Hong Kong Airlines - Virgin Australia Partnership

[Lucass]

Can VA frequent flyers book on Hong Kong airlines new Sydney-Hong Kong flights. I'm confused about VA and HX partnership, are they actually partners?

 

[AIRwin]

Some info on the individual partner pages on the Velocity website:

Hong Kong Airlines

Earn Points with Hong Kong Airlines when you travel in an eligible fare class with a HX flight number and operated by Hong Kong Airlines or Virgin Australia. You can also earn Status Credits and redeem Reward Seat. Learn more now.

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[Saab34]

One airline that I didn’t expect to make it this far after the pandemic. Hopefully they can grow the Aussie schedule a bit.

 

[ben95]

One airline that I didn’t expect to make it this far after the pandemic.

HX seems to have carved out a decent gap in the market being the “Value Carrier” in HK. There’s plans to take 3 787-8 from HU and resume flights to North America from Hong Kong.

Now that begs the question - would velocity reopen redemption with HNA group? China is a market where velocity redemption is weak (have to go via SQ and limited in terms of cities that you can reach). QF members can redeem MU+CX which makes it far stronger than velocity.

 

[Chicken]

"From 17 June 2025, Velocity members can redeem Points for flights across the Hong Kong Airlines network."

Cool. So how do I check availability?

"Reward Seats on Hong Kong Airlines must be booked through our Membership Contact Centre. Please note available travel dates will vary for each route and not all flights will have Reward Seats available."

Does anyone know how to check availability, instead of just calling Virgin call centre blindly?

 

[HS-TQE]

HX seems to have carved out a decent gap in the market being the “Value Carrier” in HK. There’s plans to take 3 787-8 from HU and resume flights to North America from Hong Kong.

Now that begs the question - would velocity reopen redemption with HNA group?

HNA Group no longer exists and was liquidated.

HNA's former subsidiary HNA Aviation has been spun off into its own company (and was bought by the Liaoning Fangda Group and is now a subsidiary of Liaoning) taking control of both HU and HX.

FF redemptions/earn and burn has been recently restored between VA/HX on the Velocity page.

 

[ben95]

HNA Group no longer exists and was liquidated.

You are right. I meant HNA aviation.

FF redemptions/earn and burn has been recently restored between VA/HX on the Velocity page.

Great news, looks like it’s not just HX but redemption is also now available to HU/JD/GS as well. I’d expect plenty of availability on those flights due to the abysmal loads but I guess without the ability to search up rewards seats online it makes it a bit more difficult to see. Time will tell how useful this redemption route would be.

 

[AFF Editor]

Does anyone know how to check availability, instead of just calling Virgin call centre blindly?

Indeed, reward seats are back now on Hong Kong Airlines, as well as Hainan and Capital Airlines! (But not Tianjin Airlines.)

There are some tips for checking availability in this article:

Velocity Reinstates Hainan, Capital & Hong Kong Airlines Redemptions

Velocity Frequent Flyer members can finally redeem points on Hong Kong Airlines, Hainan Airlines & Capital Airlines for the first time in more than five years.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[jeppetto367]

Indeed, reward seats are back now on Hong Kong Airlines, as well as Hainan and Capital Airlines! (But not Tianjin Airlines.)

There are some tips for checking availability in this article:

Velocity Reinstates Hainan, Capital & Hong Kong Airlines Redemptions

Velocity Frequent Flyer members can finally redeem points on Hong Kong Airlines, Hainan Airlines & Capital Airlines for the first time in more than five years.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Great for rewards seats to come back, I've had nothing but good experiences with the HNA airlines!

A quick note in the article. You mention that Bejijng Capital Airlines fly Qingdao to London and Moscow, and Hangzhou to Madrid and Lison, but they also fly from Hangzhou to Moscow, I booked MEL-HGH-SVO just a few days ago.

 

[AFF Editor]

A quick note in the article. You mention that Bejijng Capital Airlines fly Qingdao to London and Moscow, and Hangzhou to Madrid and Lison, but they also fly from Hangzhou to Moscow, I booked MEL-HGH-SVO just a few days ago.

You're quite right. I've updated the article.

 

[Obzerva]

Given that SQ no longer hold a financial interest in VA to argue against it, I wonder what the chances of a VA codeshare appearing on HX flights through to HKG is.

Surely would be a way to give VA some extra revenue and from HX's perspective fill a few seats on flights given they don't have the name recognition in the Australian market.

 

[SYD]

Given that SQ no longer hold a financial interest in VA to argue against it, I wonder what the chances of a VA codeshare appearing on HX flights through to HKG is.

Surely would be a way to give VA some extra revenue and from HX's perspective fill a few seats on flights given they don't have the name recognition in the Australian market.

I was quite surprised to read this about the SYD<->HKG route in the SMH this morning:

“The new daily flights will increase capacity by 20 per cent and cement the destination as the third-busiest international route from Sydney, behind Singapore and Auckland.”

I would not have guessed that (probably would have said LAX) but that explains why QF lob A380s on that route from time to time.

So it would make sense for VA to try and codeshare and capture some of that direct traffic. Although, under the new VFF rules, flying via SIN on VA codes could help with the 50% SCs haul…

 

[Chicken]

I would not have guessed that (probably would have said LAX)

That makes sense.

I recently volunteered at a film festival in Sydney, and one of my roles was to sell raffle tickets. I would approach cinema goers and say "Would you like to get a ticket? On top of supporting us which is a non profit, you could be flying [insert a US flag carrier here] to LA!"

Of everyone I approached, except 2 people, responded basically with this: 'Why would I want to go there."

I would sometimes counter with "Hey, it's LA, that's California, and California is not America!". And people would still say "Nah" or "Still the same".

Some people would say "I would actually love to win the private screening", so I asked those "You would rather a private screening over a trip to LA?". Everyone said yes.

So it would make sense for VA to try and codeshare and capture some of that direct traffic. Although, under the new VFF rules, flying via SIN on VA codes could help with the 50% SCs haul…

Australia and Hong Kong is now a duopoly. If you actually want to end in Hong Kong and not continue to Europe, CX and QF are charging really high fare. I think here is an opportunity for Hong Kong Airlines to take some of the passengers off CX and QF, especially to start with Hong Kong diaspora.

 

[jase05]

Great for rewards seats to come back, I've had nothing but good experiences with the HNA airlines

Hainan are one of my favourite Chinese airlines and have had several fantastic flights with them so happy to see redemptions come back