Many people dream about flying round-the-world in business class, but dismiss it as a fantasy that’ll forever be out of reach.

In fact, this ‘bucket list’ experience is more attainable than you may think, thanks to a unique and highly rewarding way of using Qantas Points.

The ‘oneworld award’ is a special type of booking that allows you to fly with oneworld member airlines up to 35,000 miles. That’s enough for a round-the-world journey (though you don’t have to fly RTW if you don’t want to – more on that later).

This booking costs a relatively modest 132,400 points in economy, 249,600 points in premium economy, 318,000 points in business class or 455,000 points in first class, plus taxes and fees.

Business class is the sweet spot, as it’s a higher-value use of points than economy.

Premium economy isn’t available on many airlines, so it’s quite difficult putting together a full itinerary in this class of travel.

As for first class, that’s also very hard to book because the number of routes with this cabin is small.

Since you can spend up to 318,000 Qantas Points on a return business class fare from Australia to Europe or the USA, flying 35,000 miles with 5 stopovers for a similar price is superb value.

The main ‘catch’ is that it can be time consuming and difficult to research and book flights, so here are some tips to make the job easier.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

The rules

Here are the specific rules you must follow for a valid booking:

• maximum total distance of 35,000 miles
• maximum of 5 stopovers (a stopover is when you have 24+ hours between flights; if you land in one city and depart from another, it counts as just one stopover)
• a maximum of 16 individual segments – a segment is each individual flight AND any journey you make over land yourself. These land segments are also counted towards the 35,000 mile maximum
• no more than one stopover and two transits through a single aiport
• you must fly with at least two oneworld airlines that are not Qantas (in fact, you don’t have to fly Qantas at all – just two or more other oneworld airlines – see below for the list)
• you have 12 months to complete the travel
• once you return to your country of origin you can’t leave it again
• you must finish booking all flights in the itinerary before the first flight takes off.

The oneworld member airlines are:

• Alaska Airlines
• American Airlines
• British Airways
• Cathay Pacific
• Fiji Airways
• Finnair
• Iberia
• Japan Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Oman Air (joining soon)
• Qantas
• Qatar Airways
• Royal Air Maroc
• Royal Jordanian
• S7 Airlines (currently suspended)
• SriLankan Airlines

Possible itineraries

You can fly anywhere and in any direction you want, so long as you comply with the above rules.

There are no restrictions on how many continents you can visit or regarding backtracking (which are limitations in most paid round-the-world fares).

If you make some land segments on your own, you can actually visit more than five destinations. That’s because when you land in one city and take off on your next flight from another city, it doesn’t count as two stopovers – just one. The land segment is counted towards the 16 maximum and the distance towards the 35,000 mile maximum.

To illustrate: here’s an example where you fly from Sydney to Tokyo (first stop), make your own way to Hong Kong, fly to Helsinki (second stop), make your own way to Paris, fly to Marrakesh (third stop), make your own way to Casablanca, fly to New York City (fourth stop), make your own way to Montreal, fly to Lima (fifth stop) make your own way to Santiago, and fly home.

Also, there’s no requirement to fly round-the-world, though that’s how most people use this award. You could do a loop around a specific region or criss-cross between continents – it’s totally up to you.

For example, here’s one of my past itineraries, which started in Singapore and took me to the USA, followed by Australia, Japan and back to Australia.

How to book

Now, here’s the catch: it can be very time consuming to book this award because finding business class seats on popular routes is often tricky and the booking process usually requires several phone calls to Qantas.

Here are some tips:

