The Virgin Australia Newbie Questions Thread

[sudoer]

Hello all...

I am looking to book an SQ reward seat to Europe using my velocity points and would love to do an overnight stay in Singapore. I was wondering if this is possible without booking two one way tickets (Aus - Sin and Sin - Europe) ?

As long as your transit is under 24 hours it should be possible.

Over 24 hours, your only options are to book two one-ways or transfer to SQ and book an Advantage award.

The latter is likely to cost more points but you'll get access to better availability.

 

[SnowGoose]

As long as your transit is under 24 hours it should be possible.

Over 24 hours, your only options are to book two one-ways or transfer to SQ and book an Advantage award.

The latter is likely to cost more points but you'll get access to better availability.

Thanks for your help! Is this something that can be achieved by calling Velocity?

 

[Jubified]

Hey all - newbie question here. I'm trying to book flights to singapore via the virgin website using cash and I can't seem to find any flights. There's heaps of flights via singapore airlines website. Am I missing something here?

 

[mel-world]

Hey all - newbie question here. I'm trying to book flights to singapore via the virgin website using cash and I can't seem to find any flights. There's heaps of flights via singapore airlines website. Am I missing something here?

Why not book and pay directly with SQ? The exchange rate cannot be that bad. If you want to add your VA FF number you can do that during the booking process (for the miles and SC). Either that or do this at the airport. You should always get better availability with the operating airline.

 

[Jubified]

Why not book and pay directly with SQ? The exchange rate cannot be that bad. If you want to add your VA FF number you can do that during the booking process (for the miles and SC). Either that or do this at the airport. You should always get better availability with the operating airline.

The main reason is I have an AIA vitality membership which reimburses me 50% of the base fare if I book through virgin. I did this last year with my Qatar flight to europe and I'm just suprised I can't find flights to both singapore and hong kong.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

VA on its own does not flight to SIN.
VAi have very limited flight destinations, internationally.
Am surprised tho that VA haven't put any (linked with their int partners) flight info, on their website yet.
Maybe they do not want to pay extra having a VA 2xx_/3xx_ etc, and prefer to let their int partner airline partners do the work, and only pay a small amount for FF benefits.

 

[gfeijo]

Hi Everyone, newbie here. Looking for advice on which FF to focus on. Here is my sticky situation that's making me go nuts!

I always chose VA FF simply because of the idea of family pooling of status credits to get a better tier. No other company seems to do this that I have found. However, I can't seem to find a good amount of rewards flights to go away with the family.. I have nearly 500k points in there, now I', wondering if I should focus on Krisflyer which is start alliance.

I reached platinum for a while due to a previous job, now don't fly too much so went down to silver.

Currently 0 elegible sectors, but 560 status credits (already enough for gold but need the eligible sectors). I have a trip to melbourne booked in 2 weeks so this should get me 2 eligible sectors.

I have 2 work trips and 1 personal trip in the first 5 months of 2024, so really looking for advice on whether to use my VA number or my krisflyer number.

Any help is super appreciated!


I have the following trips coming up:
SYD-SIN (Premium Economy, 1 passenger) - Singapore Airlines
SIN-SYD (Premium Economy, 1 passenger) - Singapore Airlines

SYD-SIN (Business, 1 passenger) - Singapore Airlines
SIN-LHR (Business, 1 passenger) - Singapore Airlines
LHR-SIN (Business, 1 passenger) - Singapore Airlines
SIN-SYD (Business, 1 passenger) - Singapore Airlines

SYD-IAH (Economy, 4 passengers) - United Airlines
IAH-GIG (Economy, 4 passengers) - United Airlines
GIG-IAH (Economy, 4 passengers) - United Airlines
IAH-LAX (Economy, 4 passengers) - United Airlines
LAX-SYD (Economy, 4 passengers) - United Airlines

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I would put in my VFF if I were doing the flying.
SQ as an airline is very good, but you do need to earn and burn fast them points, to make it work worthwhile, as the miles do have a life of 3 years, and not extedable, but due to covid, they extended the life their KF miles, but I believe thats ending soon.
For VFF, even if you don't make to SG due to the 8 sectors, even having 4 sectors and PS is still very good, and your VFF points don't expire, so long as there is activity, ie, going to a 7 eleven and buying something small, and putting your VFF # via 7 eleven app onto the scanner.
To transfer points from KF to VFF, you loose 35% of the miles transferred.
SYD - SIN - LHR in one trip, is not going to reach Elite Gold in KF, need to do a double of that, ie, 50,000 miles in J to make it worthwhile.
UA is also a VFF partner, so easy to keep VFF points alive that way.
The J trip will give you J lounge access and the J seat anyway.
To summize, I say, keep in VFF unless you have more and more flights in a year, with SQ J/F, then its worth to go with KF PPS.

