Velocity reinstates Singapore Airlines redemptions

[Auski]

Has anyone been able to do a multi city reward?
Tried cbr-bne bne-sin and sin not available.
Also cant see sin to sea or yvr any thoughts?

 

[Happy Dude]

Is it cheaper than a rental car in Hobart?

Few things are, and not just Hobart. $230/day for an i30 out of BNE. Feels like a purchase not a rental.

 

[knick007]

Has anyone been able to do a multi city reward?

I believe you need to ring them to do that. Very annoying…

Incidentally it looks like there is absolutely no rewards to Europe in June

 

[Matty F]

Trying to fly from Singapore to Europe in mid-late May but when I search on VA's website using points, only Etihad flights are appearing. Not sure why Direct SQ redemptions haven't shown up, or do we need to ring the call centre for those?

 

[GDale]

I’m quite happy to pay cash for the HBA-MEL leg if booked separately. I just wondered is there was some wizardry that would make the total cost of a points booking from HBA to Europe a little less. Perhaps not. One of the interesting things about international flight bookings is that the difference between a flight to and from MEL is only marginally cheaper than the price to HBA ($10-30), even though it includes an additional flight. The opposite seems to apply with points redemptions.

I’ve been on so many delayed flights from HBA that I fear even 3-4 hours isn’t enough to calm my nerves!

If you're happy to redeem points for HBA-MEL, try using the multi city search function (searching HBA-MEL for leg 1, then MEL-wherever in Europe for leg 2). Sometimes it spits out results with the full journey preselected, but other times you can select options leg by leg, allowing you to choose the time and cabin. If you search for more than 2 legs, the leg by leg selection screen doesn't seem to appear at all.

Using this method, each leg selected is also priced separately (i.e. HBA-MEL follows the VA reward chart, MEL-europe follows the SQ chart)

 

[GDale]

Trying to fly from Singapore to Europe in mid-late May but when I search on VA's website using points, only Etihad flights are appearing. Not sure why Direct SQ redemptions haven't shown up, or do we need to ring the call centre for those?

They're available, just not a lot of availability. Example: SIN-FRA on SQ326 is available in J on 23 May and bookable online for 92,000 Pts +$51.70

 

[jase05]

Trying to fly from Singapore to Europe in mid-late May but when I search on VA's website using points, only Etihad flights are appearing. Not sure why Direct SQ redemptions haven't shown up, or do we need to ring the call centre for those?

May 23 & 24 there is SQ J availability SIN-FRA

 

[GDale]

Has anyone been able to do a multi city reward?
Tried cbr-bne bne-sin and sin not available.
Also cant see sin to sea or yvr any thoughts?

Works for me - try this link

Dates are dummy dates - just hit "edit search" at the top to adjust to your liking

 

[Matty F]

They're available, just not a lot of availability. Example: SIN-FRA on SQ326 is available in J on 23 May and bookable online for 92,000 Pts +$51.70

May 23 & 24 there is SQ J availability SIN-FRA

Thanks You ppl are fast - impressive! How do you search so quickly?

Anything around May 16-19? Doesn't have to be J but Direct is preferred, and the closer to Barcelona or Amsterdam, the better - thanks again!

 

[GDale]

Thanks You ppl are fast - impressive! How do you search so quickly?

Anything around May 16-19? Doesn't have to be J but Direct is preferred, and the closer to Barcelona or Amsterdam, the better - thanks again!

SQ doesn't have that many routes into Europe so not too hard to cover the field and I actually think the VA interface is faster than the QF one!

If Y is OK then:
ZRH is available 18 and 19 May
MUC is available 17, 18 and 19 May
FRA is available 18 May (two options)
(all on SQ direct flights)

Easy connections by train from FRA and MUC to Amsterdam

 

[jase05]

SQ doesn't have that many routes into Europe so not too hard to cover the field and I actually think the VA interface is faster than the QF one!

If Y is OK then:
ZRH is available 18 and 19 May
MUC is available 17, 18 and 19 May
FRA is available 18 May (two options)
(all on SQ direct flights)

Easy connections by train from FRA and MUC to Amsterdam

Or a Y flight for probably $100 each way

 

[Auski]

Trying to get flights to YVR Feb Mar. They only have flights listed until October. Their winter flights this year were extended by six weeks so assume they will run again next NH winter. Any thoughts on when they will announce the schedule.

 

[RAM]

Or a Y flight for probably $100 each way

True but a 1st class train fare gets you into the middle of Amsterdam vs the airport & total travel time may well be slightly less (taking into account waiting time at the airports vs getting on/off the trains.

From both Frankfurt & Munich Airports there were (are?) no-change ICE trains through to Amsterdam.