• start planning early – ideally more than a year in advance – and research which specific flights you want to book, and when you can expect the seats to become available for the dates you want (more on that below)
• be flexible with your dates
• explore the different flight and route options at the oneworld alliance route map here
• use Qantas’ website to search for award seats for each individual leg. Use the multi-city tool (yes, it’s designed for multiple flight searches, but it works for single flight searches as well and has the advantage of giving you results in a handy monthly calendar view unlike the default search tool on Qantas’ homepage.) Make sure to select “Use points – Classic Flight Rewards only” and “Flexible with dates for all flights”.
• be flexible with cities in Australia for departures and arrivals – ie. if you can’t find a long-haul flight ex-Adelaide, try Perth or Sydney. Don’t assume that the search results on Qantas’ site will have considered this option along with a domestic connection from your home city
• book the initial flight(s) online yourself on the Qantas site. Use the multi-city tool if you can book multiple flights. It’s very unlikely all the flights in your itinerary will be available to book at the same time, since airlines release reward seats at different times. Also, Qantas’ site isn’t capable of handling complicated itineraries, and you may get an error message.
• once you’ve booked what you can online, to add more flights, you’ll have to call Qantas on 131313
• you cannot make a series of individual bookings online with different reference numbers and then ask for them to be “stitched” together
• you’ll be charged 5000 points per person each time you make a change via the Qantas call centre, like adding flights – this is an extra cost to factor into your planning
• if you call Qantas to make a change, make sure you receive a new e-ticket within 24 hours. If it’s not in your inbox by then, it’s essential to call Qantas to get the ticket issued properly otherwise you may lose your seats.
• to calculate the total miles flown to make sure you don’t exceed the 35,000 mile limit, use this mapping tool. Just type in the airport codes separated by hyphens (for example, MEL-LAX-JFK-LHR-HKG-MEL). You can search for the codes on the site or use google.
• you don’t have to finish in the city you started, but the booking system will calculate the distance back to the original departure airport in determining whether you’re within the 35,000 mile limit
• book seats as soon as they become available, otherwise someone else may snap them up. Airlines release award seats at different times, usually 330-360 days ahead. They also sometimes release them in batches. You’ll need to keep your eye out.
• you can only fly with oneworld member airlines, which does not include some Qantas partners like Emirates – so be careful when looking at search results on Qantas’ site
• airlines have varying taxes and charges they levy on reward fares, which must be paid with money, not points. Airlines with lower charges include Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, SriLankan Airlines and Japan Airlines. On the other hand, high charges are most often found with British Airways, Qatar Airways and Royal Jordanian.
• if you mix different classes, the highest class will be used to calculate the cost – i.e. just one first class flight in an otherwise all-business class itinerary will make the cost jump to the first class level. You can include lower classes if you wish with no price change
• you cannot use Qantas’ new Classic Plus reward seats – it must be a regular Classic reward seat
• if you decide to cancel your itinerary, you can get a full refund of points and money paid less the cancellation fee of 6,000 points per person.

Summing Up

The oneworld award is easily one of the best uses of Qantas Points. While booking it is complex, it’s definitely worth the effort given what you get to experience: flying in style, visiting a range of destinations and having bragging rights for years!

Remember to plan carefully, be patient, and familiarise yourself with all the rules. That way, the booking process will go as smoothly as possible.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

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Qantas Points are so popular in Australia that they’re often referred to as the nation’s “second currency”.

With more than 15 million Qantas Frequent Flyer members and hundreds of billions of points in circulation, it’s easy to see why. 

But the harder question is: how should people use their points to get the most value?

It remains the case in 2025 that redeeming Qantas Points on flight reward seats and upgrades gives you the most ‘bang’ for your points ‘buck’.

Qantas tempts members with a growing list of other redemption options: hotel stays, car hire, insurances, gift vouchers, household goods … the list goes on. But these almost always provide less value that spending the equivalent number of points on flights.

If you’re sitting on a stash of Qantas Points, here are some tips for putting them to use.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

Qantas and partner reward seats

Although reward seats are available on flights operated by both Qantas and partner airlines such as Emirates, Cathay Pacific and American Airlines, two recent developments make it more likely you’ll have to fly Qantas.

First, partners are releasing fewer and fewer reward seats – especially in premium cabins. This trend has been in place for a while, and we’re seeing it with carriers all around the world.

With increasing demand for reward seats globally, airlines are favouring their own loyalty program members by giving them preferential access to reward seats while restricting access by partners.

That means it’s now much harder to use Qantas Points to book seats with partners.

The second recent development is that Qantas has made it easier to book seats on its own flights with the launch of Classic Plus rewards in 2024.

Unlike traditional “Classic” reward seats, which have a fixed price based on distance and cabin class, “Classic Plus” seats have a flexible points cost that changes based on the underlying cash fare.

That means when fares rise, Classic Plus costs rise, and vice versa. Therefore, the best time to book Classic Plus seats is when cash fares go on sale, as the number of points required will also drop.

While Classic Plus seats are much more plentiful than Classic reward seats, they also generally cost a lot more.

