United Airlines new Virgin Australia/Velocity Partner

[Supersonic Swinger]

I agree - only ever taken 3 sectors on UA in my life and don’t have any desire to fly them when heading to the USA in the future. May even push me back to QF or simply use AS to head up to SEA/GEG

I can understand that - I have been United-free since 2008. While I'm not quite as vehement as some on FlyerTalk are about them ("I would rather walk or swim than board a United flight again" is one signature I have seen), there are far better places to direct my travel dollars.

 

[QF WP]

The only positive part is that an SFO destination flight on UA would interest me, because it isn't LAX and good connections to SEA and GEG. Plus the use of family pooling SC's to me in order to keep VA Platinum. But I don't know whether they are enough to make me walk the plank onto UA...

 

[jase05]

The only positive part is that an SFO destination flight on UA would interest me, because it isn't LAX and good connections to SEA and GEG. Plus the use of family pooling SC's to me in order to keep VA Platinum. But I don't know whether they are enough to make me walk the plank onto UA...

Mrs Jase’s boss was doing the US-AU trip about 8 times per year pre Covid and swears by UA. He is a bit weird though so I take his recommendations with a grain of salt

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I liked their ad campaign from a few years ago....

 

[jakeseven7]

Mrs Jase’s boss was doing the US-AU trip about 8 times per year pre Covid and swears by UA. He is a bit weird though so I take his recommendations with a grain of salt

My boss refuses to fly them, anywhere. Point blank . Has done a stopover to avoid them even…

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Guess it might be ok, if there is lounge access while flying UA J/F/with VA upper status that has lounge access, while departing Aust (with the No1 lounges at SYD/ or if they choose to also fly out of MEL), while flying UA metal with a VA flight number.
Seeing that UA closed its MEL lounge a very long time ago.

 

[jase05]

VA/UA apply for codeshare approvals

Virgin Australia And United Airlines File For Codeshare Approvals

simpleflying.com

 

[theblank]

Personally I am looking forward to what this change might bring for domestic USA redemptions, surely it couldnt be worse

3x I have been in USA trying to find Delta domestic flights around the joint on my virgin points because I had gold status, and points to burn, and so many flights are just not available for redemptions at all, and its not because they are full - they are not. Checking them out the flights I want are practically empty, but only for Delta redemptions, not VFF.

I ended up flying other airlines more often then Delta. not such a bad thing, Southwest is pretty good!

 

[HS-TQE]

VA/UA apply for codeshare approvals

Virgin Australia And United Airlines File For Codeshare Approvals

simpleflying.com

Codeshare also applies between VAi and UA from Australia to Nadi/Bali/New Zealand.
Would've thought the VAi/UA codeshares would be out of the jurisdiction of DoT.

Saying this, it does provide UA with more expansion options ex-BNE/Queensland in the short term without spending the CapEx to use their own metal.
If anything I'm tipping this may speed up VA's return to AKL (at least from BNE) later in 2022 to provide a via AKL option alongside the via SYD/MEL option.

 

[jase05]

Codeshare also applies between VAi and UA from Australia to Nadi/Bali/New Zealand.
Would've thought the VAi/UA codeshares would be out of the jurisdiction of DoT.

Saying this, it does provide UA with more expansion options ex-BNE/Queensland in the short term without spending the CapEx to use their own metal.
If anything I'm tipping this may speed up VA's return to AKL (at least from BNE) later in 2022 to provide a via AKL option alongside the via SYD/MEL option.

Have seen a couple of articles that suggest they are trying to have the partnership up and running by April and that award seats will be made available to Velocity members by this time.
BNE has been mentioned as a possibility but in the mean time UA are putting their 787’s on all AU routes and all have the new Polaris J seating and Y+.
It does sound like UA really want this to work

 

[HS-TQE]

Have seen a couple of articles that suggest they are trying to have the partnership up and running by April and that award seats will be made available to Velocity members by this time.
BNE has been mentioned as a possibility but in the mean time UA are putting their 787’s on all AU routes and all have the new Polaris J seating and Y+.
It does sound like UA really want this to work

The ET article has a brief explanation in regards to the long running "Will UA fly to BNE now?" question. UA's answer to that did explain that their priority is get their existing routes back up and running, and I'm sure this will likely extend to AKL routes later in 2022.

