VA2.0 International Partners

[antycbr]

Yeah but Berkshire Hathaway losing $4b is like James Packer losing $20m. These folk take informed gambles with huge sums, whether it’s Bain or Buffet/BH. They may sound like huge figures to us, but they’re certainly not betting the farm on airlines. Just frittering around the edges.

Thread drift...

Back on topic, when do we think UA availability will come online?

 

[Mattg]

Back on topic, when do we think UA availability will come online?

April, when the partnership commences.

 

[SheikYerbouti]

Sigh 80,000 VFF points sitting here, and ready to book a family trip to Europe for Xmas on SQ using all my points with them, if I could transfer those to Krisflyer to top up my balance there it'd be nice. I'm *just* short of enough points to fly us all over in J.

 

[ash.1111]

Sorry if this has been answered... but, I am trying to book a flight in premium or business ANYWHERE. Is it just not available? I have half a million Velocity points but I don't want to fly economy Does anyone have any leads? Singapore/LA/Hawaii, anywhere!

 

[Pele]

Sorry if this has been answered... but, I am trying to book a flight in premium or business ANYWHERE. Is it just not available? I have half a million Velocity points but I don't want to fly economy Does anyone have any leads? Singapore/LA/Hawaii, anywhere!

Abu Dhabi. 104,000 points per person business class each way from Sydney on Etihad.

 

[andye]

Abu Dhabi. 104,000 points per person business class each way from Sydney on Etihad.

+$

 

[Pele]

+$

Yeah I think it was just under $400 one way.

 

[jase05]

Sorry if this has been answered... but, I am trying to book a flight in premium or business ANYWHERE. Is it just not available? I have half a million Velocity points but I don't want to fly economy Does anyone have any leads? Singapore/LA/Hawaii, anywhere!

Depends when you want to go. A lot of the premium availability for the next couple of months has gone by by now

 

[antycbr]

Try Air Canada to YVR.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

As VA is not flying a lot internationally using their own aircraft, (except Fiji), there is not a lot of options using their own aircraft, with a VA flight number flying internationally (far away).
They are even not flying to NZ.
With partners, yes, there are options in Business, but not so much in premium.
SQ does not have a lot of premium seating on flying out of Aust if you want to try their A350, they have premium seats on their A380 or B777, but you do need to phone up, though if you want to try online, I think that is not available at the moment, but have a look.
UA might be an option later on in the year.
Does EY have premium, haven't checked, but don't think so.
If you just need a get away, SQ to SIN might be an option, double or triple vaxxed, and do the covid PCR test.
They do not have a lot of partners flying regularly, SQ is not daily, they have their VTL flights.
If you want to reduce your VFF points balance, fly domestic would be an option.
NH might be an option later on in the year too.

 

[antycbr]

As VA is not flying a lot internationally using their own aircraft, (except Fiji), there is not a lot of options using their own aircraft, with a VA flight number flying internationally (far away).
They are even not flying to NZ.
With partners, yes, there are options in Business, but not so much in premium.
SQ does not have a lot of premium seating on flying out of Aust if you want to try their A350, they have premium seats on their A380 or B777, but you do need to phone up, though if you want to try online, I think that is not available at the moment, but have a look.
UA might be an option later on in the year.
Does EY have premium, haven't checked, but don't think so.
If you just need a get away, SQ to SIN might be an option, double or triple vaxxed, and do the covid PCR test.
They do not have a lot of partners flying regularly, SQ is not daily, they have their VTL flights.
If you want to reduce your VFF points balance, fly domestic would be an option.
NH might be an option later on in the year too.

SQ are not available for redemptions with no timeframe for coming back other than “in the future”

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Cripes, didn't know the "relationship" had gotten that sour, ta Antycbr.
Relationship, due to either covid, or because of the vol ad, or the souring relationship.

 

[dajop]

SQ is not daily, they have their VTL flights.

They don't have premum awards available to partners, including VA, so moot point, but from SYD, MEL, BNE and PER they operate at least double daily. But don't have daily ADL.

 

[HS-TQE]

Cripes, didn't know the "relationship" had gotten that sour, ta Antycbr.
Relationship, due to either covid, or because of the vol ad, or the souring relationship.

SQ hasn't gotten redemptions enabled on most partners except UA and AC, if I recall correctly.

VA will likely be on the bottom of SQ's priorities (as a non-Star partner, as well as not being a equity owner) as they're likely to be working on re-enabling redemptions on their Star Alliance stablemates.

 

[ash.1111]

Just an update - I had enough Kris points to do J return to SIN on the A380 and A350 in April. There was tons of availability.

Unless you want Y to LAX, I couldn’t find much else on Velocity.

 

[AFF Editor]

I've moved posts about the reinstatement of Singapore Airlines redemptions to a new thread:

Velocity reinstates Singapore Airlines redemptions

You can now book economy reward seats on Singapore Airlines. Business and suites to come at a later time. Appears conversion has been confirmed for sure, but no date given yet still

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

This good news deserves its own thread!

 

[AIRwin]

Air Canada might be an option again via SYD but that's a long way round.

Not surprisingly, YVR is currently one of the most popular destinations for international redemption according to the data reported as part of the media release on SQ redemptions:

Velocity Frequent Flyer and Singapore Airlines open world of travel

newsroom.virginaustralia.com

 

[Mattg]

Not surprisingly, YVR is currently one of the most popular destinations for international redemption according to the data reported as part of the media release on SQ redemptions:

Velocity Frequent Flyer and Singapore Airlines open world of travel

newsroom.virginaustralia.com

...because it's the only destination with good availability?

 

[BriarFlyer]

...because it's ski season?

 

[Brittany]

Sorry if this has been answered... but, I am trying to book a flight in premium or business ANYWHERE. Is it just not available? I have half a million Velocity points but I don't want to fly economy Does anyone have any leads? Singapore/LA/Hawaii, anywhere!

I booked return Air Canada J SYD-YVR for 208,000 velocity points, dept June 2022