 

[futurism]

I just want to say, I have booked 2 trips using Velocity points on Singapore Airlines recently, South Korea in May and Japan in November (maybe it will be open by then)

Immediately after booking I was able to go to singaporeair.com and make seat selections for all 8 legs

I know its been a while, but I dont think I had much luck doing that in the past so far ahead of the flight

 

[Mr H]

True but a 1st class train fare gets you into the middle of Amsterdam vs the airport & total travel time may well be slightly less (taking into account waiting time at the airports vs getting on/off the trains.

From both Frankfurt & Munich Airports there were (are?) no-change ICE trains through to Amsterdam.

Many people find overseas rail travel daunting in a way that air travel isn't - how do you buy tickets? where do you go? what if it's sold out? how do I find the station? how do I even get into it when I find it?

Air travel is easy, requires no language skills and relies on universal symbols and channelling people so they can't possibly get lost. I think many people are going to default to that and never even know how simple the rail option could have been.

 

[jase05]

True but a 1st class train fare gets you into the middle of Amsterdam vs the airport & total travel time may well be slightly less (taking into account waiting time at the airports vs getting on/off the trains.

From both Frankfurt & Munich Airports there were (are?) no-change ICE trains through to Amsterdam.

I absolutely agree but its just a matter of what suits the individual needs

 

[GCflyer]

Works for me - try this link

Dates are dummy dates - just hit "edit search" at the top to adjust to your liking

I have no idea how you managed to do this!!

If I try and book a multi-city flight using points it won't let me enter any overseas destinations - I just get the "uh oh - no matching results" message.
(This includes if I use your link and try and retype any overseas airports)

Tell me your secrets please.....

Is anyone else able to get Multi-city Reward bookings working with overseas destinations?

 

[henrus]

Is anyone else able to get Multi-city Reward bookings working with overseas destinations?

It seems the booking form is broken but if you manually edit the link it works.

To avoid AFF turning the below into a link I have removed the https:// (add it back in before the rest below)

book.virginaustralia.com/dx/VADX/#/flight-selection?journeyType=multi-city&activeMonth=04-23-2022&direction=0&awardBooking=true&class=First&ADT=1&CHD=0&INF=0&origin=BNE&destination=SIN&date=09-01-2022&origin1=SIN&destination1=KUL&date1=09-02-2022

When using the above

Dates are in a MM/DD/YYYY format.

ADT=number of adults (set at 1 above)

origin= First leg departure airport code
destination= First leg arrival airport code
date= Date of first leg

origin1= Second leg departure airport code
destination1= Second leg arrival airport code
date1= Date of second leg

It appears you could keep going by adding in an origin2/destination2/date2

An example of one multi city award:

 

[GCflyer]

Works for me - try this link

Dates are dummy dates - just hit "edit search" at the top to adjust to your liking

I appreciate your help - would be nice if Virgin just fixed the booking page though!

Unfortunately after editing the link and trying a few destinations i've noticed that these layovers under 24 hours will price as two seperate flights (had the same outcome with the call centre) - was hoping they would just price at the same total with a layover like most airlines or when you book the exact same flights via Krisflyer.

e.g. BNE - KUL in J is 65k if you take the connections offered by Velocity when booking a 'direct' flight however it prices at 83k when using the (broken) multi-city tool and having a layover under 24 hours.

Hmmmmm

 

[GDale]

I appreciate your help - would be nice if Virgin just fixed the booking page though!

Unfortunately after editing the link and trying a few destinations i've noticed that these layovers under 24 hours will price as two seperate flights (had the same outcome with the call centre) - was hoping they would just price at the same total with a layover like most airlines or when you book the exact same flights via Krisflyer.

e.g. BNE - KUL in J is 65k if you take the connections offered by Velocity when booking a 'direct' flight however it prices at 83k when using the (broken) multi-city tool and having a layover under 24 hours.

Hmmmmm

Yes it looks like the system has been "optimised" to display results in a particular way - based on some toying around with it, I think:

1. Pricing is based on each pair of origin/destination specified, and the system will not revalidate the points cost when an entire itinerary is pieced together

2. When an origin/destination pair requires a transfer, the system will only look up & display the availability of the immediate next connecting flight - and this even includes scenarios where the next connecting flight has no availability but the one after that does (in that scenario, the results page shows no availability rather than display availability with a later flight).

3. The engine doesn't search for any routing that exceeds two transfers for any origin/destination pair.

These limitations mean the engine is far less flexible than QFF's, but probably also why it seems (at least in my experience) faster/doesn't error out.

So you'll be disadvantaged breaking up a BNE-KUL and searching for it as BNE-SIN and SIN-KUL, since it'll price it as two journeys. But you shouldn't be disadvantaged searching SYD-BNE and BNE-KUL, since the VA and SQ flights are on different charts and would be priced separately anyway?