Good option home from NY

[Ben6]

Planning a family trip to the States next year and after so far failing miserable to get 4 J seats to the West Coast, I've turned my attention to coming home from New York. As there are 2 flights a day from NY-AUH and AUH-MEL on EY, I have secured 2 J flights separately on each flight (with a 2 day stopover). Total damage is about 700K in points and $260 AUD. We don't all travel together but the kids think that is fun anyway and as they're all separate itineraries, we get 2 lots of Chauffeur services before and after each flight. I actually booked the whole thing through the Velocity site, so took advantage of the current 15% VA transfer bonus out of Amex. Interestingly, the points cost was slightly lower on the VA site than direct through EY - go figure! Plus the taxes are in AUD, so no exchange rate issues.

You can't select seats or book the Chauffeur online this way but it's easy to do through the call centre. Very happy all round!!!

 

[Dylan O'Connor]

How did you book EY flights using VA points on the Velocity website?

 

[Ben6]

Sorry may have not been clear enough. They are ticketed by VA but operated by Etihad. The exact same J reward seats that show on EY Guest also show on the velocity web site. Once booked, they essentially become EY tickets except that seat selection and chauffeur's need to be selected via the call centre, not online.

 

[mooingchicken]

Sorry may have not been clear enough. They are ticketed by VA but operated by Etihad. The exact same J reward seats that show on EY Guest also show on the velocity web site. Once booked, they essentially become EY tickets except that seat selection and chauffeur's need to be selected via the call centre, not online.

I think the question was more because EY flights don't show up as a booking option online/people always seem to run into issued and end up always have to call to book these... maybe they are fixing this issue

 

[Ben6]

I see, my experience is that all the available J reward seats on Etihad Guest were showing on VA in real time, so maybe the glitches have been fixed.