Virgin Australia - Etihad Codeshare points

[Virgin Bart]

Hi all!

So I just booked a return flight to London flying VA via the VA website. Was pretty happy with a decent price, only flying economy so nothing expensive.

.... And then the realisation hit me.. I'll be getting half the SCs and VFF points than I would if I booked direct through Etihad?!

Surely, surely, surely, VA will not penalise me for booking direct with them... Surely not

Any good news welcomed. Bart.

 

[chrisjrn]

It seems that you're right -- if you booked a 'discount economy' fare class on Virgin then you will get fewer SC and points, as Etihad does not have a "discount economy" set of fare classes on their own flight codes.

I'm not certain here, but you'll probably have paid less for your Virgin fare than the cheapest Etihad fare operating on the same flight.

 

[Virgin Bart]

It seems that you're right -- if you booked a 'discount economy' fare class on Virgin then you will get fewer SC and points, as Etihad does not have a "discount economy" set of fare classes on their own flight codes.

I'm not certain here, but you'll probably have paid less for your Virgin fare than the cheapest Etihad fare operating on the same flight.

My thoughts exactly.. So as soon as I realised I checked... Sure enough, 30GBP cheaper. So 140SC gone, for ~$40. $0.29/SC.

Boy have I learned from this...

 

[AaronBradford]

Hehe, yeah, I made sure when I booked my SYD-CDG-SYD flights that they were EY flight numbers as the earnings are way better. The only good news for you is that next time you'll be aware of this little peculiarity.

 

[chrisjrn]

I guess if you made the booking within the past 24 hours, you could see if you can get a cancellation without penalty... Even if the fees for cancellation are minimal, if you think the points are worthwhile, you may as well do it.

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

Does anyone know how Velocity Points credit for a booking thats made for Premium Economy on VA metal from SYD to CDG (or any onward connection with EY, this is just my upcoming trip as an example) via AUH when booked through VA?

I understand that obviously you'll earn a base of 1.25 points per mile for the Y+ legs. But for the EY connection from AUH which is Y, is the earn rate:

• 0.5 ppm (being the discount economy rate?),
• 1 ppm being the full fare rate and the same rate as other Y travel on EY?
• 1.25ppm, as that's the ticket class booked?

I wish there was a way to see what ticket class you were actually booking using the booking interface on VA's website - just to know what class the ticket is for the AUH-CDG leg would get us all out of trouble.

 

[chrisjrn]

If you book a Premium Economy fare SYD-AUH-CDG, you get Premium Economy earn rates for SYD-AUH followed by Economy AUH-CDG.

The precise rates will be determined by your fare classes, and are categorised here: Status Earn Fare Class| Velocity Frequent Flyer

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

If you book a Premium Economy fare SYD-AUH-CDG, you get Premium Economy earn rates for SYD-AUH followed by Economy AUH-CDG.

The precise rates will be determined by your fare classes, and are categorised here: Status Earn Fare Class| Velocity Frequent Flyer

Correct - and there are four different earn rates for economy. My question is how does one determine prior to seeing their boarding pass what exact fare class they have purchased for that given sector?

 

[chrisjrn]

You should be able to read your fare class on your E-Ticket well before you check in. Not sure how you can determine it from VA's booking engine, though

 

[notzac]

Last time I checked, you would get whY+ points and status credits for the full journey, as all flights in the reservation are booked in to the one fare class.

To find what that fare class is (assuming you're using the Virgin Australia website to book), select your flights and then on the "3. Confirm" step, view the source of the page and scroll down until you see something like:

<a href="javascript:popFLIF('201204191515', 'SYD', 'AUH', 'VA', '29', 'Boeing 777-300ER', 'R');"  class="flight va first">

That single letter after the plane type is the fare class. In this case, it's fare class R (i.e., whY+).

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

Last time I checked, you would get whY+ points and status credits for the full journey, as all flights in the reservation are booked in to the one fare class.

