Wanting to book MEL to ROME using VA points

[chris86]

Hi,
I am new to this forum. I am after some advice on the best way to use my points to book a holiday to Europe.
I am a gold VA frequent flyer and have about 250k points and am looking at booking a honeymoon for myself and wife for the end of the year.
Looking at the VA website i can use the points/pay feature and it will cost me about the 250k points plus about $1000 AUD on top of that (Etihad or Singapore airlines).
Before I do this i just wanted to see if anyone has advice if there would be a better way of booking? Should i wait a couple more months? I have seen that people often transfer points to Krisflyer, is that a good option?
I guess i am hesitant to book as i dont want to find out later that i paid way overs and wasted all my hard earned points haha!

Looking at flying into Rome or Athens around the 26th Dec 2017 and returning Rome or Athens (where ever we didnt fly in to) around the 26th of Jan 2018.

Any assistance and advice is welcome and appreciated!

Thanks,
Chris

 

[htg123]

Hi,
I am new to this forum. I am after some advice on the best way to use my points to book a holiday to Europe.
I am a gold VA frequent flyer and have about 250k points and am looking at booking a honeymoon for myself and wife for the end of the year.
Looking at the VA website i can use the points/pay feature and it will cost me about the 250k points plus about $1000 AUD on top of that (Etihad or Singapore airlines).
Before I do this i just wanted to see if anyone has advice if there would be a better way of booking? Should i wait a couple more months? I have seen that people often transfer points to Krisflyer, is that a good option?
I guess i am hesitant to book as i dont want to find out later that i paid way overs and wasted all my hard earned points haha!

Looking at flying into Rome or Athens around the 26th Dec 2017 and returning Rome or Athens (where ever we didnt fly in to) around the 26th of Jan 2018.

Any assistance and advice is welcome and appreciated!

Thanks,
Chris

I don't believe that the fees for redeeming virgin points on singapore should be that high. THe steep fees are exclusive to etihad premium cabin redemption. If you can see the availability now, then snatch them because premium cabins with seats for 2 aren't always so easy to come by. Also, the cancelation fee is only $60 per person, (much less than paid tickets) so it's certainly worth locking it in IMHO.

 

[bwhouse]

I don't believe that the fees for redeeming virgin points on singapore should be that high. THe steep fees are exclusive to etihad premium cabin redemption. If you can see the availability now, then snatch them because premium cabins with seats for 2 aren't always so easy to come by. Also, the cancelation fee is only $60 per person, (much less than paid tickets) so it's certainly worth locking it in IMHO.

I think the OP was looking at Points + Pay seats rather than reward seats. OP I assume the 250k points + $1000 was for economy tickets?

Unfortunately, you don't have enough points to get return tickets to Europe, assuming you transit AUH, it is ~10,000miles so that works out to be 75k points per person each way in economy or 139k points per person each way in Business. You could get one-way award tickets and buy a return, but one-way paid fares are generally very expensive. Unfortunately you would be in a similar boat if you transferred points to Krisflyer.

If you are looking to fly in premium cabins on points, you may be best continuing to save points up and pay for this trip.

 

[stevied71]

Sorry to high-jack, but what if the OP were to buy economy (Freedom class) and then try to use points for an upgrade, would that work?

Is this achievable on a flight operated by Singapore or Etihad booked through VA website?

What would they need to do?

 

[chris86]

great, thank you all for your feedback.

I am open to a few different options, the question raised by stevied71 is interesting, if I pay cash for the flights will it be possible to use my points to upgrade to business?

I was initially planning on just using points + pay to get economy tickets and then see later if I can get enough points this year for upgrade or pay for upgrade later, not sure if the above is possible and better option?

Once again I appreciate your input

Thanks,
Chris

 

[scwappy]

great, thank you all for your feedback.

I am open to a few different options, the question raised by stevied71 is interesting, if I pay cash for the flights will it be possible to use my points to upgrade to business?

I was initially planning on just using points + pay to get economy tickets and then see later if I can get enough points this year for upgrade or pay for upgrade later, not sure if the above is possible and better option?

Once again I appreciate your input

Thanks,
Chris

Unfortunately not. You can only upgrade on VA metal. Are you wishing to travel in Y or J? You don't currently have enough points to even make one way for 2 in J, but aren't too far off. Getting back may be e pensive though.

 

[bwhouse]

Unfortunately not. You can only upgrade on VA metal. Are you wishing to travel in Y or J? You don't currently have enough points to even make one way for 2 in J, but aren't too far off. Getting back may be e pensive though.

Also important to add, if you want to upgrade international using VA points you need to be at least a Gold Velocity member

You could potentially buy Singapore Airlines economy tickets and then transfer your points to krisflyer and use them to upgrade to premium economy seats (you can only go up one classs) which I believe would be 205k velocity points (38k each person, each way). I have personally never upgraded with Singapore so I can't really comment on the processes.

