I've been searching for redemption flights with SQ via velocity. My travel group is 2 adults 1 child > 2yo and 1 infant. I tried changing the number of pax and found that for route MEL - SIN , one can only redeem for 2 adults + 1 infant max, once you add in another child > 2 yo, all the reward seats vanished.
Is this the restriction for SQ seats redemption ? any idea how to work around it ? TIA !
There's no restrictions based on your booking group or mixing in infants / children.
The main restriction is whether there are that many seats available for redemption. Just because you can purchase it using money doesn't mean it's available for redemption with points (well, at least in the cheapest way). This is even more difficult if you are looking at anything above Economy class.
Are you trying to look for seats in Premium Economy, Business or First Class? Are you travelling during a known busy season, or for travel that is very soon (within about a month)? If your answer to one or both of those questions was "yes", your chances of finding 3 seats on the same flight altogether are significantly reduced. (I'm assuming the infant does not require a seat of their own)
As
@nthd_nthd mentioned, you could try to split your travelling group so 1 adult and 1 child/infant travels on two separate flights (can still be on the same day; there's plenty of SQ MEL-SIN flights per day). If you are prepared to take this option or risk, what you can do is make the first booking with 1 adult and the child. Once the booking is made, attempt to make the next booking with the other adult and the infant, but on the same flight as the first booking. You might get lucky and the system will somehow still have availability there, or it may not work and you'll have to choose another option. If you really are brave and want to try, if you don't succeed in getting the second adult and infant on the same flight as the first booking straight away, then keep trying again on subsequent days until you succeed or give in and just book another option.
You could also try searching for flights to SIN out of another port in Australia, but this will add an additional flight to your travel (which may not be great for the kids).
If you're attempting to redeem using the Virgin Australia website, you can try and run the same search on the Singapore Airlines website (needs a KrisFlyer account). If Singapore Airlines shows that the redemption you want is available, and you really want it, you could convert your Velocity points into KrisFlyer miles to make the redemption. The only issue with this is that due to the conversion rate (1.55 Velocity = 1 KrisFlyer), your costs will be considerably increased.