I wonder whether you're looking at this the right way.
You lose about 35% of the number of points when you transfer from Velocity to KrisFlyer, but (and admittedly this is just my guesstimate) Velocity points are at least twice as easy to accumulate in Australia.
When you're looking at whether something is worthwhile in the points game, you need to look at it from the perspective both of how many points you need to redeem awards, and how easy it is to accumulate the points in the first place. From that perspective, transferring (relatively) easily-earned points from Velocity to KrisFlyer is a fantastic use of Velocity points.
Example: if I take up a credit card with a sign-up bonus of 80,000 Velocity points, I'm thinking that it's actually a sign-up bonus of 50,000 (ish) KrisFlyer points. And who wouldn't be happy with a credit card sign-up bonus of 50,000 KrisFlyer points?
To sweeten the deal, Krisflyer doesn't have Velocity's high carrier charges.
And to sweeten the deal even more, I can keep those points in Velocity for as long as I like and circumvent the KrisFlyer 3-year expiry.
This is definitely a point that I make myself. Qantas and Velocity points are amongst the easiest to earn if you live in Australia. Naturally for those with American Express, there's more flexibility and options (even if some of that value was recently lost). If you went for the HSBC Star Alliance card, then you have native Star Alliance earning power from the get-go if you want (plus the ability to earn Star Alliance status as well).
That said, the argument only works somewhat to a point (pun intended).
Who wouldn't be happy with a credit card sign-up bonus of 50000 KrisFlyer points? Yeah, sure, anyone would... because there literally isn't another deal (let alone a better deal) out there. So if KrisFlyer is your game, then you'll take it. At one point, HSBC actually had such a sign up deal, but that was for 50 k KrisFlyer natively, no Velocity in-between required.
But you also highlighted something else you pay with the 35% premium by banking into Velocity: the flexibility to keep it there rather than in KrisFlyer where everyone faces the immovable three year expiry on miles. Oh, and also the best inventory of SQ premium seats can be found on... well, SQ, not the partners. If your aspiration is SQ F or SQ R, no choice - you have to redeem with SQ.
Now let's look at some cases.
I have a recent one myself: a couple of years ago, I had to find
any way to get back to Australia from Asia. This was during January, so from an award perspective, that was going to be tough as anything. About a week out from when I needed to fly, I was lucky to find SIN-CNS via SQ website. Even better, it was a J Saver. That's 72k KF miles now (forget what it cost then, might be the same). Converting VA to SQ to make the same redemption would be 97.2k VA points. If it had been available via VA's website as a redemption, it would only cost 74k VA points, though yes I would be up for the hefty SQ carrier surcharges that Velocity levies.
As it stood, was it worth disbursing 97.2k VA points for that flight, or rather an extra 20k? Yes, it got me home, and paying an "extra" 20k VA points or thereabouts was worth it. I'm not sure if it would be worth making a redemption like that
per se, but as I had plenty of VA points and I was short on alternatives, 20k extra was worth it. Easily made up by a credit card signup and then some.
Here's some other cases.
| Route and Class (one-way) | SQ KrisFlyer redemption
(cost in KrisFlyer miles) | VA to SQ transfer, redeem on KrisFlyer
(cost in Velocity points) | VA Velocity redemption
(cost in Velocity points) |
|---|
| SQ Business SYD-SIN | 72,000 (Saver)
103,500 (Advantage) | 97,200 (Saver)
139,725 (Advantage) | 74,000 |
| SQ Business SIN-HKG | 35,500 (Saver)
57,500 (Advantage) | 47,925 (Saver)
77,625 (Advantage) | 44,500 |
| SQ Business SYD-HKG via SIN | 77,000 (Saver)
106,000 (Advantage) | 103,950 (Saver)
143,100 (Advantage) | 89,500 |
| SQ Business SIN-LHR | 108,500 (Saver)
141,500 (Advantage) | 146,475 (Saver)
191,025 (Advantage) | 104,000 |
| SQ Business SYD-LHR via SIN | 141,000 (Saver)
181,500 (Advantage) | 190,350 (Saver)
245,025 (Advantage) | 158,500 |
I put the Advantage prices there as well as Saver, because admittedly on SQ we are all definitely not as lucky as everyone else to find Saver all the time to where we have to go.
The way I see it, let's say I only want to do SIN-LHR in J. That's an extra 40k points or so I need in VA to effect the redemption on KrisFlyer, if I can't find that seat by using Velocity. In my opinion, that's an extra amount that's not to be sneezed at. Also, that's
if the redemption can be found in Saver. While it's arguable whether the extra points are comparable against dodging the Velocity carrier surcharges, it could also be the extra amount which shuts out someone from being able to make a redemption in the first place.
