Velocity Points a scam? [How to Optimise award search]

[mlob]

I have two J awards Brisbane LAX April 2 2017 that I am having to cancel that will be back in the system. Happy to coo-ordinate their release if someone is keen for that date.

 

[Bakks]

Unfortunately, I think you also need to be prepared to accept that there might not be any availability via Velocity for this route. Flights on this route will have to be with partners rather than VA, and in my recent experience that does not bode well for availability through Velocity. And unfortunately, Singapore Airlines no longer flies to/from Athens, so you won't be able to book this route by transferring your Velocity points to KrisFlyer either.

Are you willing to consider getting a flight from Athens to somewhere else to connect with an SQ flight? For example, SQ has availability for next August from Istanbul to Perth in business, for just 53,125 KF miles + USD$292. You'd need to transfer ~72,000 Velocity points to get that number of KF miles, but it's still a lot less than you'd need if a seat was available through Velocity. And I assume you could get from Athens to Istanbul cheaply enough.

Absolutely. Good suggestion re transferring and flying via Istanbul.

I ended up calling them and apparently there is an issue with Etihad flights online. They confirmed availability over the phone for 2 x business class flights at 280kt points.

 

[Jack_OC]

Absolutely. Good suggestion re transferring and flying via Istanbul.

I ended up calling them and apparently there is an issue with Etihad flights online. They confirmed availability over the phone for 2 x business class flights at 280kt points.

Good work. And good to know the actual Etihad availability is better than what is showing online.

 

[JK1964]

Was able to book J reward seats for BNE-LAX-SYD June 2016

 

[mlob]

I have two J awards Brisbane LAX April 2 2017 that I am having to cancel that will be back in the system. Happy to coo-ordinate their release if someone is keen for that date.

It was actually 4th April (my bad) have just cancelled these and they are now sitting available if anyone is interested.

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Been with Velocity for about 10 years. Redemptions have been ( All J Class unless otherwise stated)
Brisbane - Paris RT - Etihad 2012 - Velocity
Brisbane - Queenstown RT - Virgin (PE) 2013 - Velocity
Brisbane - Queenstown RT -Virgin (PE) 2014 - Velocity
Brisbane - Da Nang / Ho Chin -RT Etihad/SQ/Slik 2014 - Velocity
Melbourne - Munich RT - SQ (First) 2015 - Krisflyer
Sydney - Los Angeles - Virgin 2015 - Velocity
Los Angeles - Ottawa - New York - Vancouver - Los Angeles - Air Canada/United - 2015/2016 - Krisfler
Los Angeles - Tokyo - Sydney SQ 2016 - Krisflyer
Brisbane - coughet RT SQ 2016 (up coming) - Krisflyer
Canberra - SFO RT SQ 2017 - Krisflyer.
90% of the points used with Krisflyer have come from Virgin.
These redemptions exclude domestic holidays and flying the wife and/or her family J domestically regularly. So although I accept availability is not what it was via Velocity and the changes to things like Etihad fees and redemption rates really piss me off I have and still get value from my Velocity points it means myself and my family never fly Y and that's pretty amazing.