Velocity rewards booking - Business PER - LHR

[Mexpirate]

Looking to book business class return flights with a velocity reward booking - flights should be available from 120,000 each way - so 480,000 points +fees for two people return.

Availability, understandably seems patchy - I'm thinking maybe being over in the UK July next year but timing is pretty flexible

Had a preference for flying singapore but seems their cheapest reward seats are 174,000 - Qatar seems to be the only option.

Any hints or tips as to the best way to locate available flights or when they might become available via velocity for July next year would be appreciated

 

[Xrayspice]

July is peak time and reward bookings go very fast. I know higher level frequent flyers gets first dibs on reward seats for Qantas. What is your Virgin tier?

 

[antycbr]

I don’t believe there is any difference in VA partner availability depending on tier. I actually suggested they introduce this in a recent survey.

 

[Mexpirate]

July is peak time and reward bookings go very fast. I know higher level frequent flyers gets first dibs on reward seats for Qantas. What is your Virgin tier?

Gold status with virgin.

I'm finding odd seats on random dates, just not that far out as yet - want to be prepared to snap up any seats as soon as they become available

 

[luckypierre]

Looking to book business class return flights with a velocity reward booking - flights should be available from 120,000 each way - so 480,000 points +fees for two people return.

Availability, understandably seems patchy - I'm thinking maybe being over in the UK July next year but timing is pretty flexible

Had a preference for flying singapore but seems their cheapest reward seats are 174,000 - Qatar seems to be the only option.

Any hints or tips as to the best way to locate available flights or when they might become available via velocity for July next year would be appreciated

A fairly standard approach is to book 2x one way flights as soon as they are released. I.e. book the outgoing flight first when the booking window opens up. Then similarly book the return flight. Keep monitoring daily around the booking horizon. Goes without saying that you need to be flexible with regard to desired destinations. Qatar seems most likely to have some (?) availability, but comes with higher carrier charges than SQ. J rewards on VA points are limited on SQ my recent experience indicates that there maybe only be 2 J reward flights available on any particular flight.

 

[masco131]

Looking to book business class return flights with a velocity reward booking - flights should be available from 120,000 each way - so 480,000 points +fees for two people return.

Availability, understandably seems patchy - I'm thinking maybe being over in the UK July next year but timing is pretty flexible

Had a preference for flying singapore but seems their cheapest reward seats are 174,000 - Qatar seems to be the only option.

Any hints or tips as to the best way to locate available flights or when they might become available via velocity for July next year would be appreciated

Hello,

Qatar releases ticket i believe 361 days out to their own privilege members and 330days out to VA and other partners.


To increase your chances of snagging a ticket, I would say try and be flexible and try and search out of SIN and other South Asian countries. Qatar also flies to ADL, MEL, BNE, SYD and PER so different option out of AUS. And AKL across the ditch.

If you don't have the stash of velocity points i would say to look into buying avios points when they go on sale.

 

[Clayton]

Had a preference for flying singapore but seems their cheapest reward seats are 174,000 - Qatar seems to be the only option.

You could look into starting your award flight from SIN and purchasing a cheap positioning flight on Scoot or similar from Australia to SIN. The unfortunate reality with VA awards are that they are only available from 330 days out but Krisflyer and Aeroplan both can book SQ award flights from 355 days ie 25 days before VA members get a look in. This is the same dilemma mentioned by masco131 above regarding QR award flights. I can see multiple award seats in J for SIN-FRA around 330-320 days out, but not many SIN-LHR, so you may need to fly SIN-FRA-LHR (using LH for the final leg.


Also as you don't have enough points for 2xJ return, perhaps buying additional Velocity points in the next discount sale will help. Previous Velocity discounts below.

Month	Bonus (%)	Discount (%)	Lowest price per point	Notes
July 2024		40	1.4	lowest price, tiered
May 2024			1.60	tiered
March 2024		30	1.51	not tiered
December 2023		40	1.40	lowest price, tiered

 

[antycbr]

Hello,

Qatar releases ticket i believe 361 days out to their own privilege members and 330days out to VA and other partners.

