Did you know that Delta Air Lines operates a couple of fifth-freedom flights within Asia? The US-based carrier and Virgin Australia partner has daily flights to Tokyo’s Narita Airport from both Singapore and Manila.
These fifth-freedom Delta intra-Asia routes present a couple of interesting opportunities for members of Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program. Not only can you redeem Velocity points for a seat on these flights, but they also create an interesting status run opportunity.
Redeem Velocity Points for Delta’s intra-Asia flights
As Delta is a partner of Virgin Australia, you can redeem Velocity points for Delta flights. This includes Delta’s two intra-Asia routes:
A Velocity reward seat from Singapore to Narita will cost you 22,300 Velocity points in Economy or 49,500 Velocity points for Delta One (Business) Class, one-way. In addition, taxes and carrier charges of $124.80 are payable.
From Manila to Narita, you’ll pay 17,800 Velocity points for Economy or 35,500 Velocity points for Delta One. Approximately $74 in taxes are also applicable.
Delta uses lie-flat seats in a superior 1-2-1 configuration on these flights. So flying Delta One (Delta’s international Business class) should be quite a pleasant experience.
You can book Delta reward seats using Velocity points on the Virgin Australia website for the Singapore-Tokyo route. But if you wish to redeem Velocity points to fly Delta between Manila and Tokyo, you’ll have to call Velocity Frequent Flyer. This route cannot be booked online.
Delta Status Run without visiting the United States
Delta Air Lines offers some great Virgin Australia status run opportunities. In particular, booking a Delta Comfort Plus fare can be great value because these are not much more expensive than Economy. But Comfort Plus earns Velocity points and status credits at “premium economy” rates, which is 3x the usual discount Economy rate.
The Delta Comfort Plus seat comes with extra legroom in a private cabin, along with priority boarding, blankets and various other amenities. But the seat itself is the same as a regular Economy seat (similar to intra-Europe Business Class, but without the blocked middle seat).
These Delta intra-Asia routes – especially Singapore-Tokyo – make it possible to complete a Delta status credit run without visiting the USA. Delta charges around $467 for a return ticket from Tokyo to Singapore in Economy, or $523 return from Singapore to Tokyo. For this trip, you would earn 60 status credits. But by booking Delta Comfort Plus, you’ll earn 180 status credits for a round-trip. The fares from Singapore to Tokyo start at around $808 return, so that works out to be less than $4.50 per status credit.
Singapore Airlines also flies from Singapore to Tokyo, and you can also earn Velocity status credits for Singapore Airlines flights. But Singapore’s fares are considerably higher on this route!
Would you like help using your frequent flyer points?
Australian Frequent Flyer offers a personalised service to take the hard work out of redeeming your frequent flyer points!
Our Frequent Flyer Concierge team can help you to find the perfect flights using your points. Just let them know how many points you have and where you would like to go, and they’ll prepare an itinerary for you.