Significant price difference for Classic and Classic Plus seats

Despite their high cost, Classic Plus rewards provide more value than non-flight redemption options, like using points for gift vouchers.

Upgrading on Qantas flights

Qantas Points can be used to upgrade from one class to another on Qantas flights, and this is an excellent use of points.

Be aware that Qantas Points cannot be used to upgrade on a partner airline flight – only Qantas.

On domestic flights, you can upgrade from any economy fare to business class.

However, on international flights, restrictions are in place, meaning not all economy fares are upgradeable. You can only upgrade economy reward seats and paid fare classes G, K, L, M, S and V (“Economy”) and B, H and Y (“Flexible Economy”). The cheapest economy sale fares are not eligible.

Eligible economy tickets can be upgraded to premium economy or business class.

All premium economy fares are upgradeable to business class.

Upgrades to first class are restricted to passengers flying on paid business class fares (not reward seats).

When there are multiple upgrade requests on a flight, the upgrades are processed close to departure based on the passengers’ status and original fare class booked. Your chances to scoring the upgrade depend on how many empty seats there are and how many people are ahead of you in the queue.

The cost of upgrades can be viewed on Qantas’ website here.

Booking a tour or holiday package with Qantas Holidays

If you don’t want to (or can’t) use Qantas Points for reward seats or upgrades, your best option is to book a holiday with Qantas Holidays.

Qantas has partnered with TripAdeal to sell holiday packages (which combine airfares and accommodation) as well as premium small group tours.

All of these ready-made holidays can be booked using Qantas Points.

For tours, it appears you get around $1 of value per 100 points used (e.g. 100,000 points covers $1000) while for holiday packages, you get around 85 cents of value per 100 points (e.g. 100,000 points covers $850).

That is much better value than using points for gift cards or purchases on the Qantas Markeplace, where you typically get 50 cents for each 100 points redeemed (i.e. 100,000 points is worth around $500).

Tips for success

Book reward seats in advance: Reward seats often sell out quickly, particularly during peak periods like school holidays. Plan as far ahead as possible to snag the best routes and dates.

Or … book last minute: If you’re in the fortunate position of being able to fly at relatively short notice (within the next 30 days), many airlines release reward seats late in order to help fill their planes. This is a great way to get sought-after business and first class seats.

Familiarise yourself with the partner points tables: Each partner airline has its own redemption rates. Check the Qantas website to see how many points you’ll need for your chosen route.

Accelerate your points earn on everyday spend: Consider holding a Qantas-branded credit card to earn points faster. For example, you can earn 1.25 Qantas Points per $1 on everyday spend (plus get a $450 Qantas Travel Credit each year, complimentary lounge passes, and other benefits) with the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card – and it also comes with bonus points for new cardholders.

Summing up

The best uses of Qantas Points are reward seats (especially in premium cabins) and upgrades.

The value you get from spending Qantas Points this way is much higher than with any other redemption.

While reward seats and upgrades can be tricky to secure, with a little planning and effort you can make it work.

And if none of that works for you, the holiday packages and tours Qantas offers with Qantas Holidays are worth considering.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

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Velocity Points are one of Australia’s most popular rewards currencies, giving travellers access to not just Virgin Australia flights but also those of partners like Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, ANA and Qatar Airways.

If you’re sitting on a stash of Velocity Points, you’re probably wondering what’s the best way to use them.

Our answer is always that you’ll get the best value by redeeming them for flights – especially at the pointy end of the plane. 

While it can be tricky sometimes to find a reward seat, if you figure out how the system works and are flexible with your travel plans, your Velocity Points can take you almost anywhere in the world.

Here are some tips to help you out.

Virgin Australia domestic business class

With Australia’s second largest domestic network at your disposal and good reward seat availability, travelling around the nation in business class is a fantastic use of points.

Virgin’s all-Boeing 737 domestic fleet features a small business class cabin at the front of the plane, with two rows of recliner seats arranged in a 2-2 layout.

The fleet is currently being refurbished with wider business class seats, which also feature leg rests with extendable footrests, storage compartments, tablet/device holders and water bottle holders.

New Virgin 737 business class seats

When you fly business class with Virgin Australia domestically, you also get lounge access when departing from Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney airports.

Pro tip: if you want Virgin Australia lounge access every time you fly, it’s now complimentary with the fantastic American Express Velocity Platinum Card.