 

[MooTime]

"For VFF, even if you don't make to SG due to the 8 sectors, even having 4 sectors and PS is still very good, and your VFF points don't expire"

You mean SG 4 sectors and PS 2 sectors right!

WP is 8 sectors.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I know the Muppet handle is taken, but can I have "AustraliaMuppet" as a new handle?
---
Got it mixed, QFF is the one that needs 4 eligible sectors for QFF PS.

 

[tdimdad]

Hi Everyone, newbie here. Looking for advice on which FF to focus on. Here is my sticky situation that's making me go nuts!

It depends on where / how you want to use the points? If you are mostly looking at family holidays in Australia or within the region, then VFF will most likely be a better choice. But if you'd rather scoot around Asia and further, then accumulating points in KrisFlyer might be a better strategy.

An alternative, if you can, is to obtain a credit card with its own rewards program with links to the prospective airlines you are interested in, and then transfer points from the card to an airline FF program, as needed.

 

[AIRwin]

Is there any way of getting the VA website to restrict its searches to premium cabins only? I'm losing the will to live clicking on 20 flights a day only to find there is only economy available.

I just noticed that there is now an option to select cabin class:

 

[sharp]

Hi all, I'm looking to book a flight from ICN-MEL on SQ where availability has sold out for that route - however I've managed to find space for ICN-SIN and SIN-MEL separately with less than 24 hours stopover between them in the same class.

Does anyone know if it's possible for the flights to be priced as a single sector rather than two separate sector (which is ~30k points more)?

 

[bernardblack]

If I cancel a partner reward (QR) online, will the redeposit and eventual refund of taxes work OK without intervention? Or is this something I want to do by phone? I understand there's a $60 fee I'm either event.

 

[Human]

If I cancel a partner reward (QR) online, will the redeposit and eventual refund of taxes work OK without intervention? Or is this something I want to do by phone? I understand there's a $60 fee I'm either event.

My philosophy is that if something can be done online, do it online: that means there's less scope for human error to muck things up! If you're worried, take screenshots and call later if something goes wrong.

 

[jase05]

If I cancel a partner reward (QR) online, will the redeposit and eventual refund of taxes work OK without intervention? Or is this something I want to do by phone? I understand there's a $60 fee I'm either event.

Can do it online but if you want the points back in your account ASAP then do it by phone and they can process it pretty much straight away otherwise it can take time for the points to find their way back to your account

 

[bernardblack]

Closing the loop: I didn't urgently need the points (I'd already booked the replacement itinerary) so I went to try out the online cancellation request form. However it turns out an online cancellation automatically applies the 7500-point fee rather than the $60 and that is terrible value. (I can easily get over $200 of value with 7500 points judiciously applied to long-haul J.)

So I cancelled by phone. It took a few minutes, I had the points back instantly, and the original taxes/fees are already credited back to my card less than 48 hours later.

 

[The Flying Schwartz]

Quick-ish question for the brains trust. I’ve focused on QFF points for the last year or so and considering switching focus to Velocity. We had enough velocity points for two J reward seats to the USA on UA last December and were quite happy with that. We then booked all US domestic flights with QFF points and found the availability with AA quite reasonable. However, is there a way to book domestic flights in the USA with velocity points? Velocity website says ‘no’. Or do we need to keep collecting QFF points for such flights?
Thanks in advance!

 

[bernardblack]

Velocity can in principle be used on United, if there's availability. In what respect does the website say "no"? Is it just that you can't choose the specific origin and destination together? Because there's a hack for that. Let me find the right post.

 

[bernardblack]

No Redemptions from AKL or CHC to Europe

Hi all, I'm an Aussie living in NZ and am after some advice please. I have recently had to cancel 2 separate one way J class velocity redemptions for me and my wife, AKL-DOH-AMS and then returning CDG-DOH-AKL with Qatar (most legs in QSuites) :(. I'm looking at rebooking for Dec/Jan 2024/25...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au