Velocity domestic business award seats

[pdonahue]

In the past when I have applied for a business reward ticket SYD to PER, I have been shown either no availability or the appropriate number of required points plus the applicable taxes. I now want to try to find a business reward seat SYD to PER and am flexible with dates but it seems there has been a massive increase in the number of points required. Just checked today and there are a few scattered seats for a reasonable number of points, ~40,000 each way, but then the co-payment is ~$650 each way. Is this an increase in the taxes or is Velocity making business reward seats much harder to find and a lot more expensive (points and cash) than previously? I think my last business reward seat to PER was in 2021 and I'm pretty sure they were about 40,000 points each way plus a much more reasonable cash cost. For these tickets, Velocity is now much more expensive than Qantas. What's going on!

 

[BNEFlyer]

Are you looking on desktop or mobile? I was recently looking for a LST-BNE flight and on desktop the cash portion was about $360 but on mobile it was showing as $65, so that's what I booked (though finding a reward seat took a lot of work and flexibility).

 

[pdonahue]

Are you looking on desktop or mobile? I was recently looking for a LST-BNE flight and on desktop the cash portion was about $360 but on mobile it was showing as $65, so that's what I booked (though finding a reward seat took a lot of work and flexibility).

Thanks BNEFlyer, this was on my laptop. I assume you mean using the velocity app on your phone. I have just tried that with the same result, admittedly I haven't looked at lots of dates. The few available business reward seats have come up at 35,500 points + $641 or 142,700 points. That's much more than just a bit extra above what I was able to get a year or two ago and a lot more than Qantas. Interesting that you found lower cost rewards seats on the app.

 

[jase05]

Thanks BNEFlyer, this was on my laptop. I assume you mean using the velocity app on your phone. I have just tried that with the same result, admittedly I haven't looked at lots of dates. The few available business reward seats have come up at 35,500 points + $641 or 142,700 points. That's much more than just a bit extra above what I was able to get a year or two ago and a lot more than Qantas. Interesting that you found lower cost rewards seats on the app.

This is what the app is showing me now on some random dates

 

[kerfuffle]

This is what the app is showing me now on some random dates
View attachment 334407

This is the correct price for Business (as someone who booked PER-SYD in Business back in April)

 

[pdonahue]

This is the correct price for Business (as someone who booked PER-SYD in Business back in April)

That's much more like what I used to get. Can I ask what date the result you attached was for?

 

[pdonahue]

Actually I have found a similar cost for an indirect flight on 19th Aug so maybe it's just reduced allocation of award flights and lack of availability.

 

[jase05]

That's much more like what I used to get. Can I ask what date the result you attached was for?

I can’t remember, it was a random date.
If you look at Saturday July 1st for example though there are 3 direct SYD-PER flights with award availability and one of them even has 2 seats available

 

[pdonahue]

Thanks, Jase05. I have now actually found and booked the return in August in business. Outward on Virgin (45,000 + $0) and return Qantas (41,000 + $40)