Virgin Australia long-haul flights to Doha

Qatar Airways has taken a 25% stake in Virgin Australia. As part of the deal, Virgin will launch flights from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth to Doha (Qatar Airways’ home base) later in 2025.

From there, travellers will be able to access Qatar Airways’ extensive global network.

These Virgin Australia flights will be operated by Qatar Airways crew and aircraft. That means travellers will enjoy the excellent Qsuites in business class.

Qatar Airways Qsuite – soon to be on Virgin Australia flights to Doha

At the time of writing, Virgin hasn’t released reward seats on these flights – but they should be coming later this year.

Business or first class with Singapore Airlines

One of our most popular articles is our guide for using Velocity Points to fly in style with Singapore Airlines.

Singapore Airlines’ business and first class products are among the best in the world. Passengers not only enjoy comfortable and spacious seats, but the airline is also renowned for its excellent dining and customer service.

Try a ‘once in a lifetime’ first class flight

There are two ways to use Velocity Points to fly with SQ: either by booking via Virgin Australia or transferring your points to SQ and booking direct. Read our guide for more info.

Flying with other partner airlines

Aside from Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines, Velocity Points can also be used to fly with a range of other partner airlines, including Air Canada, United Airlines, ANA, Hawaiian Airlines, South African Airways and Virgin Atlantic. The latter three can only be booked by calling Virgin.

Flying economy also provides solid value

While many people focus on using points for business and first class seats, flying economy is also a great option.

Sometimes, it’s the only option, given how rare premium reward seats are.

Rest assured, you are still getting good value from your points when redeeming them for economy seats. That’s especially the case since airfares remain relatively high following the pandemic.

This is a far better use of points than redeeming them for gift cards.

Tips for success

Book in advance: Award seats often sell out quickly, particularly during peak periods like school holidays. Plan as far ahead as possible to snag the best routes and dates.

Or … book last minute: If you’re in the fortunate position of being able to fly at relatively short notice (within the next 30 days), many airlines release reward seats late in order to help fill their planes. This is a great way to get sought-after business and first class seats.

Familiarise yourself with partner award charts: Each partner airline has its own redemption rates. Check the Velocity website to see how many points you’ll need for your chosen route.

Pool your family’s points: Got multiple family members collecting Velocity Points? Velocity’s Family Pooling feature allows family members to pool their points and status credits into one account, accelerating your ability to redeem for award flights.

Accelerate your points earn on everyday spend: Consider holding a Velocity-branded credit card. For example, you can earn 1.25 Velocity Points per $1 on everyday spend plus get a complimentary domestic flight each year, complimentary lounge membership, and other benefits, with our favourite Velocity card: the Amex Velocity Platinum Card.

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Have you ever wanted to sip a cocktail at a bar while flying at 40,000 feet? Or enjoy a nice hot shower in the middle of a long-haul flight?

You may think these kinds of experiences are out of reach, but that’s not the case if you’re a Qantas Frequent Flyer member.

Qantas Points can be used to fly in business and first class with Emirates (which is where you’ll find such luxuries), and this is one of the best uses of Qantas Points.

Emirates is one of the most popular airlines in Australia, thanks in part to its huge international network.

In Australia, it flies from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide to its Dubai base and onward to destinations across the world.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

The Emirates Experience

Emirates’ long-haul fleet comprises Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft.

All aircraft that fly to Australia have business and first class cabins. However, some of these are older while others have been modernised and refreshed. It’s a matter of luck which version you’ll get at the moment.

I’ve reviewed Emirates’ ‘old’ business class and first class on the A380s, so you can read those posts for a detailed overview of what to expect. 

First class is excellent on both aircraft, with spacious seats and top-notch dining and service.

Business class is reliably good on the A380s, with more space, fully lie-flat seats, and direct aisle access for every passenger thanks to the 1-2-1 layout.

On the 777s, there’s an outdated 2-3-2 ‘angled-flat’ seating layout. Most 777s are now in the process of being refreshed with new seats in a 1-2-1 layout, but that process will take some time.

The onboard bar (available to both business and first class passengers) and first class shower are exclusive to the A380s. So, in short – aim for the A380s if you can!

(Elsewhere in the world, you’ll also find a 777 configuration with no first class cabin and 2-2-2 in business class, and several A380s with no first class. There’s also a small number of 777s with six fully enclosed suites in first class – which are among the best first class products in the world – but these are hard to find and book with points.)

