New Charge for Velocity Bookings on EY

[mmchow]

Guess my partner is stuck in J while I'm in F on our MEL-AUH flight in Nov. Was waiting for the release of F closer to travel date but I doubt he'll agree on the USD400 + 50000++ VA points extra for the Apartment.

 

[PDog]

Incredible. That is a huge leap (& very disappointing!)

 

[travelislife]

Would be nice to get a response from the VFF rep on this as it is very short 'advance' warning and not being based on distance makes it even more ridiculous.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Etihad added these surcharges in July last year. Iirc its 50/100/150 usd per sector in y/j/f respectively.

 

[hossein_au]

Would be nice to get a response from the VFF rep on this as it is very short 'advance' warning and not being based on distance makes it even more ridiculous.

I guess you are asking to hear something along the lines of "... blah, blah,... we strive to provide the best experience to our customers..., blah, blah, ..., we have one of the best partnership arrangement on this side of the galaxy,..., blah, blah, ..., our customers expect us to respond to market changes to provide an award-wining balance of, ... blah, blah, ..., in line with current trends in the airline industry, ..., blah, blah, .... based on feedback from our customers, ...., blah, blah..., we have one of the best frequent flyer programs in Australia, ... blah, blah, ...."

I doubt you will ever get any official response with any meat more than this. Just saying.

 

[hossein_au]

Etihad added these surcharges in July last year. Iirc its 50/100/150 usd per sector in y/j/f respectively.

This is besides the point (cheap pun). Some airlines pass on fuel surcharges on partner redemptions. VA decided to have a 2-tier redemption chart: one for partners with zero or low fuel surcharges and one for partners with non-trivial fuel surcharges. VA moved EY from the former group to the latter. One would expect this move was to absorb the changes in EY fuel surcharges. I guess this was too simplistic of a conclusion on one's part; VA obviously thought why not slug the customers with higher number of points AS WELL AS passing on the surcharges?

 

[CJEMNMAC]

Etihad added these surcharges in July last year. Iirc its 50/100/150 usd per sector in y/j/f respectively.

These surcharges were not levied on EY flights redeemed through VA using VA points.

 

[PDog]

These surcharges were not levied on EY flights redeemed through VA using VA points.

Yup. I'm sure I didn't pay that last year

 

[CJEMNMAC]

Would be nice to get a response from the VFF rep on this as it is very short 'advance' warning and not being based on distance makes it even more ridiculous.

The VFF rep has been logged on this thread 3 times this afternoon that I have seen.

This was also discussed in the "Is VA availability worse than Qantas" thread. The VFF was also on that thread as it was discussed from 9am this morning

They are aware and could offer comment if they wanted too

 

[Danger UXB]

Very disappointing. 1200 F return to Europe!!! At that rate toasters are looking like a good redemption !!!

 

[kamchatsky]

I guess EY rewards seats are proving too popular with point redeemers, so they can afford to charge them extra cash to get more money that way.

 

[JohnK]

Surely they wouldn't charge a US$205 surcharge for a business class seat on the 200 mile hop from Abu Dhabi to Doha (among other routes)?!

Why not? This change sounds like a direct reaction to people buying miles and maximising sectors on award bookings?

 

[Mattg]

Why not? This change sounds like a direct reaction to people buying miles and maximising sectors on award bookings?

How does one buy Velocity points?

 

[serfty]

How does one buy Velocity points?

You don't "buy" them ... you "Boost" them ...

Velocity Points Booster | Velocity Frequent Flyer

...

Similar to Qantas' "Top Up" ...

But in this context, not applicable ...

 

[blueythecat]

This suck VA!! Presumably EY will now be moved back into the "low surcharge" airline category in the VA award charts .

Seriously though very poor form VA (and EY)!!!

 

[davidhes]

Wow so in the space of a week a 1 way J reward flight to Europe has gone from 125,000 points and around $100 in taxes. To 139,000 points and around $660 in taxes and seat charge. Thanks virgin and Etihad...

 

[kaktusdigital]

Wow so in the space of a week a 1 way J reward flight to Europe has gone from 125,000 points and around $100 in taxes. To 139,000 points and around $660 in taxes and seat charge. Thanks virgin and Etihad...

VA need to get their metal to other parts of the world. They have 'the business' which would be better than EY's 77W J (until the refurb happens at least!) With the HNA deal, we need to see MEL/SYD-CAN/HKG-CDG/LHR. Oh forgot, they have no more planes.
Ok, my points are all going to SQ now....

 

[mark4217]

Wow so in the space of a week a 1 way J reward flight to Europe has gone from 125,000 points and around $100 in taxes. To 139,000 points and around $660 in taxes and seat charge. Thanks virgin and Etihad...

$2640 in taxes for total return trip for 2 pax, OUCH

 

[hossein_au]

$2640 in taxes for total return trip for 2 pax, OUCH

You mean "fuel surcharges", right? ;-)

 

[Cryptarcadian]

This is outrageous! And it's outrageous this has been announced right after the devaluation kicked in, so it's not like we could've booked a trip in F in advance even if we were happy to move dates.

I'm struggling to think of any reason not to transfer all my points to KrisFlyer and abandon Velocity?