Very cheap business class points + pay redemptions

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smit0847

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Just booked a 1-way MEL-ADL for end of Feb. Normal fare prices were $109 Saver, $199 Flexi, $499 Business. I fly this route 8 - 10 times a year and these are very normal prices when booking 6 weeks out. Just for the hell of it looked at using points. Saver was 10,800 points all up, Business was only 13,000 points all up.

I jumped on this and then when I went through to pay I was able to do points and pay of 6,600 + $37.

I know people value velocity points differently but I think that 6,600 + $37 for a $499 Business Fare is incredible value (6.6 + $37 for a Saver fare would have been fair!).

I know it's only a 1 hour flight and there is a chance it will not be on a Bizz fitted aircraft and might just be PE but hell, for that price I don't care. I'd pay that for a Saver fare with lounge entry! As a regular Silver who pays for all their own flights and is unlikely to ever be able to afford business class I think this is a great deal.
 
I booked the parentals in J for BNE-SYD-PER return for 6,900 points + $180. each way. Was very pleased with that price.
 
Makes me feel stupid that I burnt 26,000 pts for SYD-MEL J x 2. Should have investigated the points+pay option!

On a somewhat related note, can saver bookings be upgraded to J with points?
 
Makes me feel stupid that I burnt 26,000 pts for SYD-MEL J x 2. Should have investigated the points+pay option!

On a somewhat related note, can saver bookings be upgraded to J with points?

Only Flexis as far as I know!
 
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 just booked 2 x J fares BNE - DRW one way 13800 points + $274 and ADL - BNE 13800 points + $264 ( guess who's going on the Ghan )

I also think that's great value, particularly as the monthly points deposit from Virgin CC just lobbed into my Velocity A/c
 
Until Jan 18 you can go anywhere in J in Australia if you have 6700 points + cash, often at short notice, but it all changes after that !
I've missed something, what happening on Jan 19? I've been loving Points+Pay for PER-SYD and PER-MEL, I pay about the same as an Economy Sale fare, plus some points and get to sit in DJ's fabulous Business class. :)
 
The only problem with this great deal is that no SC's are earned for the flights
 
Until Jan 18 you can go anywhere in J in Australia if you have 6700 points + cash, often at short notice, but it all changes after that !

Which bit is changing? Perth seems to be already on J pricing, and that seems reasonable - or is minimum point thing changing?
 
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Which bit is changing? Perth seems to be already on J pricing, and that seems reasonable - or is minimum point thing changing?

Points wise PER has not changed from PE classic award levels, so I suspect it will go up like all the others despite it having had J for a while now.
 
Points wise PER has not changed from PE classic award levels, so I suspect it will go up like all the others despite it having had J for a while now.

PER-SYD prices at the J points level (for me anyway!) (and the example in post 6 looks like J level)

Not that there is a huge leap from PE to J points....
 
PER-SYD prices at the J points level (for me anyway!) (and the example in post 6 looks like J level)

Not that there is a huge leap from PE to J points....

You are right, they are at J levels already so no change there.
 
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