Emirates operates an extensive lounge network. In Dubai, the lounges are huge and essentially mini terminals in their own right. First class passengers can board directly from the lounge in Dubai.

How to book with Qantas Points

You can use Qantas Points to search for and book reward seats with Emirates on the Qantas website.

You can’t use Qantas Points to upgrade a cash fare to a higher class of travel on Emirates-operated flights.

To search for reward seats, use the multi-city booking page, even if you only want to book a single route, because the search results will appear in a handy monthly calendar view (make sure to tick “Use points – Classic Flight Rewards only” and “Flexible with dates for all flights”).

When you identify a seat and click through to the next page, you’ll see the flight details and points cost, and then the subsequent page will also display the additional taxes and fees payable with money.

Points costs, taxes and fees

The amount of points you’ll need is based on distance, as follows.

Emirates recently increased the additional fees payable, so they can now add up to thousands of dollars, unfortunately.

For example, you’re looking at $3000-$4000 in taxes and fees when flying Australia-Europe return in business or first class. This is disappointing and substantially reduces the value of the redemption in business class, though first class still represents a good deal.

Shorter flights will have lower fees and charges.

Reward seat availability

Sadly, Emirates has reduced the number of reward seats available on popular routes in recent years.

The airline used to reliably release seats around 330 days out on all flights, but now it’s more erratic.

It appears Emirates sometimes releases seats in batches, probably based on capacity.

The airline also often releases last minute seats (i.e. for the next few weeks), which could be an option if you have that kind of flexibility.

There’s also more availability outside Australia, e.g. from Asia. One popular trick is to make your own way to Asia for a stopover (e.g. Singapore) and then fly with Emirates to Europe, Africa and elsewhere.

Summing up

Using Qantas Points for Emirates first or business class seats is a great option for Qantas Frequent Flyers and one of the best uses of Qantas Points – despite the high taxes and fees.

Right now, seat availability is quite limited, though your chances rise the closer you get to the departure date.

You’ll enjoy comfort on board, high-quality food and drinks, and potentially the memorable experiences of the A380 onboard bar and shower. So aim for first class if you can.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

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When it comes to booking Qantas reward seats, knowing a few tricks can give you a huge advantage.

That’s truer than ever in 2025, with so many Aussies collecting Qantas Points and seeking to use them for flights.

To give our readers an edge with finding the best seats, we’ve compiled a few key tips.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

Classic v Classic Plus reward seats

Qantas Frequent Flyer members can now access two different types of reward seats: Classic reward seats (which have been around for many years) and Classic Plus reward seats (which launched in 2024).

Classic reward seats have a fixed price based on distance and cabin class. They are issued by Qantas and partner airlines like Emirates, but availability is extremely limited.

Classic Plus seats, on the other hand, are only available on Qantas operated flights. There’s a lot more of them, but they’re also a lot more expensive.

Classic Plus seats have a flexible points price that fluctuates based on the underlying cash fare. In short: 100 Qantas Points will cover $1 of an economy fare, $1.25 of a domestic business class fare, or $1.50 of an international premium economy, business or first class fare.

Classic Plus availability is also restricted – just because cash fares can be purchased doesn’t mean Classic Plus seats are available – however they are much more plentiful than Classic reward seats.

Significant price difference for Classic and Classic Plus seats

The best time to book Classic Plus seats is when cash fares go on sale, as the number of points required will also drop.

Qantas domestic and short-haul international Classic reward seats

Qantas releases economy and business class Classic reward seats on domestic and select short-haul international (e.g. New Zealand) routes at 353 days out from departure.

These seats are available to all frequent flyer members regardless of status.

Only a small number of seats (i.e. low single digits) are released in each cabin, and once they’re snapped up, Qantas doesn’t provide any more – except in special ‘batch’ releases that occur occasionally (more on that later).

Qantas long-haul international Classic reward seats

Getting Classic reward seats on long-haul flights is the goal of most travellers.

Qantas used to automatically release seats from 353 days out from departure on most of its flights, but that is no longer reliably the case.

When it does occur, Gold and higher status holders get access first. Any seats that remain become available to Silver members at 323 days out, and Bronze members at 297 days out.

If you don’t have gold status but a close family member does, they may be able to book the seats for you as soon as they are released.