This is a system limitation of VA - Sabre only supports 330 days out. You can get around this by paying the premium to transfer points to Singapore KrisFlyer, which also opens up more availability. it is a premium 1.55 VA = 1 SQ, however generally SQ direct redemptions allow stopovers and have lower fuel fines/taxes.

 

[Mexpirate]

Thanks for the replies!

I have 560,000 points - so enough for reward seats via Qatar but not enough to cover SQ or transferring to other programmes.

Thanks for the heads up on the 330 days, my dates are flexible so should hopefully see something pop up in the next month or so for the outbound leg

Would prefer to travel business the whole way rather than hopping to Singapore and doesn't make sense geographically to fly from anywhere but Perth.

Will check out other European destinations though, flying into Paris or Berlin should be fine

 

[Human]

so enough for reward seats via Qatar but not enough to cover SQ or transferring to other programmes.

Velocity uses exactly the same points table for Qatar and Singapore redemptions. I don’t understand how if you have enough points for one, you don’t have enough points for the other?

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[Mexpirate]

Velocity uses exactly the same points table for Qatar and Singapore redemptions. I don’t understand how if you have enough points for one, you don’t have enough points for the other?

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

It's more that after trawling through months of dates looking for fares, I have come across many Qatar seats for 120,000 but haven't seen a single Singapore seat listed for less than 174,000 - I too had expected them to be the same price

 

[masco131]

Thanks for the replies!

I have 560,000 points - so enough for reward seats via Qatar but not enough to cover SQ or transferring to other programmes.

Thanks for the heads up on the 330 days, my dates are flexible so should hopefully see something pop up in the next month or so for the outbound leg

Would prefer to travel business the whole way rather than hopping to Singapore and doesn't make sense geographically to fly from anywhere but Perth.

Will check out other European destinations though, flying into Paris or Berlin should be fine

You should be able to snag one of the flights out of aus as long as you’re very flexible and just look into other European cities too. You can always get a cheap flight from European countries to LHR


My rule of thumb is try to get the longer flights in business and can sort myself out for the short 4-5 hours.

 

[BriarFlyer]

It's more that after trawling through months of dates looking for fares, I have come across many Qatar seats for 120,000 but haven't seen a single Singapore seat listed for less than 174,000 - I too had expected them to be the same price

With Velocity, the difference in price can be because there's a domestic VA leg included e.g. you search MEL-LHR and the search returns flights for MEL-PER with VA, connecting to PER-LHR via SIN (SQ) or DOH (QR.)

However, I do find the 120,000 price odd ... or is that the price from PER? I've booked SYD-DOH-DUB in business class for 139,000 points.

While you're waiting for the 330-day release, continue to check on the new releases to get an idea of what may be available. Don't limiit yourself to arrivals into LHR. Try other options such as LGW, MAN, AMS, FRA etc. And try departures from various Australian ports.

 

[Mexpirate]

With Velocity, the difference in price can be because there's a domestic VA leg included e.g. you search MEL-LHR and the search returns flights for MEL-PER with VA, connecting to PER-LHR via SIN (SQ) or DOH (QR.)

However, I do find the 120,000 price odd ... or is that the price from PER? I've booked SYD-DOH-DUB in business class for 139,000 points.

While you're waiting for the 330-day release, continue to check on the new releases to get an idea of what may be available. Don't limiit yourself to arrivals into LHR. Try other options such as LGW, MAN, AMS, FRA etc. And try departures from various Australian ports.

Yeah, the Perth rate is 121,000 points. Seems to be 139,000 from East Coast - would explain the pricing I've been seeing for SQ (139,000 + 35,000 = 174,000) being the east coast rate plus a domestic leg from Perth

 

[MooTime]

In a few weeks August 7th I came across 9, yes 9 Singapore airlines J class reward seats for MEL-SIN. Convenient 340pm dep.

Was plenty for other days too.
Short notice, but will suit some.