Virgin Australia flights to Doha now on sale

[PERLHR]

I am looking at traveling to Berlin and wondering whether the VA/QR option might be the way to go.

The VA coded flight leaves at 3:10pm and gets into Doha around 11:00pm I could build in a long layover and get some sleep for 6 hours then continue onto Berlin, there was a Oyrx hotel which is airside so I wonder if my plan seems reasonable.
Whether do a book the flex fare for the return home on VA16 to get better chance of upgrade.

I would have looked at the Finnair option but with Ukraine/Russian airspace closed it adds a few hours to the journey.

Decisions, decisions, which lounge is used for the VA/QR flight out of Brisbane, and to work out the points upgrade required on the Doha-Brisbane sector.

Is price important to you or are you stating you really want the VA status credits? But confused on you saying the longer option via AY and HEL yet you seem to be happy to spend hours in a DOH airport transit hotel? Always personally thought the VA price was very high via DOH but maybe it's come down?

 

[Bundy Bear]

Is price important to you or are you stating you really want the VA status credits? But confused on you saying the longer option via AY and HEL yet you seem to be happy to spend hours in a DOH airport transit hotel? Always personally thought the VA price was very high via DOH but maybe it's come down?

Generally i am booking economy, so I will pay more if I get a shot of an upgrade, and if flying economy day time is going to be much better.

I am VA Gold and will be QF Platinum so I am more after schedule, one night flight home is better than 2, and if I can break the journey to sleep for a few hours then my recovery is going to be much better.

 

[anat0l]

Whether do a book the flex fare for the return home on VA16 to get better chance of upgrade.

No one's been able to comment on the mechanics of how upgrades will work. I can only presume that if an upgrade exists at the time you request it, it is fulfilled immediately, otherwise you go on a waitlist. When on the waitlist, fare type will always exceed status (i.e. a Flex Gold will outrank a Choice Platinum, if it comes to that).

Decisions, decisions, which lounge is used for the VA/QR flight out of Brisbane, and to work out the points upgrade required on the Doha-Brisbane sector.

Out of BNE, the NZ lounge is used.

It's 69k points to upgrade from Flex; 99k points to upgrade from Choice.

Didn't want to start a new thread for this question:

I booked flights in January prior to the devaluation, if I change dates, do I simply pay a change fee (in points or $, how much?) and retain the original price in points? Probably not going to be able to use the booking so wondering if I can push it to later in the year and keep the price.

The website is a bit vague about this; I found these sources:

• Velocity Program Changes FAQs
• Using Points For Flights

The latter link seems to suggest that you'll have to pay the new prices.

Any voluntary changes (by you) to Reward Seats booked before 21 January 2025 will, from 21 January 2025, require cancellation and refund (if applicable) of the original ticket. Any new International Partner Airline Reward Seat ticketed from 21 January 2025 will be according to the new Points redemption table.

...which seems a bit rough.

Probably worth a call to check, particularly if you're a Platinum.

Also, do the seats go back to the inventory as being available to be rebooked?

My gut tells me no, but I'd rather defer to someone else here who knows better.

 

[zainman]

No one's been able to comment on the mechanics of how upgrades will work. I can only presume that if an upgrade exists at the time you request it, it is fulfilled immediately, otherwise you go on a waitlist. When on the waitlist, fare type will always exceed status (i.e. a Flex Gold will outrank a Choice Platinum, if it comes to that).

Out of BNE, the NZ lounge is used.

It's 69k points to upgrade from Flex; 99k points to upgrade from Choice.

The website is a bit vague about this; I found these sources:

• Velocity Program Changes FAQs
• Using Points For Flights

The latter link seems to suggest that you'll have to pay the new prices.

...which seems a bit rough.

Probably worth a call to check, particularly if you're a Platinum.

My gut tells me no, but I'd rather defer to someone else here who knows better.

Yeah I have a feeling they will force me to cancel and re-issue for a new date which is their way of getting the new (higher) prices and the co-payment (which from memory also increased). Sad that I won't be able to do that Q-suite at that decent price that I paid prior to 21 Jan. First world problems...

 

[PERLHR]

I just don't understand VAs policy or who is con trolling the pricing on flights from Aus via DOH to Europe. I was pricing with date flexibility to UK and via google options came up using the same flights bookable via BA, QR VA and IB. Each was cheaper than VA and offered as BA Gold card holder seat choice and lounges etc. VA was more expensive and as it was on QR metal, offered no choice of seats whatsoever. There is little or no incentive to book via VA even for a SC if you hold status with BA.

 

[MattA]

After all the hassles of seat selection, I discovered I was able to do it online last night using the Qatar website. Was even able to get an extra leg room seat.
Ticketed by QR and on a QR codeshare flight number.

+1 to this. Just booked a work trip to the UK later this year (in Y, sadly). VR ticketed, QR operated, and was able to select extra legroom seats on the QR website for all 4 legs at no cost as VA WP.

Quite surprised given my low expectations of VA's tech infrastructure and partner integrations, plus varying reports about seat selection fees I'd read online, but I guess the extension of free seat selection to VA status pax is a relatively recent thing.

Pretty happy though as I'd been tossing up between SQ and QR/VA - barely anything in it on price between the three options, but based on a dummy booking on SQ only one leg had extra legroom seats available -- at $$$ -- whereas they turned out to be wide open on the QR flights on my dates. First time flying Y on QR (last time I was in a Qsuite...) but anyone have any input on the best Y seats? MEL-DOH is on a 777 (this one I think: QR Boeing 777-300ER type 77P - AeroLOPA | Detailed aircraft seat plans) so I went for 19D which seems to have a heap of extra space with two rows missing a seat ahead of it. Other legs are on an A350-1000 and 787-9 so just went for an aisle seat in the first extra row. Appreciate any input from anyone who has flown these configs while it's not too late to change...

 

[PERLHR]

+1 to this. Just booked a work trip to the UK later this year (in Y, sadly). VR ticketed, QR operated, and was able to select extra legroom seats on the QR website for all 4 legs at no cost as VA WP.

Quite surprised given my low expectations of VA's tech infrastructure and partner integrations, plus varying reports about seat selection fees I'd read online, but I guess the extension of free seat selection to VA status pax is a relatively recent thing.

Pretty happy though as I'd been tossing up between SQ and QR/VA - barely anything in it on price between the three options, but based on a dummy booking on SQ only one leg had extra legroom seats available -- at $$$ -- whereas they turned out to be wide open on the QR flights on my dates. First time flying Y on QR (last time I was in a Qsuite...) but anyone have any input on the best Y seats? MEL-DOH is on a 777 (this one I think: QR Boeing 777-300ER type 77P - AeroLOPA | Detailed aircraft seat plans) so I went for 19D which seems to have a heap of extra space with two rows missing a seat ahead of it. Other legs are on an A350-1000 and 787-9 so just went for an aisle seat in the first extra row. Appreciate any input from anyone who has flown these configs while it's not too late to change...

However this was ticket by QR and operated by QR from what I read above. Try ticketed by VA and operated by QR. That I believe is the issue?

 

[MattA]

However this was ticket by QR and operated by QR from what I read above. Try ticketed by VA and operated by QR. That I believe is the issue?

Yeah, I'm VA ticketed on QR metal (existing codeshare arrangement though, not the new VA1-29 flights; maybe seat selection is still an issue for those ones?)

 

[BrianQQ]

How is the Europe Sale that they're holding having fares to LHR on Y for $2k+ in OCTOBER, heck that's more than QF.