United Airlines new Virgin Australia/Velocity Partner

[Mattg]

Interestingly (or not), the Delta website now states:

Effective Monday June 13, 2022, Virgin Australia will no longer be a Delta Air Lines partner. Accrual on Virgin Australia will follow the charts below through Sunday June 12, 2022. Redemption for Award Travel on Virgin Australia must be ticketed on or before June 12, 2022 and must be flown within one (1) year of the ticketing date. All other frequent flyer benefits will also only be valid through June 12, 2022.

Earning Miles With Airline Partners | Delta Air Lines

Each time you fly with Delta's 20+ trusted airline partners anywhere in the world, you earn miles.

www.delta.com

 

[cbourl]

SFO is muc

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...

h moire civilized that rathole LAX and better connections to NYC, sadly no longer to JFK on UA, but if you fly HN aka All Nippon to Washington Dulles, you can clear customs and immigration easily (at least before COVID) and then catch a 50 minute flight to La Guardia NYC and have a much cheaper cab ride to most places in Manhattan....

 

[dajop]

sadly no longer to JFK on UA

UA have restored flights to JFK. If you look at SYD-JFK on UA in June, brings up two options, one via LAX and one via SFO, leaving 1 hr apart. SFO is 11 mins longer.

 

[cbourl]

UA have restored flights to JFK. If you look at SYD-JFK on UA in June, brings up two options, one via LAX and one via SFO, leaving 1 hr apart. SFO is 11 mins longer.

Wow! Thats good to hear! They finally got those slots back! Is it still T7 like the old days? Free TSA Precheck before Trump for United premier members was great so you could walk in and out to smoke and leave your carryon in the United Club or Global Services/First Lounge LAX has good lounges now compared to the old days, but its still a rathole if you want to loungehop to the Star Alliance Lounge or I think new Amex Lounge

 

[SYD]

UA have restored flights to JFK. If you look at SYD-JFK on UA in June, brings up two options, one via LAX and one via SFO, leaving 1 hr apart. SFO is 11 mins longer.

I have a vague recollection that UA connections to the east coast via SFO also earned more points for those extra mins! I haven’t done if for years, but SFO was always my preferred transit over LAX flying UA.

 

[http_x92]

A bit late to the frequent flyer game but before all this happened did you receive elite miles with Delta Skymiles to work your way up the Delta status (MQMs + MQS) on Virgin flights? I'm guessing its like SQ where you can earn Krisflyer points but not the elite miles.

Just wondering if we would likely get elite miles on United Mileage plus then (e.g. PQF+PQP). Ofc I know only UA metal flights counts towards Mileageplus lifetime status.

 

[HS-TQE]

Wow! Thats good to hear! They finally got those slots back! Is it still T7 like the old days? Free TSA Precheck before Trump for United premier members was great so you could walk in and out to smoke and leave your carryon in the United Club or Global Services/First Lounge LAX has good lounges now compared to the old days, but its still a rathole if you want to loungehop to the Star Alliance Lounge or I think new Amex Lounge

Just checked. UA is back at T7. They use the Alaska lounge (ironically UA's old lounge when they were a slightly larger tenant there).

 

[serfty]

I'm guessing its like SQ where you can earn Krisflyer points but not the elite miles.

No, SkyMiles members could earn Redeemable miles and Medallion Qualification on VA flights. They still can until June 12th 2022.

Earning Miles With Airline Partners | Delta Air Lines

Each time you fly with Delta's 20+ trusted airline partners anywhere in the world, you earn miles.

www.delta.com

 

[http_x92]

No, SkyMiles members could earn Redeemable miles and Medallion Qualification on VA flights. They still can until June 12th 2022.

Earning Miles With Airline Partners | Delta Air Lines

Each time you fly with Delta's 20+ trusted airline partners anywhere in the world, you earn miles.

www.delta.com

Oh nice, they do include partner flights. Virgin Australia flights count towards MQMs. I can see the appeal in that. Shame it is ending soon though.

 

[cbourl]

Oh nice, they do include partner flights. Virgin Australia flights count towards MQMs. I can see the appeal in that. Shame it is ending soon though.

