Hong Kong Airlines - Virgin Australia Partnership

[Ansett Nostalgic]

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.



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.

Film festival attendees on average are going to be pretty left-wing so no surprises with those reactions.

What's the best way to search HX award availability before calling Velocity?

 

[nightelves]

Does anyone know if reward seats with Hainan is available to other destination such as Vietnam?

 

[jeppetto367]

Does anyone know if reward seats with Hainan is available to other destination such as Vietnam?

I'm pretty sure you can redeem HU Reward seats to anywhere in the world.

On the Status Credit earn page it says: "Our partnership allows you to earn Status Credits when flying on eligible Hainan Airlines operated flights and fare classes within or between Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Greater China (China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan)."

But on the Redeem page it says: "From 17 June 2025, Velocity members can redeem Points for flights across the Hainan Airlines network."

So looks like they've specifically worded it so that you can redeem flights to anywhere. I found the info here: Hainan Airlines

 

[mrflyby]

What annoys me is that for a number of the VA partners that you can only book via points redemptions instead of also being able to book as a paid ticket when you want to do so, although yes it can be more expensive normally to book via a VA.
I would sometimes prefer to book via VA rather than direct with that partner airline if it's not a substantial price difference.

 

[markis10]

What annoys me is that for a number of the VA partners that you can only book via points redemptions instead of also being able to book as a paid ticket when you want to do so, although yes it can be more expensive normally to book via a VA.

Probably a regulatory thing where they don’t have approval for codeshare rights for competition or capacity reasons, or Bain just cannot be bothered for the perceived return.