Ease of getting a Virgin award business class seat to the US?

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poppet

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Hi there. Long time no post for me having had our travel plans put on hold for a while due to me having a baby this year! I was debating whether to put this under Virgin or AMEX so mods please move if you think it is better placed elsewhere.

My husband and I have over 400k AMEX points which sadly can't be converted to Qantas FF points. We want to use them for award business class tickets to the US, but the question is which airline? Virgin is a possibility but I have no experience in flying them, let alone knowing how to nab an award seat. I also don't want to transfer the points over to Virgin and then find out their award seats are few and far between. Travel dates are flexible - sometime in 2013 would be good.

Does anyone know what my chances would be of being able to redeem points for two business class tickets between Australia and Los Angeles on Virgin sometime in 2013? It doesn't matter which city we fly out of as we are from Adelaide so will need to find our way to Mel, Syd or Bne for the flight anyway

If not Virgin, then any ideas on a better way to use these points to get to the US?

Thanks!
 
poppet said:
Hi there. Long time no post for me having had our travel plans put on hold for a while due to me having a baby this year! I was debating whether to put this under Virgin or AMEX so mods please move if you think it is better placed elsewhere.

My husband and I have over 400k AMEX points which sadly can't be converted to Qantas FF points. We want to use them for award business class tickets to the US, but the question is which airline? Virgin is a possibility but I have no experience in flying them, let alone knowing how to nab an award seat. I also don't want to transfer the points over to Virgin and then find out their award seats are few and far between. Travel dates are flexible - sometime in 2013 would be good.

Does anyone know what my chances would be of being able to redeem points for two business class tickets between Australia and Los Angeles on Virgin sometime in 2013? It doesn't matter which city we fly out of as we are from Adelaide so will need to find our way to Mel, Syd or Bne for the flight anyway

If not Virgin, then any ideas on a better way to use these points to get to the US?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Ring them (Virgin) and ask about availability. :cool:
 
Members on this site will check on Expert Flyer for you ( a small courtesy fee may be required ).
Singapore Airlines has most availability but takes up to 28 hours to the US - but you can go in the A380.
Virgin has direct flights from BNE to LAX and reasonable chance of finding seats if you are flexible on dates. ( Hint -If you cant find return try one ways !)
You should also consider NZ via Auckland.
There are other choices with amex but via Asia and take a long time.
 
400K points will get you 2 reward seats to the US in business, but availability can be hard to find unless you search 8+ months in advance.

Call velocity would be your best bet as they can tell you about availability not only on Virgin, but also on partner airlines where velocity points can be used.
 
I can certainly recommend VA for ADL-SYD-LAX return.

I flew with VA for the first time in Y+ over on Dec 1 & returned Dec 14 and was very impressed with the service. Being upgraded to J on the SYD-LAX flight also helped.
 
It is probably best to ring them, but I just did random date searches in Jan/Feb/Mar/May/Aug and found no classic award availability in Biz. Any seat Biz was over 340k.
 
TiredOldFlyer said:
Members on this site will check on Expert Flyer for you ( a small courtesy fee may be required ).
Singapore Airlines has most availability but takes up to 28 hours to the US - but you can go in the A380.
Virgin has direct flights from BNE to LAX and reasonable chance of finding seats if you are flexible on dates. ( Hint -If you cant find return try one ways !)
You should also consider NZ via Auckland.
There are other choices with amex but via Asia and take a long time.
Click to expand...

Both NZ and SQ require more VFF points to LA than going on VA metal (SQ much, much more).

You do not have enough points for these 2 airlines so will have to choose VA metal.
 
I've just checked biz award availability with VA to LAX from Mel and Syd at random dates from Feb to May. Return I'm showing on the dates I picked
189100 Points + $829 AUD or 292800 Points​
 
smit0847 said:
Both NZ and SQ require more VFF points to LA than going on VA metal (SQ much, much more).

You do not have enough points for these 2 airlines so will have to choose VA metal.
Click to expand...

SIN are 183,000 points business saver SYD to SFO ( with the 15% online booking discount) but their taxes are higher.
 
TiredOldFlyer said:
SIN are 183,000 points business saver SYD to SFO ( with the 15% online booking discount) but their taxes are higher.
Click to expand...

Is this 183K KF points or VFF points? I was talking about if the OP was using VFF points to book SQ flights through VFF. I know there is a big increase in points required to fly SQ A380 through VFF - I think it would be at least twice the amount of points required to fly on VA metal.

SYD-SIN-ICN-SFO also takes twice the amount of time the direct SYD-LAX would take.
 
mella2007 said:
I've just checked biz award availability with VA to LAX from Mel and Syd at random dates from Feb to May. Return I'm showing on the dates I picked
189100 Points + $829 AUD or 292800 Points​
Click to expand...

Are you Gold or Plat? I couldn't see any regular reward seats just any seats :<
 
smit0847 said:
Is this 183K KF points or VFF points? I was talking about if the OP was using VFF points to book SQ flights through VFF. I know there is a big increase in points required to fly SQ A380 through VFF - I think it would be at least twice the amount of points required to fly on VA metal.

SYD-SIN-ICN-SFO also takes twice the amount of time the direct SYD-LAX would take.
Click to expand...

As the OP has AMEX points I would presume a direct transfer to the chosen airline.
I did mention that it can take a long time on SIA but if you have the time, as good as Virgin is, Singapore is, in my opinion and all reports, as good as it gets.
 
Thank you. I forgot about expert flyer - I have an account that I can reactivate and search for award flights. I haven't used this function before so will see how I go. We will be travelling with a baby so most direct route is preferable although I agree that Singapore is a much better airline to fly with. Thanks again all. I can't wait to get my travel mojo back!
 
With Qantas and Virgin you need to book 10 months + in advance to get the business seats at circa 190k

I would fly a Virgin' 777 over a Qantas A380 in J as I much prefer their service/product

However the lounge at Los Angeles is still a joke, but that's for say 2 hours vs 15 hours flying in a better seat

So I'd be transferring the points to Virgin/Velocity but only IF you are going to be booking 10+ months in advance

I am pretty sure that even with no points you could use the velocity site and check for seats before transferring poitns
 
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I agree with checking for one way bookings, more seem to show up that way. The other tip is to click on each of the tabs no matter what they show- I've found that there are award flights once you are looking at the content rather than just looking at what points the tab is indicating.
 
lobo76 said:
I must be doing it wrong :/
Is there a limit to the number of award flights you can get in a year?
Click to expand...

No limit. Just keep checking even one way dates, or give the call centre a call. If you get stuck, send me a PM with your dates and I'll let you know what is showing before you call them (if it's not showing up on your end)
 
mella2007 said:
No limit. Just keep checking even one way dates, or give the call centre a call. If you get stuck, send me a PM with your dates and I'll let you know what is showing before you call them (if it's not showing up on your end)
Click to expand...

Thanks mella, I'm not looking at traveling myself on award, was just looking for the OP. But thanks for the offer :)
 
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