bullerdude
Established Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2011
- Posts
- 1,369
I think using the minimum number of points for domestic J fares with the maximum amount of 'pay' possible is currently the very best value for using Velocity points. It seems like with lots of J domestic you can use as little as 6,900 points and then pay only 10 - 20% of the J fare on top. Although you might never cough up the whole J fare yourself that means that you can use just 6,900 points to pay for 80 - 90% of the value of the J fare, even for long routes like PER-SYD. From my estimates that might put the value of a velocity point using it this way as high as 10 cents +?
I know for most frequent flyer programs the best way to use points is either J fares of J upgrades but I think the real value here using as few points as possible.
I agree that J is definitely the way to go if you want to get the maximum value from your points. I did some calculations on a number of dummy bookings last week (10+ domestic and international) to work out the average value of points.
This is what I found:
- Economy Reward Seat -- $0.01
- Premium Economy Reward Seat -- $0.02
- Business Reward Seat -- $0.04 to $0.06
- Business Upgrade from Flexi -- $0.06 to $0.10
I personally think that flight upgrades are the best because not only do they have a higher value on average but you also earn status credits/points on the flexi fare originally purchased.
However, I think virgin should look at allowing Saver Fares to be upgraded to Business to match Qantas as they allow some of their discount economy fares to be upgraded (Did it last week).