SQ J redemption's through velocity

[N0mad]

Hi,

i've been investigating whether to keep my velocity points in velocity or convert to SQ. I've come up with some issues.

Firstly i have 113,000 velocity points and 400,000 CBA awards point worth 200,000 velocity.
I'm a family of 4, wife is Thai and we go back regularly. Son starts school so would probably be looking to redeem flights around school holidays. most likely week before/after.

I also have 600,000+ Qantas points.

the issue i've come across is i have searched on Krisflyer for 4 seats on Oct 23 2019 SYD to BKK,for 4 pax. i see many flights with availability 58,000 miles on Krisflyer. When i do a search on velocity i get no availability on all flights whether i use 4 pax or 1.
Does Krisflyer limit the award seats for velocity members?
i'm just wondering if i should convert to Krisflyer which then gives me access to Thai reward seats as well although i'm not sure if they ever have 4 available.

 

[theblank]

Search for both segments seperately, ie SYD-SIN and then SIN-BKK on the VFF website.

When you find two that marry up (and you will) exactly as they do on the Singapore website, then just ring Virgin and get them to join the two together. They will do it. I have done this with Etihad flights, and just a couple weeks ago, with a VA then a DL flight (usa domestic)
It will be 65000 VFF points.

Tip, dont enter your VFF number at the start of the call, so you wioll get transferred directly to redemptions.
If you enter the number and you have status, like GOLD, then you end up with the Gold team and they are dopey and wont do it.

 

[hossein_au]

Yes, SQ release most of their reward seats to their own KrisFlyer members. If you are sure you want to redeem on SQ, then it would be far easier to redeem 4 seats if you were to use KF points. Whether this is what you want to do depends on many other factors and only you can make that assessment.

Thai usually releases about 2 seats per flight, but they usually release another 2 once the first 2 are booked. Worse comes worst you can almost always book two First and 2 Business seats on Thai

 

[Quickstatus]

Ive managed to redeem 4 SQ J seats at a time via KFlyer

The interesting thing is that the points required for SYD-SIN-BKK is the same as SYD-SIN

 

[GCflyer]

This booking to Bangkok used to appear on VFF site (for Brisbane to Bangkok at least) but now no longer shows. It is strange as some such as Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur/Koh Samui still work when searching on VFF.

Now I just check the Krisflyer site for availability and have always had no trouble getting the same reward seat by ringing Velocity and using my points with them as it is better value than transferring to Krisflyer. The points required links to the total distance flown so there are some excellent Velocity redemption opportunities that give you an extra Business Class flight on from Singapore for the same total cost in points.

 

[N0mad]

This booking to Bangkok used to appear on VFF site (for Brisbane to Bangkok at least) but now no longer shows. It is strange as some such as Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur/Koh Samui still work when searching on VFF.

Now I just check the Krisflyer site for availability and have always had no trouble getting the same reward seat by ringing Velocity and using my points with them as it is better value than transferring to Krisflyer. The points required links to the total distance flown so there are some excellent Velocity redemption opportunities that give you an extra Business Class flight on from Singapore for the same total cost in points.

thanks everyone for your suggestions, haven't quite decided whether to move the points or not. my main worry now is having to wait 30 odd days to book available aware flights due to different release timings with Singapore and Virgin. As i am wanting to book in or around Christmas school holidays i'm also concerned in missing any availability if there even is any keeping points with Virgin.

 

[theblank]

As i am wanting to book in or around Christmas school holidays i'm also concerned in missing any availability if there even is any keeping points with Virgin.

my experience is that there is very little or no availability at christmas time regardless.

IMO, if you have kids, suck it up and drive to dubbo. Save your points for when the kids have grown up and you can leave them behind.
The missus and I have had a friggin ball in the last few years, now that we are no longer on a leash.

 

[nubbie]

Give them a call if your dates are available on singaporeair.com, not all SQ availability comes up on Velocity website afaik.

 

[Lemon_Party]

I booked my current Christmas trip 1 year ago and flight availability on SQ ex Aus was disappearing within 1-2 days of posting.
CX availability with QF points was gone same day.
Be ready and be quick!

 

[N0mad]

I booked my current Christmas trip 1 year ago and flight availability on SQ ex Aus was disappearing within 1-2 days of posting.
CX availability with QF points was gone same day.
Be ready and be quick!

Hi Lemon,

can i ask what dates you picked up?

 

[Lemon_Party]

Hi Lemon,

can i ask what dates you picked up?

We left AU a little early, 14th in the end. I got our return on the 6th. Was originally chasing the 4th but wasn’t decisive enough...

SQ availability was better than oneworld through QF.

 

[N0mad]

We left AU a little early, 14th in the end. I got our return on the 6th. Was originally chasing the 4th but wasn’t decisive enough...

