Velocity Restores Singapore Airlines Business Rewards

Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer members can finally redeem their points to book Singapore Airlines reward seats in Business Class again.

From today, Velocity Frequent Flyer has restored access to Business Class redemptions on most Singapore Airlines routes, except to and from Hong Kong or mainland China. Velocity reward seats are available to book on the Virgin Australia website, except for flights to/from India which temporarily can only be booked by calling the Velocity Membership Contact Centre.

Velocity members appear to have access to the same reward seats that are available as Business Saver awards through the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. However, Velocity members don’t have access to KrisFlyer Advantage award inventory or flights that are on “waitlist”.

For example, KrisFlyer has Business Saver availability on these flights from Sydney to Copenhagen (via Singapore):

You could also now book the same seats in Singapore Airlines Business Class using Velocity Frequent Flyer points:

The number of Velocity points required is based on the Velocity reward seat table for Singapore Airlines and other partner airline flights. Velocity uses a distance-based award chart, while KrisFlyer uses region-based award charts. Therefore, the number of points/miles required will be different for each program.

The taxes payable appear to be identical when redeeming either Velocity points or KrisFlyer miles. There are no fuel or carrier surcharges applicable when booking Singapore Airlines awards. However, there may be a slight variation in credit card fees.

Singapore Airlines had been blocking partner airlines from accessing its award seat inventory on most of its flights during the pandemic. But it resumed allowing members of partner airline frequent flyer programs including Velocity to book Economy awards last month.

Last week, Singapore Airlines also resumed giving partner airlines access to Business Class award inventory on some of its regional routes. But members of frequent flyer programs other than KrisFlyer and Velocity Frequent Flyer do not have access to Singapore Airlines Business Class seats on long-haul international routes. This was also the case before the pandemic.

From Australia, it’s currently only possible to redeem miles with Star Alliance programs like Air Canada Aeroplan or Air New Zealand Airpoints to fly from Perth, Cairns or Darwin to Singapore. But it is also now possible to book Singapore Airlines Business Class awards from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Adelaide to Singapore using either KrisFlyer miles or Velocity points, meaning Velocity members actually have access to more seats than members of other third-party programs.

It’s still not yet possible to redeem Velocity points for Singapore Airlines Premium Economy or First Class reward seats, and point transfers to KrisFlyer haven’t been restored yet. But Virgin Australia says it is working with Singapore Airlines to bring these options back soon as well.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Velocity reinstates Singapore Airlines redemptions

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 80 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.