Velocity 50% Bonus offer

[Reiska]

I have around half million Amex points and have just received the offer to switch them over to Velocity and receive a bonus 50% in points. Who thinks this is a good offer and worth taking? Or am I better keeping the points parked at Amex and just allocating them where ever I need for my travels?

I have only ever redeemed points on Qantas - difficult and frustrating. I have need to travel to USA every two years and want to fly to Europe next year.

Appreciate any advice.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

With Amex you can transfer points to a number of airline.

With Singapore Aiarlines now at a one to one (doubled) transfer rate, they are attractive for redemptions including as a Star alliance Reward.


Also American Airlines via SPG...as Amex has also doubled that rate...is also now good.

Plus to Virgin Atlantic,

I have not calculated what Virgin gets you with the 50%.....but compare it with the above 3 programs for your departure and arrival cities..

 

[Reiska]

Thx for the reply lovetravellingoz. I realise that I can currently transfer my Amex points to multiple airlines, but the 50% bonus with Velocity seems attractive. I guess that I need advice as to whether it is really worth locking a large number of points in with Velocity and getting the bonus or forgo the bonus and maintain the flexibility.

 

[stuartfaz]

I have around half million Amex points and have just received the offer to switch them over to Velocity and receive a bonus 50% in points. Who thinks this is a good offer and worth taking? Or am I better keeping the points parked at Amex and just allocating them where ever I need for my travels?

I have only ever redeemed points on Qantas - difficult and frustrating. I have need to travel to USA every two years and want to fly to Europe next year.

Appreciate any advice.

Well, 750,000 Velocity points would get you (from SYD, MEL, BNE or ADL)...
to LAX and back on V Australia (redeem from 94000 points),
then to London, Paris or Rome and back on Malaysia (128000 points)
then to Honolulu and back on Hawaiian (71000 points)
then to Dubai and back on Emirates (286000 points)
then to London again and back on Virgin Atlantic (128000 points)
with around 43000 points left over for a few domestic trips.

Velocity has a pretty good partner list, so, provided you're sure that your travels will be to the US and Europe, then transferring points into Velocity is a good idea.

However, Velocity doesn't really have good connections within Europe (i.e. short haul flights) as of yet, so if you wanted to claim some intra-Europe flights on your Amex points, it may be better to leave a few of them out of Velocity and stick them in a OneWorld or Star carrier.

By the way, welcome to AFF!

 

[Reiska]

Thx stuartfaz, seems like good advice. My understanding is that frequent flyer points aren't good value for short-haul stuff. Ie within Europe, so getting there is probably more important. I also don't believe I would actually do many hops once on the continent.

Any opinions or preferences on Velocity over QFF?

 

[JohnK]

Also American Airlines via SPG...as Amex has also doubled that rate...is also now good.

A reminder that this is no longer the case. Amex will honour the 1000:600 redemption to SPG until September 2008 at which point it reverts back to original 1000:330 redemption ratio.

then to Dubai and back on Emirates (286000 points)
then to London again and back on Virgin Atlantic (128000 points)

Is the Emirates award Dubai in economy? It is interesting that for less than half the points required to go to Dubai you could go all the way to Europe....

 

[ANstar]

but the 50% bonus with Velocity seems attractive. I guess that I need advice as to whether it is really worth locking a large number of points in with Velocity and getting the bonus or forgo the bonus and maintain the flexibility.

Depends what you are after.

IE for Hong Kong

In Y Velocity is 60k, Whereas 80k will get you J return with Virgin Atlantic's program.

Qantas and Velocity both have highly inflated point burn rates compared to other overseas airlines. So I would say even with the 50% bonus, they are still not as competitive as Singapore or Virgin Atlantic's programs.

 

[Bob]

Hi
I too am now faced with the question of which airline and whether to transfer my Amex and Diners points. A couple of questions:
1. Is it only the velocity offer that has a cut off date of 31 May?
2. Does anyone have experience of comparative availability of reward flights across these airlines? I see that the figures being quoted on the brochure are the "reward" and "saver" redemption miles, not the "any seat" or "classic" miles. I see that on SQ for example, that doubles the miles required. I wonder just how easy it is to get the "cheaper" seats, because if you look at the 190,000 SQ miles to get SYD LHR it is no better than QF.
Thanks in advance
Bob

 

[ANstar]

Depending on where you want to fly etc I would advise against transferring AMEX points to Velocity or Qantas - both offer pretty poor international redemptions Versus SQ and VS which are both in the amex program.

