There’s only less than two weeks left to redeem Virgin Australia Velocity points for Delta flights, but the partnership is going out with a bang! Delta award availability on the Sydney-Los Angeles route is now surprisingly good, with Velocity reward seats available to book on various dates in both Premium Economy (Delta Premium Select) and Business (Delta One)!

Virgin Australia will formally its frequent flyer partnership with Delta Air Lines on 13 June 2022. This has already been replaced with a new Virgin Australia partnership with United Airlines, which launched last week.

From 13 June, Velocity members will no longer have access to any status benefits, or be able to earn Velocity points and status credits with Delta.

Velocity members can still redeem their points for Delta Air Lines flights until 12 June 2022, even for travel dates up to 11 months into the future. Existing Velocity reward bookings will continue to be honoured for up to a year after the partnership ends.

It’s possible to redeem Velocity points to book award travel up to 330 days (11 months) in advance. This means you can currently redeem your Velocity points now to book Delta flights, if reward seats are available, for travel until the end of April 2023.

From 13 June 2022, it will no longer be possible to change the route on an existing Delta reward seat booking. But you will still be able to change the date on existing Delta reward tickets for up to a year from the ticket issue date, even after 13 June 2022, subject to availability.

Velocity redemptions on Delta are generally good value because the same (cheaper) reward chart that applies to Virgin Australia flights is also applicable for Delta bookings.

However, Virgin Australia does seem to be adding carrier charges to some Delta redemptions. On a one-way Economy reward seat booking from Sydney to Los Angeles, for example, the Virgin Australia website shows a “Reward Seat carrier charge” of $49.30 as part of the fare breakdown. This is not charged on Velocity reward seat bookings on United Airlines flights.

Delta Air Lines award availability

If you’d like to use your Velocity points to fly with Delta from Sydney to Los Angeles, there is currently quite a lot of award availability if you are flexible with dates. Some flights even have four Business Reward seats available!

SYD-LAX is Delta’s only route to/from Australia.

You can of course also redeem Velocity points on other Delta Air Lines routes. Delta does have some premium cabin availability on other routes as well, including domestic flights within the USA and some flights from the USA to Canada, central America and Europe.

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.