To find what that fare class is (assuming you're using the Virgin Australia website to book), select your flights and then on the "3. Confirm" step, view the source of the page and scroll down until you see something like:

<a href="javascript:popFLIF('201204191515', 'SYD', 'AUH', 'VA', '29', 'Boeing 777-300ER', 'R');"  class="flight va first">

That single letter after the plane type is the fare class. In this case, it's fare class R (i.e., whY+).

That is one hell of a trick, Notzac. I examined the source code and it reads that both SYD-AUH and AUH CDG are ticketed as R, which is, as you rightly point out, whY+ earn rate.

This makes a 11,000 odd velocity point difference to my expectations.

 

[chowman]

I spoke to Velocity Call Centre earlier in the week regarding a retro claim for November last year. I was told my Etihad flight was not eligible for pts/SC's due to it being a class "T", (discount economy?) and the Etihad terms and conditions have changed so that pts/SC's were no longer earned on this class from Nov going forward. My BP clearly states "Y" so I'm going to dispute it, but maybe you're booked onto class "T"?

 

[notzac]

I spoke to Velocity Call Centre earlier in the week regarding a retro claim for November last year. I was told my Etihad flight was not eligible for pts/SC's due to it being a class "T", (discount economy?) and the Etihad terms and conditions have changed so that pts/SC's were no longer earned on this class from Nov going forward. My BP clearly states "Y" so I'm going to dispute it, but maybe you're booked onto class "T"?

The boarding pass for most airlines typically only indicates class of service, not fare booked. I'd recommend checking your eticket to confirm exactly what fare class you paid for.

Having looked at what I have for the fare classes from late last year, it would seem that economy fare class T and business fare class X no longer earn anything.

 

[Bolthead]

You should get 180 SC and 12600 points approx. SYD - CDG I was Gold back then.

 

[bigbadbyrnes]

Ok we'll I've got my itinerary from VA and the ticket codes for my trip from Brisbane to Paris and back in Y+ are as follows:

BNE->SYD Premium Economy "O"
SYD->AUH Premium Economy "O"
AUH->CDG Economy "H"
CDG->AUH Economy "H"
AUH->SYD Premium Economy "O"
SYD->BNE Premium Economy "O"

Therefore, I'm assuming that for the "O" ticketed sectors the earn rate will be 1.25 points per mile (add 100% Plat status bonus).

The H ticketed sectors will earn at either 1 point per mile (add 50% Plat bonus), the Etihad earn rate, or the 0.75 point per mile (add 100% plat bonus), the VA earn rate. For a Plat, this works out to be the same rate of course, but not sure about the base.



I don't know how to think about the "R" ticket type that was outputting when I used notzac's trick of digging out the ticket type from the booking page on the website... perhaps there is no way of knowing unless you do it over the phone?

I'll let everyone know what ends up on the boarding passes and how it all works out on my return in early May.

 

[carwashhair]

SYD->AUH Premium Economy "O"
AUH->LHR Economy "H"
LHR->AUH Economy "H"
AUH->SYD Premium Economy "O"

I've got the ticket classes for the above flights in May/return in June (ticket purchased thru VA). I am trying to clear up whether the AUH>LHR "H" Class flight will earn 30 SC's at a VA Discount Economy rate (since the fare was purchased through VA) or at an Etihad Full Fare economy rate of 60 SC's (since the flight is on EY metal). Will be watching this thread and hoping seasoned travellers here mighht be able to shed some light.

 

[serfty]

...I am trying to clear up whether the AUH>LHR "H" Class flight will earn 30 SC's at a VA Discount Economy rate (since the fare was purchased through VA) or at an Etihad Full Fare economy rate of 60 SC's (since the flight is on EY metal). Will be watching this thread and hoping seasoned travellers here mighht be able to shed some light.

The flight number is generally the important factor.

i.e. Basing on that and otherwise your post, without checking further:

VA flight number - 30
EY flight number - 60