The pent-up demand predicted on Australia-USA didn't eventuate with QF axing all SFO flights for the short term and scaling back LAX flights. So without the Queensland Government AAIF (taxpayer) funding for UA, it's possibly likely that UA will push BNE to a medium term proposition, October 2023 at the earliest.

 

[bernardblack]

Have seen a couple of articles that suggest they are trying to have the partnership up and running by April and that award seats will be made available to Velocity members by this time.
BNE has been mentioned as a possibility but in the mean time UA are putting their 787’s on all AU routes and all have the new Polaris J seating and Y+.
It does sound like UA really want this to work

Yeah, the 787-8s are 100% refitted to Polaris J seating and the 787-9s are progressing rapidly and all meant to be done by the upcoming northern summer (as of yesterday showing 25 of 38 complete, and three in progress), so even without the word "guarantee" being used in that interview, the chances for proper Polaris J should be pretty good with 789s for all UA AU<>US routes.


***edited to 25 of 38 rather than my previous typo 25 of 28

 

[jase05]

Can’t wait to see the full benefits revealed as there has even been whispers that VA/UA will allow points upgrades aswell

 

[antycbr]

Can’t wait to see the full benefits revealed as there has even been whispers that VA/UA will allow points upgrades aswell

If they do that it will be a major point of difference as partner upgrades are exceptionally rare in loyalty programs.

 

[jase05]

If they do that it will be a major point of difference as partner upgrades are exceptionally rare in loyalty programs.

I think both parties really want this to be a success and probably lends weight to thoughts of UA investing in VA in the near future

 

[andye]

Personally I am looking forward to what this change might bring for domestic USA redemptions, surely it couldnt be worse

3x I have been in USA trying to find Delta domestic flights around the joint on my virgin points because I had gold status, and points to burn, and so many flights are just not available for redemptions at all, and its not because they are full - they are not. Checking them out the flights I want are practically empty, but only for Delta redemptions, not VFF.

I ended up flying other airlines more often then Delta. not such a bad thing, Southwest is pretty good!

Moot now, but I found DL revenue Y+ a cost-effective way to accumulate VA SCs

 

[jakeseven7]

I think both parties really want this to be a success and probably lends weight to thoughts of UA investing in VA in the near future

Yes airlines investing in Virgin have had great returns so far

But I know what you mean. At least they have a template for one way at least on how ‘not’ to lose all their money!

 

[bernardblack]

Moot now, but I found DL revenue Y+ a cost-effective way to accumulate VA SCs

Yeah, I'm going to miss being able to get bountiful Velocity SCs for minimal cost increment.

Guess I'll just have to spring for UA domestic First now.

 

[HS-TQE]

Yes airlines investing in Virgin have had great returns so far

But I know what you mean. At least they have a template for one way at least on how ‘not’ to lose all their money!

UA does has a case study on their fellow Star colleagues and non-aligned carriers on how NOT to invest in carriers on their desk Their dismal records goes well beyond their VA stints with their involvement in bankruptcies such as Ansett, AirBerlin, NokScoot, Tiger Aus 1.0, Alitalia, Virgin Atlantic, and the list goes on.

Their colleague SQ, alongside EY are the two star examples that would be in that essay on UA's desk.

 

[HS-TQE]

I think both parties really want this to be a success and probably lends weight to thoughts of UA investing in VA in the near future

On the other hand, I'll speculate the possibility of UA MP/VA VFF transfers similar to the currently suspended KF/VFF agreement.
Which would be a huge point of difference over the soon to expire VA/DL partnership.