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One member this week is pondering the best way to spend their more than half a million Virgin Velocity frequent flyer points.
So I have half a million points at the moment and kinda have a dilemma using them. I was looking at maybe in 1.5 years time to use the points on a Europe / USA trip… That said, it’s a huge amount of points and with flights actually being pretty cheap currently I think I’d sooner pay for the flights. Part of me says, I’ve never directly paid for my points (IE credit card annual fees), use them on a new iPhone and iPad which I do need …. But I know this also isn’t a great use of points.
Our members agree that redeeming the points for flights in Business or First class will provide the best value. Velocity points can be redeemed on Virgin Australia and almost a dozen partner airlines. But there are two standout redemptions in particular.
Business class on Virgin Australia’s A330 flights between Perth and the Australian east coast is regarded as one of the best domestic Business class products in the world. A seat on one of these flights can cost upwards of $2,000! But a seat can easily be had by redeeming Velocity points – either by purchasing a reward seat outright, or by using points to upgrade from economy class. Half a million points would cover more than 7 return trans-continental Business class flights.
Business and First class reward seats on Etihad Airways are the second stand-out Velocity redemption, especially for travel to Europe or the United States. 500,000 Velocity points is more than enough for two return Business class trips between Australia and Europe – or even eastern USA – flying Etihad.
I would *definitely* be using 500k points for 2x pax J return to Europe (Frankfurt for me, but anywhere) on EY. They fly 787 out of BNE (my home port) as well as PER and as I haven’t flown on one yet, I’d love to. 110K points each way per pax… you’ll have 60k left for use locally
One member recommends transferring the points to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. KrisFlyer points can be used to fly to Europe and the USA in the Singaporean airline’s famous First class Suites.
Set up a Krisflyer account and transfer them to book SQ suites to Europe.
While opinions on the best way to use the points vary, our members agree almost unanimously on the worst use. Redeeming points for an iPad – or any other type of merchandise – is extremely poor value and should be avoided!
How would you spend half a million points? Join the discussion HERE.
