Melbourne to London in business - what are my options?

[Deon]

I'm looking at planning a Europe trip around Jul-Sep next year, flying into LHR.

I have about 200,000 points and am Velocity Gold (will be Platinum by the time I fly).

I'm not a great flyer and flying in J definitely helps me relax a little and manage the flight a bit better. I never thought I'd ever be able to manage a flight half way across the world, but my wife's family are going and want us to come along and I'd love to make it happen.

I was playing with some options and found MEL - HKG (VA69) then 6hr layover then HKG - LHR (VS207).

Looking at the VA upgrade using points page, it looks like I can upgrade using points for MEL - HKG (27,500 points), but not the HKG - MEL journey (presumably because it's a VS flight).

What are my options here? If I could only upgrade one leg, I'd want it to be the longer one but this is the VS one. Can I book directly with Virgin Atlantic somehow? What about SQ? Is it better to book two single tickets rather than a connecting MEL - LHR? Is there anything else I can consider?

Cheers!

 

[Mattg]

How many people are travelling, and are you looking to redeem points or just upgrade the VA flights?

You'll be able to upgrade any Virgin Australia operated flights with Velocity points - IF there is award availability - but for flights to/from HKG you would need to book the Freedom fare.

You can of course redeem Velocity points for an outright reward seat on both Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic.

Assuming two people travelling, I would buy a Virgin Australia Freedom ticket from MEL to HKG and then request a points upgrade. Then, redeem Velocity points for confirmed Business Reward seats on Virgin Atlantic from HKG to LHR. You'd have two different tickets, but with ~6 hours in HKG you will have plenty of time to collect your luggage and check in with Virgin Atlantic.

To book VS awards you'd need to call Velocity.

 

[Deon]

How many people are travelling, and are you looking to redeem points or just upgrade the VA flights?

Two of us. I'm happy to pay for Econ and then upgrade with points so the points stretch a little further. I understand MEL-HKG is worth 27,500 which would already take me up to 110,000 points (half my balance)

You'll be able to upgrade any Virgin Australia operated flights with Velocity points - IF there is award availability - but for flights to/from HKG you would need to book the Freedom fare.

Happy to book the Freedom flight so we're eligible to upgrade, just more concerned about the VS leg

You can of course redeem Velocity points for an outright reward seat on both Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic.

As above, once I use the points to upgrade the VA leg, I definitely don't think I'll have enough for 2x2 reward seats HKG-MEL

Assuming two people travelling, I would buy a Virgin Australia Freedom ticket from MEL to HKG and then request a points upgrade. Then, redeem Velocity points for confirmed Business Reward seats on Virgin Atlantic from HKG to LHR. You'd have two different tickets, but with ~6 hours in HKG you will have plenty of time to collect your luggage and check in with Virgin Atlantic.

To book VS awards you'd need to call Velocity.

Thanks for the summary, but I'm starting to think this might be a bit tough to achieve. I read somewhere that the Hkg-LHR reward seat will be 83,500 points which means factoring in the VA upgrade will total close to 450,000 points - more than double what I have. I only wish there was a way to pay for the Y fare and upgrade on VS like there is on VA. I've even considered buying Velocity Points but at $1172/50,000 I'll be paying close to $5,000 to get enough (ignoring the purchase limit of course!)

 

[futaris]

Consider buying points on AA, Alaskan or Lifemiles, if you want to travel in Business.

 

[RooFlyer]

Consider buying points on AA, Alaskan or Lifemiles, if you want to travel in Business.

But make sure there are award seats available first!

 

[Oxy]

You're going to be short of points for two of you so it requires a bit of planning. You have time so you could apply for some credit cards, virgin money have a nice promo at the moment on their high flyer I think it's 120k bonus.
If you want outright reward seats with points you'll need over 500k for 2 return. Perhaps a cash fare mel-hkg-mel, upgrading only the return leg if it's tight and then outright J redemptions for hkg-lhr-hkg. That should take required points down to about 350k or so. Guessing if you're close to platinum you will be earning a few more points soon so.

