One point rewards promo??

[Tiki]

Any details yet for Brisbane?

 

[lovestotravel]

I couldn't imagine a worse way to waste my time for low value rewards

 

[moa999]

Agreed.
Would also be interesting to see a plot chart of points balance and last flight, or flights in 2025.

 

[MooTime]

When they say international flight for 1 point, I'm assuming that's on VA metal so a return trip to Fiji or Bali in Y.....~$1200 value.

Worth how long in a Q?
Just a single ticket not all that useful to many, need 2 tickets.

I don't have time, but if I did like many there do I'd wait maybe 4 hours for a free trip to Fiji I guess, then again no guarantee what you could win so a big unknown.

 

[Tiki]

We’re here 05:30 almost 200 people in front. The first few people slept overnight. Many have camp chairs including us. Hopefully there will still be something good. I’m worried about the grab machine if we win flights but they expire before we could use them.

 

[henrus]

I’m about to walk past on my way to work so will share some photos of the crowd.

It’s only a block away so might swing by later in the day but I can’t bring myself to wait more than 30 minutes and potentially leave with just a single lounge pass (effectively worth $65). If there was a guarantee of points of the flight I’d be a little more interested.

 

[henrus]

At about 7:30am, 30 mins before opening the queue stretched ~450 meters up queen st then along the top of George st finally going down Adelaide st.

 

[henrus]

Just walked past again. Queue currently 200m and appearing to cut it off with wristbands. The current front of queue has been in line since 5:30am.

 

[Tiki]

We got in at 11:05, spent 5 minutes looking around. Nothing exciting left in electronics so we did the grab machine. We each got 12,900 points. That’s about 2 months of FlyBuys 4 week promos. We should have camped the night before.

 

[Amanad78]

I got in just before midday, after joining the queue at 6am (320th in queue roughly).

Did the claw machine and got 26,900 points. Happy enough with that.

2 people I met in the queue, 1 got return flight from the claw machine and 1 got a suitcase from the mystery carousel.

Overall, it was a fun morning meeting other people.

 

[Zanzaid]

1:45 update. Small line up the mall still but officials saying probably wasting time as they have exhausted prizes. Still seeing people walk out with bags though... So maybe about to run out or misled

 

[MELso]

Wandered by the Melbourne store tonight - it'll be next door to Royal Arcade in the Bourke St Mall on 19 September.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Wandered by the Melbourne store tonight - it'll be next door to Royal Arcade in the Bourke St Mall on 19 September.

Thanks for that! I was wondering where it was gonna be, hoping not Chapel Street!

I wonder what time to arrive??

 

[kerfuffle]

I wonder what time to arrive??

The night before

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sooooo… I went to the Melbourne event on Friday! Got there about 620am and was about 300 in the queue. Got in just after 11.15am.

Have to say it was really well done, all the staff were fantastic. There were about 20 customers in the store at any time, and it was pretty much 2 or 3 out, and they let another 2 or 3 in. This meant it was never crowded and there was plenty of room to move around and see what was on offer.

Lots of VA staff and a DJ. They welcomed everyone in personally, showed them around, and answered questions. The staff really were great, thanked you for waiting as you entered the store.

There was a vending machine with various scents… I checked the prices while waiting and they were around $180 a bottle. There were scents from Prada and Marc Jacobs for example. There was also some Estee Lauder night serums and Ray Ban sunglasses. You could select any for 1 point, although you couldn’t see the exact style of the sunglasses.

Next up was the claw machine, with prizes of 12900, 26900 points or a trip to Bali, Queenstown or Samoa. I asked when checking out at the end if the trip included all taxes and fees and they confirmed it did. The main reason for the line moving so slowly was the claw machine! Most people were there for about 2-3 minutes each, and there was a line of about 10 at any given time.

The balls are clear plastic, so you can kind of see the points value each. Someone in front of me pointed out that the opaque balls were the ones with the free trips!

Beside that there was a wall with some cabin bags and suitcases, bedding, and memory foam pillows. On the other side was a ‘small appliances’ wall with things like nutribullets. You could select anything you could see. Lots of people were leaving with Nesoresso coffee machines (Di Longhi).

And then right at the back was a ‘mystery’ belt that had VA velocity bags, inside of which was a card with your prize. While there someone won the weber BBQ and was really happy!

Once you got your prize you checked out, they confirmed your velocity membership, did a quick ID confirmation (full name and DOB) then they deducted 1 point from your account. If you win points they credit those at the same time.

As you left the store they were handing out boxed donuts.

On entering the store you left your bag at the entrance… it was really refreshing that you could do that these days! No need to formally cloak check or anything… they had staff looking after it and everyone in queue seemed really friendly.

As i left i estimate those at the end of the queue wouod have had around a three hour wait, maybe a bit more. But it looked like there were plenty of prizes to go around, and the beauty of the claw machine is that they could print unlimited sets of points or trips.

A woman two in front of me in the queue at 620am had also been to the one in sydney and estimated we’d only have to wait an hour… she was a bit off! But she said the queue in sydney at the equivalent time was crazy longer… at least double.

All in all i thought it was really well done. The wait seemed to go quite quickly, everyone in the queue was calm and orderly and having a good time, and the staff once you got inside were so welcoming.

Yes, I got my points!

edited to fix fat-finger typos!