SQ availability was better than oneworld through QF.

that's alright, i'm happy to leave mid december, would prefer a little later in Jan though. i assume Cathay out and Singapore return?

i have enough QF points return but not kris/velocity

 

[Lemon_Party]

that's alright, i'm happy to leave mid december, would prefer a little later in Jan though. i assume Cathay out and Singapore return?

i have enough QF points return but not kris/velocity

I went SQ out and will return CX.
Was easy to get to HKG but the AU legs were tough and I couldn’t get a single award, presuming married segment issues. So MXP-HKG in F followed by HKG-BNE in J as separate awards. The HKG to AU space was the hardest to book as availability would disappear as quickly as it came up...

 

[travelislife]

This booking to Bangkok used to appear on VFF site (for Brisbane to Bangkok at least) but now no longer shows. It is strange as some such as Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur/Koh Samui still work when searching on VFF.

Now I just check the Krisflyer site for availability and have always had no trouble getting the same reward seat by ringing Velocity and using my points with them as it is better value than transferring to Krisflyer. The points required links to the total distance flown so there are some excellent Velocity redemption opportunities that give you an extra Business Class flight on from Singapore for the same total cost in points.

100% same experience here. So many people seem to be adverse to calling and just accept what they are shown (or not shown!) availability wise on VA’s website.

 

[N0mad]

100% same experience here. So many people seem to be adverse to calling and just accept what they are shown (or not shown!) availability wise on VA’s website.

i'd be happy to call but i always though if it was more than the 330 days then virgin weren't able to book. i'd be looking to snap any availability up immediately i wouldn't want to risk waiting a month.

 

[samuson]

I hadn't noticed this thread earlier - but thought I'd share my experience from October last year. I was looking at a similar CBR-SIN-BKK itinerary on SQ J but was unable to get the exact flights I wanted due to differences in Krisflyer availability and Velocity availability. I'm now fairly convinced that there are married segments for SQ redemptions... Here's what I found:

• SQ online: CBR-SIN-BKK available, CBR-SIN available, SIN-BKK available.
• Velocity online: CBR-SIN-BKK not available, CBR-SIN not available, SIN-BKK was available, CBR-SIN-KUL (on same CBR-SIN) available. (Go figure)
• Velocity call centre: similar to online, however was able to find availability for CBR-SIN-BKK with a different SIN-BKK flight

Naturally I just booked what was offered after expressing some dissatisfaction.

 

[mrfreeze]

I hadn't noticed this thread earlier - but thought I'd share my experience from October last year. I was looking at a similar CBR-SIN-BKK itinerary on SQ J but was unable to get the exact flights I wanted due to differences in Krisflyer availability and Velocity availability. I'm now fairly convinced that there are married segments for SQ redemptions... Here's what I found:

• SQ online: CBR-SIN-BKK available, CBR-SIN available, SIN-BKK available.
• Velocity online: CBR-SIN-BKK not available, CBR-SIN not available, SIN-BKK was available, CBR-SIN-KUL (on same CBR-SIN) available. (Go figure)
• Velocity call centre: similar to online, however was able to find availability for CBR-SIN-BKK with a different SIN-BKK flight

Naturally I just booked what was offered after expressing some dissatisfaction.

Last year I could search HBA-xSIN-BKK on VA and sometime in 2nd half or a bit later it got harder to find flights at the lowest rate.
Now any HBA-BKK flight shows up as HBA-xHKG-BKK using the VA HKG flights rather than SQ via Singapore.
I could seperate the flights to HBA-MEL then MEL-xSIN-BKK and it works out but why should I.
Looks like phoning in would be only way now.

 

[Harthagan]

Might be slightly off topic but does it work the same way with delta connections in the US?

Say you want to book a reward flight to LAX but want to fly on to somewhere else in the US with delta are u able to call virgin and have them marry the flights up so they are on the same ticket?

 

[theblank]

Might be slightly off topic but does it work the same way with delta connections in the US?

Say you want to book a reward flight to LAX but want to fly on to somewhere else in the US with delta are u able to call virgin and have them marry the flights up so they are on the same ticket?

yes, I recently got Velocity to connect me BNE-LAX-PHX as a single redemption, just had to call and ask.

 

[Harthagan]

yes, I recently got Velocity to connect me BNE-LAX-PHX as a single redemption, just had to call and ask.

So that would mean that there would have to be an award seat available for the connecting flight? Can i ask how many points it total it came to?

I went to vegas for new years and checked deltas site they had no reward seats available on the dates i needed so ended up having to buy seperate connecting flights. Maybe if id called virgin they could have done something though.

Last question... Isnt there a fee charged for booking over the phone?