Burning Virgin Atlantic miles on SQ - availability?

[Caversham04]

HI all

Does anyone have any recent experience on the availability of redemptions, burning Virgin Atlantic miles on Singapore Airlines (either economy or business)? I am thinking of buying 20,000 miles in the current 25% bonus promotion, to top my account up to the level needed to fly ADL-SIN in J on SQ in August 2015. The miles will cost around $500, but I won't splash the cash if there's not much chance of redeeming them

Thanks
Caversham04

 

[dajop]

My advice would be to call them to see if they have availability on/around your desired dates, BEFORE buying any miles.

I have contacted them a couple of times about economy redemptions and I cross correlated with krisflyer, lifemiles and ANA availablity - all of which were wide open for awards - yet Virgin Atlantic had no availability on SQ :evil:

 

[Caversham04]

My advice would be to call them to see if they have availability on/around your desired dates, BEFORE buying any miles.

I have contacted them a couple of times about economy redemptions and I cross correlated with krisflyer, lifemiles and ANA availablity - all of which were wide open for awards - yet Virgin Atlantic had no availability on SQ :evil:

Thanks; I'm not entirely sure when I want to fly, but I can build the trip around the availability of the miles flight (if the boss is happy!!), so that sounds like a good way forward, particularly if the availability is as poor as you say.....

 

[JohnK]

I have read availability is poor.

I have a few miles left but don't want to waste them going to Europe.

They do transfer to Hilton at 3:2 but again dont get a chance to visit worthwhile Hilton properties.

 

[knasty]

From what I've read previously it's just 380 and 77w which is restricted; you have a better chance aiming for 773, 772 etc. I am not surprised; SQ redemptions required fewer miles than VS to Europe, which is odd.

 

[SydneySwan]

I tried to book an award on SQ in J using VA miles to UK in March / April for travel in October. VA could apparently find no availability at all in J though on some dates they could find availability in Y but the price was ludicrous - the taxes were $1370 on top of the points at a time when you could book direct on SQ for about $1890 including taxes. I can't remember how many points VA wanted but I think it was around 150k!

FWIW, I also tried using my VA miles on Air NZ in J and even though Air NZ apparently had some availability, VA could never find it.

After several calls to VA redemption centre I came away with the distinct impression that VA only ever wants you to redeem your VA miles on VA!

 

[tinkybelle]

I have had no trouble booking virgin to USA using VA miles the taxes are exactly the same also miles burn is the same

 

[Caversham04]

I have had no trouble booking virgin to USA using VA miles the taxes are exactly the same also miles burn is the same

More reassuring than some of the other replies - on balance, though, I may give it a miss and top up my VS miles using VA flights once I've retained Platinum, and hope for another offer in due course.