current numbers. I've just booked SQ savers BNE-SIN-FRA return in J for 2 and was 719,200 velocity points, transferred to KF and $103 pp outbound and $180 pp inbound in taxes.

 

[Mattg]

For something out of left field...

If you have 545,600 Velocity points, you can transfer these to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. You'll receive 352,000 KrisFlyer miles, which is enough for 2x return business class award tickets with Star Alliance to Istanbul, Tbilisi, Marrakech, Casablanca, Larnaca or anywhere else in KrisFlyer's "Middle East/North Africa zone". The taxes will also almost certainly work out lower than redeeming Velocity points for Etihad flights.

 

[jase05]

For something out of left field...

If you have 545,600 Velocity points, you can transfer these to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. You'll receive 352,000 KrisFlyer miles, which is enough for 2x return business class award tickets with Star Alliance to Istanbul, Tbilisi, Marrakech, Casablanca, Larnaca or anywhere else in KrisFlyer's "Middle East/North Africa zone". The taxes will also almost certainly work out lower than redeeming Velocity points for Etihad flights.

I like it. Plenty of options out there.
Maybe even a cheap flight to DPS which then saves you 24,000 KrisFlyer miles per person.
Only 92,000 miles each DPS-SIN-AMS

 

[Mattg]

I like it. Plenty of options out there.
Maybe even a cheap flight to DPS which then saves you 24,000 KrisFlyer miles per person.
Only 92,000 miles each DPS-SIN-AMS

Australia to Turkey/Cyprus/Morocco etc. is only 88,000 miles.

 

[FlexedCookie]

For something out of left field...

If you have 545,600 Velocity points, you can transfer these to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. You'll receive 352,000 KrisFlyer miles, which is enough for 2x return business class award tickets with Star Alliance to Istanbul, Tbilisi, Marrakech, Casablanca, Larnaca or anywhere else in KrisFlyer's "Middle East/North Africa zone". The taxes will also almost certainly work out lower than redeeming Velocity points for Etihad flights.

Awesome! This is the sort of thing I was hoping to get out of my question. Considering how far out we are from travelling, and how loose our idea of what we want to do is, I'm loving these left of centre ideas.

Thanks for all the responses so far everyone!

 

[Denali]

Awesome! This is the sort of thing I was hoping to get out of my question. Considering how far out we are from travelling, and how loose our idea of what we want to do is, I'm loving these left of centre ideas.

Thanks for all the responses so far everyone!

Last year I was looking for flights to Africa but ended up with flights to Amsterdam so we ended up going to Iceland from there.

 

[get me outta here]

Any good ideas for an F SQ from VA seat Aus to JFK?

 

[ozjuice]

You could just buy the extra Velocity points for both accounts. Would be cheaper than paying fares.

 

[BriarFlyer]

Another option to consider is SYD - HKG with VA and HKG - LHR with VS. The connection going over is, from memory, 6 hrs+ but on the return it's good. Best option pointwise @ 127,500 pp but you need all 4 flight to have awards and that's the difficult part.