Virgin Australia flights to Doha now on sale

[justinbrett]

View attachment 418470
Relatively good but not great.

Ah! I was looking at SYD not PER. That explains everything.

 

[SYD]

Ah! I was looking at SYD not PER. That explains everything.

Yeah, $9-$10k ex SYD. That’s a big pass. Even $7k ex PER is still pretty expensive thanks to the Oz “tax”.

I paid A$3k ex CGK for QR J for the trip I’m currently on.

 

[bernardblack]

I was looking at dates where the SYD vs PER premium was not significant. I found return J fares to FCO (low taxes makes it good for comparison) in October for about $8400 from PER and $8600 from SYD on the same dates.

 

[Brizz]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere - Virgin has a pretty detailed page on the new Doha flights, and FAQ and a bunch of other info that answers questions like:-

- when do reward seats go on sale
- what lounges are they using
- how do I select my seats
- etc

Virgin Australia Doha Flights

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[levelnine]

Confirms that reward seats are only available after the deval:

You will be able to book Reward Seats for these flights from 21 January 2025, for flights expected to commence June 2025 onwards (subject to regulatory approval). Reward Seats are subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply.

 

[WilsonM]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere - Virgin has a pretty detailed page on the new Doha flights, and FAQ and a bunch of other info that answers questions like:-

- when do reward seats go on sale
- what lounges are they using
- how do I select my seats
- etc

Virgin Australia Doha Flights

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Confirms that J on the VA flights does get Al Mourjan, which is good. Seems like the Platinum and Gold experience is largely the same though, except for a slightly different lounge in DOH...

 

[simmomelb]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere - Virgin has a pretty detailed page on the new Doha flights, and FAQ and a bunch of other info that answers questions like:-

- when do reward seats go on sale
- what lounges are they using
- how do I select my seats
- etc

Virgin Australia Doha Flights

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Great find re the lounges!

Although this is ridiculous re seating...

• How do I select my seat on my Virgin Australia flight between Australia and Doha?
  
  Please call our Contact Centres either at the time of booking or after a booking is made to select your seat.

Say I am travelling with a companion and I select 2 business class seats, yet there aren't 2 available that are together and I have paid, then what?
So before payment I need to call to see if 2 seats are available together, what decade is this again!
The fact that the booking page takes you to the seat selection page (which is pointless), then doesn't direct you to call them on the same page to confirm seating, shows they have poorly implemented this from a UI perspective.

 

[justinbrett]

Confirms that J on the VA flights does get Al Mourjan, which is good. Seems like the Platinum and Gold experience is largely the same though, except for a slightly different lounge in DOH...

Consistent with what is given to oneworld FFs. Even Beyond members get shunted to the WP lounge.

 

[Rebus]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere - Virgin has a pretty detailed page on the new Doha flights, and FAQ and a bunch of other info that answers questions like:-

- when do reward seats go on sale
- what lounges are they using
- how do I select my seats
- etc

Virgin Australia Doha Flights

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

No additional baggage for status members. From memory this is also the case when traveling on a QR operated VA codeshare although IIRC passengers in Y each received 30kg of checked luggage which could be split across multiple items.

 

[serfty]

Hadn't noticed this:

Get up to 20,000 bonus Velocity Points when you fly to Doha and beyond with Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways*​

Book an eligible Virgin Australia flight between Australia and Doha by 20 January 2025, and travel between 12 June and 30 September 2025. Velocity members will earn 10,000 bonus Points for return Economy flights, and 20,000 bonus Points for return Business flights. Flights are subject to regulatory approval. Eligibility criteria and T&Cs apply.*

Spoiler: Terms

*Velocity members can earn bonus Velocity Points (“Bonus Points Offer”) when they: 1) book an Eligible Flight between 12.01am AEST 12 December 2024 and 11.59pm AEST 20 January 2025 (“Booking Period”); 2) add their Velocity membership number to the booking before travel; and 3) travel on the Eligible Flight booked in the Travel Period between 12.01am AEST 21 June 2025 and 11:59pm AEDT 30 September 2025 (“Travel Period”). An Eligible Flight is a Virgin Australia marketed international long haul flight, operated by Qatar Airways for Virgin Australia (with a VA flight number VA1, VA2, VA15, VA16, VA 21, VA22 or a QR flight number QR8400, QR8401, QR8404, QR8405, QR8406, QR8407), between an Australian port and starting, ending or transiting through Doha, Qatar, that normally earns Velocity Points. Eligible Flights can be booked on the Virgin Australia website, Qatar Airways website or via a travel agent. Changes made within the Booking Period to an existing booking originally made before the Booking Period do not qualify the booking as an Eligible Flight. If Velocity members meet the Bonus Points Offer criteria, they will receive: 5,000 bonus Velocity Points for a one-way Economy Eligible Flight; 10,000 bonus Velocity Points for a return Economy Eligible Flight; 10,000 bonus Velocity Points for a one-way Business Eligible Flight; or 20,000 bonus Velocity Points for a return Business Eligible Flight. Velocity members who meet the Bonus Points Offer criteria will be allocated the bonus Points within four weeks of their travel date. The bonus Points will be awarded to the Velocity membership number listed in the Eligible Flight booking that meets the Bonus Points Offer criteria. The member details on the Velocity membership number must match the passenger travelling on the Eligible Flight booking. Bonus Velocity Points will be applied to the originally purchased fare class and any upgrades (example: from Economy to Business or First Class) will only attract bonus Velocity Points as originally booked and ticketed. Additional airline partner and Velocity membership terms and conditions apply.

 

[simmomelb]

It's a shame those 10,000 to 20,000 bonus points won't include Melbourne, given that the flight must be taken by 30 September, even though Melbourne flights will go on sale from early Jan.
Oh well, hopefully, they offer some other incentive when they go on sale.

 

[Secco]

When they finally release Velocity J seats, will Plantinum members get priority

 

[WilsonM]

When they finally release Velocity J seats, will Plantinum members get priority

VA members don't get priority on domestic reward seats, so can't imagine they'll get priority on these flights

 

[henrus]

When they finally release Velocity J seats, will Plantinum members get priority

Given they’re not offering points upgrades, bid upgrades or even extra luggage for platinum members expect very few J reward seats to be released!

 

[Secco]

Given they’re not offering points upgrades, bid upgrades or even extra luggage for platinum members expect very few J reward seats to be released!

Thanks. I've got my J flight to Europe (Oct 25) using Velocity points with Qatar. Hopefully I get the return flight (for Dec 25) when they become available with Qatar in early January, or if any become available with Virgin later in January

 

[ols]

Given they’re not offering points upgrades, bid upgrades or even extra luggage for platinum members expect very few J reward seats to be released!

More flights = more J reward seats.
Hopefully

Anyhow I think I grabbed a pink unicorn.
2 x F reward seats On the A380 from Perth before we lose it

 

[SCM]

How come I can search something like SYD - MAD but not MAD - SYD ? Even changing it in the url doesn't work, but you can book return flights. Very weird.

The cost of all these is pretty astoundingly bad as well.

 

[henrus]

How come I can search something like SYD - MAD but not MAD - SYD ? Even changing it in the url doesn't work, but you can book return flights. Very weird.

If you’re talking about cash fares (not using points) then you won’t be able to buy a ticket from Madrid (or any port originating outside of Australia for that matter) as Virgin don’t have the rights to sell tickets to Australia only flights from Australia.