Business Class to London from Sydney using points

[deanasec]

Hi All,

My partner and I are new to VA FF and we've accumulated roughly 105k points each, we're having trouble figuring out if we can:

a) Redeem our points for a business class fare and pay the difference in cash if we don't have enough points.
b) Redeem our points at all for business class if we have only just signed up to VAFF and don't have any special "status".
c) Get a seat in the first place to London or if they book out fast, or if there are generally any other tricks to booking a business class flight (like looking closer to flight time etc).

We're looking at heading off around May of this year.

Beginner questions to you all I'm sure, so if you have a link to where we can school ourselves up on the in's and out's of VAFF, or where we could have found the above information in case we overlooked a FAQ or Wiki it would also be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for any and all feedback.

 

[flying_duck]

Hi deanasec, I'm by no means an expert but I can answer with what I know. Others may pipe up.
a) Redeem our points for a business class fare and pay the difference in cash if we don't have enough points.
VA has a points + pay option for flight redemptions, yes.

b) Redeem our points at all for business class if we have only just signed up to VAFF and don't have any special "status".
Yes you can provided you pay for the business class seats with points/pay. If you bought economy tickets, for example, you couldn't upgrade without status.

You may have a secondary option transferring these points to Krisflyer, but you wont get to London with 100K VFF points each in business.

c) Get a seat in the first place to London or if they book out fast, or if there are generally any other tricks to booking a business class flight (like looking closer to flight time etc).
I believe they are released on singapore 1 year in advance. They can be very difficult to find. Perseverance seems to be the biggest key.

We're looking at heading off around May of this year.
Probably not enough time for a points redemption, but I could be wrong and you could get lucky. I'm trying to upgrade an existing flight in May (just 1 seat) and theres nothing on VA on that flight or 5 days either side.

Edited to add: Most of these answers can be found on the virgin australia or velocity frequent flier websites. You may also find a google search with site:australianfrequentflyer.com.au (i.e search terms of "velocity points to krisflyer site:australianfrequentflyer.com.au") of very good use to you.

 

[cjd600]

b) Redeem our points at all for business class if we have only just signed up to VAFF and don't have any special "status".
Only gold and platinum status VFF's can redeem points for international long haul flights.

Are you getting confused with long-haul points upgrades?

Anyone with points can redeem points......

 

[flying_duck]

Yep, apologies. edited.

 

[greenfish]

a) A reward seat to London is 125,000 points + cash on Etihad / VA - there is no option to reduce the number of points for a reward seat - only increase the number of points to reduce the (small) amount of cash required. So budget on 125000 points.

There have been some 15% off the number of points promotions in the past.

b) No problem to book without status

c) Seats are available, need to be flexible and spend time looking. There is info on this forum on how to search (e.g. using the Etihad reward search)

 

[deanasec]

Thanks so much for the information guys it has made things much clearer, really appreciate it.

 

[day-heg]

Thanks so much for the information guys it has made things much clearer, really appreciate it.

This is the beauty of AFF... we've all learned from here and we can pass on our learnings!

Have just booked flights for me & Mrs for LHR-MEL rtn. Can confirm the 125k minimum per pax SYD-LHR, so for a couple you'll need 500,000 return. You have the option to pay the taxes with points, but its terrible value, so don't, pay cash!

Outbound from Aus the taxes are minimal (circa $80 per pax), but leaving the UK you get hammered with the Passenger Duty departure tax, so was about $450 per pax (and this will vary with the exchange rate). If you have the flexibility and the inclination to spend some time in Europe at the end of your trip, think about departing from a European city back to AUH - your savings in taxes may well offset the cost of travel/stay in Europe.

I was on the Velocity website booking flights the full 330-odd days out (just booked my return for first week of Dec) and availability was reasonable online, maybe four J seats per leg, but obviously these will go fairly quickly. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to get two reward seats.

Going either way, be flexible with your routing; Etihad fly to Heathrow obviously but also Manchester, Dublin & Edinburgh. And coming back, going to MEL via SYD or BNE (or any other combination) will only cost you $30-$50 extra for the VA leg (also in business) and the same 125,000 points per pax, so don't rule it out!

 

[BriarFlyer]

The AFF Knowledge Centre has an Ultimate Guide to VFF (or similar title) which I found really informative as a newbie. Check the Member Services drop-down menu. I guess you do need to be a member to access these guides.

 

[deanasec]

Great insight day-heg i hadn't considered the tax would be different depending on departure location. Thanks for that nugget of info!

I'll also be sure to check out the ultimate guide.

Cheers!