Hong Kong Airlines - Virgin Australia Partnership

[Rembrandt]

Thanks everyone for the explanations regarding the difficulty of seat reservations. Much appreciated. I now understand that integrating with a proprietary Chinese system to reserve seating isn’t straightforward. Having worked in IT across various roles for over 30 years, I’m well aware of the challenges involved in system interoperability.

What I still find a bit confusing (and please correct me if I’m mistaken) is that I can easily book reward seats on Hong Kong Airlines through VA online, yet I need to call VA to book reward seats on Hainan Airlines. I would have expected these to operate through similar systems, but clearly that’s not the case. This is why I find it easier to book reward seats through Chinese airlines with QFF, it can all be done online (maybe not seat reservation). And the new search tool makes the process even easier.

 

[ben95]

can easily book reward seats on Hong Kong Airlines through VA online, yet I need to call VA to book reward seats on Hainan Airlines

Also while you can book HK airlines economy online you can only book HK airlines business rewards seat by calling VA. Very inconsistent and annoying for sure

I suspect this is because VA’s website is open to scarping by bots, and HK airline / hainan do not want bot scraping their rewards inventory via the VA website

 

[Haplo]

I just booked a ticket today for travel next week on HK Airlines from Sydney to Hong Kong, this is my experience.

1. Searched up availability on seat.aero, it doesnt show under Virgin but shows up under Etihad
2. Call the call center, got picked up within a minute ( i have no VA status), gave the flight date, flight number and the operator was able to find the seat and book for me. 75,000 points got deducted and a separate link sent to collect taxes (no YQ so it is $162, rare find these days), ticket issued within minutes of tax payment.
3. Whatsapp HK airline using the link on the HK airline website, gave the booking reference and select a seat via chat

It could have been a more seamless experience, but I think it will do.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

I couldn't do OLCI on the HK Airlines website because it only accepts the HK Airlines reference / e-ticket number and not the VA one. Thanks for the tip to try WhatsApp in future for seat selection!

 

[Haplo]

Let's see how this goes, I mean 75k plus $168 is a pretty good price considering you can go to rest of APAC at 85k and no YQ. It's obviously not as good as CX but at effectively $900 one way (if value 1pp = 1cent) it's pretty good deal.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Let's see how this goes, I mean 75k plus $168 is a pretty good price considering you can go to rest of APAC at 85k and no YQ. It's obviously not as good as CX but at effectively $900 one way (if value 1pp = 1cent) it's pretty good deal.

Do you mean it's 75k Velocity to redeem HX J to HKG, and if you pay 85k that covers connections from HKG to elsewhere in the HX Asia network?

 

[Haplo]

Do you mean it's 75k Velocity to redeem HX J to HKG, and if you pay 85k that covers connections from HKG to elsewhere in the HX Asia network?

75k is up to 4800 miles which is where SYD - HKG sits, the next band is 85k for up to 5800 miles then 100k for 7000 miles. So you would add the HK leg to your next leg to calculate total miles if the connection is within 24 hours.

Since HKG is 4600 miles you only have 1200 miles for the 85k band and 2400 miles for the 100k band, so I wasnt 100% right when I said rest of asia at 85k, it depends where you go next in asia and could be 85k or 100k points.

Availability in short haul J is usually quite good due to multiple flights a day,

Link to redemption chart

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

75k is up to 4800 miles which is where SYD - HKG sits, the next band is 85k for up to 5800 miles then 100k for 7000 miles. So you would add the HK leg to your next leg to calculate total miles if the connection is within 24 hours.

Since HKG is 4600 miles you only have 1200 miles for the 85k band and 2400 miles for the 100k band, so I wasnt 100% right when I said rest of asia at 85k, it depends where you go next in asia and could be 85k or 100k points.

Availability in short haul J is usually quite good due to multiple flights a day,

Link to redemption chart

Using Points For Flights

Use your Velocity Points to fly to over 500 destinations. Check out our flight reward options and turn your Points into a flight for your next trip or dream holiday today

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

And we can see availability online via Etihad Guest (which should also show on seats.aero)?