Ie SYD-HKG in Y with Velocity is 60K miles, where as with Virgin Atlantic 80k is Business class return.

 

[Bob]

Well I am slowly answering my own question as I get time to chase up info on the web. When I look at points/miles required and factor them by the conversion factors (e.g. DJ 1.5 to 1 MR; SQ 3 to 4 MR, etc), the result is (in Amex MR points):
SYD LHR Return Economy
QF 128,000
DJ 85,333
VS 105,000
SQ 95,000
CX 146,667
SYD LHR Return Business
QF 256,000
VS 180,000
SQ 150,000
CX 233,333

On that basis, DJ comes first, then CX, VS, CX and last and definitely not least (in MR points) QF. Same order for a SYD HKG flight.

However - all this comes to nought if you can't get an award flight. So far I have looked at QF and VS and found that QF has good seat availability SYD LHR SYD (at least in econ and p/econ) every month for the rest of the year, but VS has virtually none. I don't know about the other airlines (As an aside, can you search for DJ award flights on the web? I couldn't find how to.)

Given that I would want to use most of my points for international travel, there is not much value in transferring points to DJ if you can't get seats.

Bob

 

[stuartfaz]

Well I am slowly answering my own question as I get time to chase up info on the web. When I look at points/miles required and factor them by the conversion factors (e.g. DJ 1.5 to 1 MR; SQ 3 to 4 MR, etc), the result is (in Amex MR points):
SYD LHR Return Economy
QF 128,000
DJ 85,333
VS 105,000
SQ 95,000
CX 146,667
SYD LHR Return Business
QF 256,000
DJ 120,000
VS 180,000
SQ 150,000
CX 233,333

On that basis, DJ comes first, then CX, VS, CX and last and definitely not least (in MR points) QF. Same order for a SYD HKG flight.

However - all this comes to nought if you can't get an award flight. So far I have looked at QF and VS and found that QF has good seat availability SYD LHR SYD (at least in econ and p/econ) every month for the rest of the year, but VS has virtually none. I don't know about the other airlines (As an aside, can you search for DJ award flights on the web? I couldn't find how to.)

Given that I would want to use most of my points for international travel, there is not much value in transferring points to DJ if you can't get seats.

Bob

To get availability and prices for DJ reward flights you have to call their membership centre on 131 875. As for availability, Velocity advertise any seat is available on any flight, but the price in points is relative to how much the seat costs to purchase (much the same as domestic redemptions.) The fares quoted on the Velocity site are for the lowest available to the public, so book early if you want to get the cheap ones.

 

[ANstar]

DJ 85,333

SYD LHR Return Business

DJ 120,000

You might want to check those again as I would expect business to to be considerably more as the redemtpions are based on $$$ value.

Also with VS you can use the points to fly Air NZ to the UK in J (180k) and also Singapore airlines for 150k in J (100k for Y)

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Bob,

Also do not forget with SQ that if you book online that the points are discounted by 15%.

With DJ..where did you get those Busines rates?? Link please?

You mention availability. Like you I have been tossing on whether to transfer or leave in AMEX for SQ (or AA) redemption and so I looked at avaialibity.

I am thinking about going to Europe next Xmas. Looking at SQ I could get availability THIS Xmas..and so I would think that I would be right for next Xmas. With Virgin...who knows??

With SQ I also had a wide choice of available desinations and can havea stop over.


So I have decide to leave my Amex points with AMEX. However factor is that I can say have another 6 months or so of points eraning before I book with SQ.

 

[Bob]

You might want to check those again as I would expect business to to be considerably more as the redemtpions are based on $$$ value.

Also with VS you can use the points to fly Air NZ to the UK in J (180k) and also Singapore airlines for 150k in J (100k for Y)

I have probably caused great confusion by quoting the points/miles required in Amex MR points factored by the current promotion exchange rate. I did this in order to show a meaningful comparison across all airlines, rather than show an absolute number of airline points - which are not directly comparable.

Also, you and lovetravellingoz both picked up a mistake in my spreadsheet - the 120,000 for DJ business to London was my error. Thanks.

Do you know if the SQ 15% discount for online bookings is an ongoing feature?

 

[oz_mark]

Do you know if the SQ 15% discount for online bookings is an ongoing feature?

It's written into the T&C's of KrisFlyer, so as ongoing as these things can be.