Hope this applies now with UA PQM/EQM

 

[Mattg]

Hope this applies now with UA PQM/EQM

Or as United now calls them, PQP

 

[http_x92]

Basically to get United Lifetime Gold status/Star Alliance status, it means going from SYD - JFK via SFO/LAX return 50 times

 

[QF WP]

in what class of travel? Still to be expected that Lifetime status will require a decent amount of travel.

Ah well, there goes my biennial flights to USA with wife and kids to see relatives and pool all the SC's. I'm sad to see Delta go as a partner.

 

[http_x92]

in what class of travel? Still to be expected that Lifetime status will require a decent amount of travel.

Ah well, there goes my biennial flights to USA with wife and kids to see relatives and pool all the SC's. I'm sad to see Delta go as a partner.

Sounds like it is any class including Basic Economy, since the measure is just BIS miles. Excludes purely award-based travel. Ofc this basically means LAX, SFO or soon to be IAH as the first stop on the journey since its only UA metal.

 

[HS-TQE]

Updated guide to the upcoming VA/UA codeshare & FF partnership.

“Because of United’s vast network, they’re not having to double-connect or even triple-connect. It’s a real win for Virgin.”*

*Except for Queensland (or smaller states). Queenslanders will need to connect via SYD/MEL or AKL^ in late 2022.

Your guide to the Virgin Australia United Airlines partnership

Your next Virgin Australia reward seat could be even closer with this 2024 double points promo.

www.executivetraveller.com

 

[Matty F]

*Except for Queensland (or smaller states). Queenslanders will need to connect via SYD/MEL or AKL^ in late 2022.

Well, cough. I don't mind a short flight to connect to the long outbound leg, coming home is a disaster though... nothing worse than waiting around for a connecting flight after a long haul

PS. Who you calling small we are nearly 80% the population of Victoria!

 

[http_x92]

Updated guide to the upcoming VA/UA codeshare & FF partnership.

Your guide to the Virgin Australia United Airlines partnership

Your next Virgin Australia reward seat could be even closer with this 2024 double points promo.

www.executivetraveller.com

"(likewise, United’s MileagePlus members will be able to rack up miles when travelling with Virgin Australia)."

Looks like the benefits will be reciprocal after all in terms of getting PQFs and PQPs. Exactly how much we don't know yet.

 

[ozstamps]

Basically to get United Lifetime Gold status/Star Alliance status, it means going from SYD - JFK via SFO/LAX return 50 times

Been there done that, all in the past thankfully.

UA was just mile based then, possibly still now … do 100,000 real flown miles a calendar year (or 100 flight segments) on UA and/or any Star Partner and you got a 1K card, so did that for 20 years. Class of travel made no difference.

Indeed, near all of it was upgraded anyway, due to the wonderful Systemwide certs. Sydney/UA/South America all upgraded and confirmed way in advance, using just one cert, from cheapest coach ticket you could buy, via any source. A wonderful perk.

 

[clifford]

Been there done that, all in the past thankfully.

UA was just mile based then … do 100,000 real flown miles a calendar year (or 100 flight segments) and you got a 1K card, so did that for 20 years. Class of travel made no difference.

Indeed, near all of it was upgraded anyway to the wonderful Systemwide certs.

Yes, indeed Glen.

I'm now lifetime UA Plat, having travelled 2.5 million PAID miles on UA (the real one). I'm not sure how I actually managed it living in Australia, but it was a truly interesting experience. For example, going to Tokyo 6 times in one month. But, as you say, that was in the past.

I note that I have accumulated 120 PlusPoints (80 expiring Jul) through doing nothing, so I might well book a cheap SYD-LAX RT soon to secure confirmed upgrades to business each way. Haven't been to LA for quite a while.

Otherwise, this UA-VA tie-up, while generally a good move, does absolutely nothing for me personally.

 

[http_x92]

This was before my time, but there was a Tokyo route via Guam in Australia with United at one point? Ahh... too young to experience it.

Speaking of Haneda, wonder how that would be handled by VA2. Seems like they aren't giving up on that yet. No signs of handing it over to UA or NH.