Qantas batch seat releases

For most Qantas international flights, by far the best way to book reward seats is when Qantas releases a large batch at once.

Qantas has on several occasions in recent years made thousands of seats available to all frequent flyers.

Often, these batch releases are not announced ahead of time, which makes it hard to plan. The business and first class seats are also snapped up within a few hours.

Your best bet is to monitor availability closely and be ready to book. We always alert our e-news subscribers about batch releases via email – if you want to sign up, you can do so at the bottom of this article.

Partner airlines

Qantas doesn’t control how or when partner airlines release reward seats. Those airlines are responsible for the timing and quantity of seats released, and their methods vary.

Sadly, we’ve seen a trend the last few years of partners releasing fewer and fewer reward seats, particularly in premium cabins.

Due to high demand, airlines are favouring their own loyalty program members by giving them preferential access to reward seats while restricting access by partner airlines.

That means it’s now much harder to use Qantas Points to book seats with partners at the pointy end of the plane.

When they are released, they are available to all Qantas frequent flyers. Status doesn’t matter.

The seats will show up in searches on the Qantas website.

Other things to know

Qantas seats are released at exactly midnight GMT, which is 8 am in Perth and 10 am in the east (or 11 am during daylight savings).

When searching for international seats, we recommend using the multi-city tool on Qantas’ website, even if you’re only looking at one route. The advantage is that it gives you results in a handy monthly calendar view, unlike the default search tool on Qantas’ homepage. Just make sure to select “Use points – Classic Flight Rewards only” and “Flexible with dates for all flights”.

When there’s a big release of seats, we always let our readers know. If you’d like to be informed, subscribe to our e-news below.

Want more Qantas Points? Get 50,000 bonus points + an annual $450 Qantas Travel Credit with the ultimate card for Qantas Points, rewards and benefits: the Qantas American Express Ultimate Card!

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One of the best uses of Virgin Australia’s Velocity Points is flying business or first class with Singapore Airlines.

Passengers at the pointy end enjoy comfortable and spacious seats (or even first class luxury “suites”), as well as high quality dining and service.

The airline also has an excellent international network and is very convenient for Australians travelling to Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia are partners, and this enables Velocity Frequent Flyers to access Singapore Airlines award seats in two ways:

1. by booking the seats through Virgin Australia, or
2. by converting their Velocity Points into Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles and booking directly with Singapore Airlines. 

A number of factors will determine which is the better option. These include the points cost, the taxes and fees, and seat availability.

Step 1: Search for seats with both airlines

Sometimes, Singapore Airlines restricts partner access to award seats, so you should always check availability with both airlines to see your options.

You can search for seats online on Virgin Australia’s website (select “use Velocity Points”) and Singapore Airlines’ website (select “Redeem flights”).

If you don’t have an account already, it’s free to join Singapore Airline’s loyalty program KrisFlyer.

Singapore Airlines has two types of award seats: “Saver”, which are less expensive and are the first to get snapped up, and “Advantage”, which are more expensive but also more readily available.

Singapore Airlines releases award seats 354 days out, while Virgin Australia’s calendar only goes out to 331 days out. That means people with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles get a 23 day ‘head start’ to book seats – another factor to consider, especially if you want to travel during a peak period when seats get snapped up quickly.

If the seat you want is available through both airlines, compare the points required and the taxes and fees to work out the best deal.

Step 2: Compare the points, and taxes and fees

Both airlines price award seats based on distance, but they do this in slightly different ways.

You can view Virgin Australia’s points tables here and Singapore Airlines’ award chart here.

Velocity Points convert to KrisFlyer miles at a rate of 1.55:1, meaning 15,500 Velocity points converts to 10,000 KrisFlyer miles.

Because you ‘lose’ so many points by converting them, the actual points cost is likely to be lower by booking with Virgin Australia directly.

Of course, if the seat is only available through KrisFlyer, your only option will be to transfer the points across.

Taxes and fees vary, and are another factor to consider.

Step 3: Book your seat!

If you decide to book through Singapore Airlines, it’s free and easy to convert your points from Velocity to KrisFlyer.

Simply log into your Velocity account, then click My Velocity -> Link & Transfer to link your accounts and transfer the points.

The transfer should happen very quickly (in only a few minutes, in my experience).

As always, plan well ahead, as award seats can be snapped up quickly, especially on the most popular routes during peak travel periods.

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