Vietnam Airlines’ Great Premium Cabin Award Availability from Australia

Want to use points to get to Asia or Europe in the comfort of Premium Economy or Business Class?

While you can get lucky at times, it’s often hard to find multiple reward seats on convenient flights that are available for booking with Qantas or Velocity Points.

This is where international frequent flyer programs – and flexible points currencies that you can transfer to a variety of different airlines – can come in really handy! If you have American Express Membership Rewards Points, for example, you have the option to transfer these to over a dozen different airline and hotel programs.

You can often find good Premium Economy and Business availability to Asia and Europe through Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer or Cathay, so transferring points into either of these programs can be worthwhile. Another good option that few people consider is Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

You can redeem Virgin Atlantic points on Vietnam Airlines

UK-based Virgin Atlantic (not to be confused with Virgin Australia) is part of the SkyTeam alliance. This means you can redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points (known officially as “Virgin Points”) to fly with other SkyTeam airlines. These include Garuda Indonesia, which also has excellent Business Class award availability from Sydney and Melbourne to Bali and Jakarta, as well as Vietnam Airlines.

The neat thing about Vietnam Airlines is that it typically has great Premium Economy and Business award availability on the following routes between Australia and Vietnam:

• Sydney-Ho Chi Minh City
• Sydney-Hanoi
• Melbourne-Ho Chi Minh City
• Melbourne-Hanoi
• Perth-Ho Chi Minh City

From Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, you can also connect onwards to other destinations in Asia, as well as to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan or Moscow. Just be aware that if you book a multi-stop itinerary that involves a domestic flight between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, you may need a visa to enter Vietnam.

You can read about the experience of flying Vietnam Airlines Business Class from Australia to Europe in this AFF member trip report.

Some example of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club redemptions

We regularly find Vietnam Airlines flights between Australia and Vietnam with up to 4 Business Class seats available to book using points. For example, the below flight has availability for at least 4 people in every cabin through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (note that the prices shown are for four people):

And this Perth-Ho Chi Minh City flight has nine Premium Economy and Economy seats available (again, note that the price shown is for nine people):

You may even be able to book Premium Economy on connecting domestic flights within Vietnam as well.

Flights from Sydney or Melbourne to Vietnam cost 47,500 Virgin Atlantic points in Premium Economy or 75,000 points for Business Class, plus taxes & minimal charges.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club uses a distance-based award chart, and awards with multiple flight sectors are priced as the sum of each individual sector. It just so happens that flights from Ho Chi Minh City to Frankfurt are in a more expensive zone than the slightly shorter Hanoi-Frankfurt flight, which is why it’s a bit cheaper to fly from Sydney to Frankfurt via Hanoi than Ho Chi Minh City:

In fact, flying Sydney-Hanoi-Frankfurt happens to cost slightly fewer Virgin Points in Economy and Premium Economy than Perth-Ho Chi Minh City-London:

In Australia, Amex Membership Rewards Points transfer to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at a 2:1 rate.

If you don’t have Amex Membership Rewards Points, you could also accrue Virgin Atlantic points by flying with SkyTeam airlines or even simply by buying them.

Booking Vietnam Airlines through other loyalty programs

You could also book Vietnam Airlines flights through other SkyTeam frequent flyer programs, including Air France/KLM Flying Blue and of course the airline’s own Lotusmiles program. Flying Blue is a transfer partner of CommBank Awards, and you could transfer PayRewards points to Lotusmiles.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to more than 100 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. His interests include aviation, economics & 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.