Points + pay for economy tickets isn't really that great a use of points, but it really depends on what you value. Based on the numbers above you are going to save ~$2,000 (assuming you can get $1,500 roundtrip tickets to Eupore) which means you are only getting 0.8c per point for your 250k points, which most people would say is below their acquisition value (I would happily buy velocity points for 0.8c a point). To put that into context if you used your 250k points to fly one person return to and from LA in business class, it would cost you 191k points all in on an airfare that is usually ~$6,500 which is closer to 3.4c per point. Obviously, you have the problem of finding award availability as well.

Note: Everyone calculates the 'value' of points differently and has an opinion, this is just one way to look at the problem. You are stuck in the annoying spot where you have a substantial points balance, but not quite enough when you need to get two people to and from a location. It really depends on what you value, I personally hate using points to get economy tickets, but that is just me. I have even bought my parents economy ticekts and got them to transfer me points in the past because the 'math' made sense to me, but many people would disagree.

Hope I havent confused you more than you already were, but welcome to the hobby

 

[chris86]

Thanks for the tips. I checked on the VA website and for around the dates I want to travel it would be $4500-$5000 for both of us, so points are taking off about $3500-$4000, so about 1.5c per point... I am planning on flying just after Christmas so maybe flights are more expensive? Wife is a teacher so have to travel in school holidays

Any advice on when the best time to book flights would be? 6 months out? 4 months out? Now?

 

[scwappy]

Thanks for the tips. I checked on the VA website and for around the dates I want to travel it would be $4500-$5000 for both of us, so points are taking off about $3500-$4000, so about 1.5c per point... I am planning on flying just after Christmas so maybe flights are more expensive? Wife is a teacher so have to travel in school holidays

Any advice on when the best time to book flights would be? 6 months out? 4 months out? Now?

It all depends on what value YOU place on your points and your financial circumstances at the time. As you mention above if you can get $4k of value of them, directly after your wedding, you might consider this a fantastic use of points, or you may not. In my view it's not a ridiculously bad use of points. Economy flights over the Xmas period can be pricey.

 

[Oxy]

If you want some more points you could consider signing up for a new credit card, there is a thread here currently listing the best sign up offers. If you encouraged your other half as well it can add up quite quickly. Some cards even have no annual fee for the first year. My partner and I got 200k VA points a couple of years back from 2 Velocity Amex Platinum cards. it will take a couple of months to get the points into your account though. If you decide to go down that path after some research, do someone on here a favour and use a referral link, every one becomes a winner.

Oh but none of that will magically make reward seats available I'm sorry. My advice is the same as what others have said, take what you can get as soon as you can. Just double check the cancellation or rebooking fees first, as ALL programs have their own rules that are different.

Perhaps also you could book with miles to a stopover point, then book a cash fare from there. For example you might be able to find a seat from Aus to somewhere in Asia, spend a night or two, then buy a separate ticket from Asia to Italy/Greece return. This has the advantage of not needing so many miles, not being quite as hard to find availability as you only need 1 longhaul sector to be available (the hardest seats to find), and you get a stopover on the way.

Good luck!

 

[chris86]

If you want some more points you could consider signing up for a new credit card, there is a thread here currently listing the best sign up offers. If you encouraged your other half as well it can add up quite quickly. Some cards even have no annual fee for the first year. My partner and I got 200k VA points a couple of years back from 2 Velocity Amex Platinum cards. it will take a couple of months to get the points into your account though. If you decide to go down that path after some research, do someone on here a favour and use a referral link, every one becomes a winner.

Oh but none of that will magically make reward seats available I'm sorry. My advice is the same as what others have said, take what you can get as soon as you can. Just double check the cancellation or rebooking fees first, as ALL programs have their own rules that are different.

Perhaps also you could book with miles to a stopover point, then book a cash fare from there. For example you might be able to find a seat from Aus to somewhere in Asia, spend a night or two, then buy a separate ticket from Asia to Italy/Greece return. This has the advantage of not needing so many miles, not being quite as hard to find availability as you only need 1 longhaul sector to be available (the hardest seats to find), and you get a stopover on the way.

Good luck!

Ok great, thanks for the advice! I think I will get the american express explorer card, as i am with ANZ and they are nuking the american express black that i have with them anyway (ANZ not going to offer american express after August). I should be able to get the 100,000 points, may not use them for this trip depending on when i get them.
Sorry to be a noob but i dont know how the referral link works? If someone knows and posts a referral link for the american express explorer card I will happily use it!

Cheers,
Chris

 

[JessicaTam]

Have a look at this sub-forum for various referral offers: Referral Offers

If you get an Explorer, then use your own referral link for your wife to use once your card has been activated.

[mod hat]
Referrals can't be posted anywhere but there, so they mustn't be posted in this thread.
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