Velocity Adds Non-Stop United Trans-Atlantic Rewards

Last week, we wrote that the Virgin Australia website was not displaying any reward seat availability on non-stop United trans-Atlantic flights.

As it’s a partner airline of Virgin Australia, members of Virgin’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program can redeem points to book United Airlines flights. This can be a great use of Velocity points, especially on routes between Australia and the USA.

But, for some reason, the Virgin website was not showing any availability on non-stop trans-Atlantic routes. Instead, Velocity members were only being offered less attractive connecting flights via other US cities.

This limitation also meant that Velocity members had access to a very limited selection of United Business Class reward seats between the United States and Europe. That’s because the Virgin website won’t show Business reward availability if there’s no Business or First Class availability on the connecting domestic flight – as there often isn’t.

Well, there’s now a very positive development on this topic…

Non-stop United flights now appear on the Virgin Australia website

As of today, United reward seats now appear on a wide range of non-stop trans-Atlantic routes on the Virgin Australia website. This means, for example, that you could redeem 22,300 Velocity Points + $50.70 for a one-way Economy redemption from New York to London.

The same flight would cost 49,500 Velocity Points + $50.70 in United Polaris Business Class, which is a great deal.

We’ve also found Velocity reward availability on many other United trans-Atlantic routes including Chicago-Paris, Denver-Frankfurt, London-Los Angeles and Houston-Amsterdam.

Note that, in general, you’ll find more United Airlines Business Class reward availability when booking within 1-2 months of departure.

With this new availability, you could even more easily construct a quasi round-the-world trip using Velocity Points. For example, you could fly United from Australia to the USA, then to Europe, and finally fly back from Europe to Australia on Singapore Airlines or Qatar Airways.

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 aviation, economics & 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.