 

[ozstamps]

Personally I'd wait for an Etihad Sale, BUY the Biz tickets for the $5000 or so RT and pocket a ton of SC and miles at the end of it. Pool all SC to your wife and she will be Play or close, at end of it all if you get creative and add a few domestic connect segments in.

If you are Plat you can use the FIRST CLASS lounge in Abu Dhabi.

 

[fitzy6]

Hi there, long time reader but not much of a poster. Similar to the OP I'm keen for some thoughts and reccomendations on J class redemption options from Melbourne to London:

I’ve got a trip planned for mid December 2019 to mid January 2020 for my partner and I that I’m looking to redeem approximately 350k velocity points and was hoping to get some thoughts on the best use of these points (knowing that we don’t have enough for a full J class redemption)

I’m not keen on the high taxes with Etihad so I guess that leaves us with either Singapore Airlines or Virgin Aus / Virgin Atlantic via Hong Kong. What are peoples thoughts and recommendations on these two options:

Option A: One way J class redemption on Singapore Airlines by transferring miles to Krisflyer (returning on a paid Y fare). Cost of 162,750 velocity miles per person (currently available for a mid december flight). My concern with this option is that the one way returning flight is likely to be quite expensive unless I can somehow book the redemption and return in Y on the same ticket that may help?

Option B; Return J class redemption on Virgin Atlantic from Hong Kong to London (then doing Melbourne - Hong Kong return on a paid Y fare). Cost of 167,500 velocity miles per person. It looks like Virgin Atlantic J class has mixed reviews but have read that Hong Kong is likely to be one of the first routes to have their new A350’s at some stage in 2019? If we did this option we would stopover for a couple of nights in Hong Kong. With a mid January return we would have to wait another month or so until availability opens up for our return date.

Any other recommendations to the two options above? We vaguely thought about possibly heading to the US after London on the return home if this provides any other ideas? Will also have an additional 50k velocity points or so in the next 2-3 months but I’m conscious that J class redemptions might be mostly gone by then for such a peak travel period.

Thanks for taking the time to read and provide any reccomendations.

 

[hossein_au]

Your Option A is not really viable as one-way Y would be prohibitively expensive. I like your Option B, as it will have you in J for the longest part of the journey (Asia-Europe is longer than Australia-Asia). But as you have noted, seat availability could be an issue.

I am not familiar with VS and therefore cannot comment on whether there is going to be reward seats available for a trip 10-month out. Why not book the outbound flight now, and book the inbound when it becomes available (assuming one-way requires half the number of points of a return ticket)?

 

[cityloop]

I just completed your option B yesterday. I purchased J flights to HKG on VA and used points for a J reward on VS HKG-LHR return. You have to call and go through the trouble of manually finding dates or use an online tool to search for available seats. I seemed to have no trouble finding dates for peak period and booked about 9 months in advance.

VS J is the poor cousin of VA J by far! VS current 'coffin class' seating is tight, not private and not comfortable, but not unbearable. The food to be honest is atrocious. Service is ok. But for a reward seat it's ok. If you are able to get on the new aircraft with the refreshed layout then I'm sure this would be a different story.
The Plaza Premium lounge in Hong Kong though is exceptional! The VS arrivals lounge at LHR is a nice albeit simple lounge. The departure lounge at LHR is excellent. So these factors made up for the on board experience.

 

[Gold Member]

VS J is the poor cousin of VA J by far! VS current 'coffin class' seating is tight, not private and not comfortable, but not unbearable. The food to be honest is atrocious. Service is ok. But for a reward seat it's ok. If you are able to get on the new aircraft with the refreshed layout then I'm sure this would be a different story.

Agreed. Sadly, even their latest aircraft business cabins are below average. I would actually go out of my way to avoid VS having recently flown them a couple of years ago HKG-LHR-LAX on the VA RTW special $3K fare.

My advice is to find a sale fare on a reputable carrier with nice business class (eg. SQ, EY, QR etc) that departs HKG or even nearby cities. If you have to reposition elsewhere in SE Asia, consider it a free stopover that you would have otherwise paid for. Crediting miles (and status credits) will be an added value you can add to your business case.