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:
- by booking the seats through Virgin Australia, or
- 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 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.
Only Saver seats tend to be available to partners like Virgin Australia.
If you can only see an Advantage seat on Singapore Airlines’ website, it’s probably not bookable via Virgin Australia.
In addition, 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.
For example, a business class award seat from Brisbane to Singapore comes with a $236 copayment via Virgin Australia, but only $102 with Singapore Airlines – and that’s just one-way.
The difference is bigger on longer flights. For example, for Melbourne-Frankfurt, you have to fork out $456 with Virgin but only $100 with Singapore Airlines, one way. That’s a substantial difference, especially for a return trip.
As you can see with the prices displayed in the screenshot above, you can use Velocity Points to cover the taxes and fees when booking via Virgin Australia, but it’s a low-value use of points and not recommended unless you’re very short on cash.
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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Hi Kris,
My mum is flying via Singapore Airlines to Sri Lanka from Sydney and I was wondering if it was possible to upgrade her to business class using my Velocity Reward Points?
Many thanks!
Hi, the only way would be to transfer your Velocity points to her and then to her Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer account. There’s no guarantee the upgrade will be provided, however. You should be able to see on SIA’s website how many points you’d need. Good luck!
Hi Kris,
I have purchased a couple of business class tickets on Singapore Airlines from Melbourne to London return. I’d like to know where is best to credit these points, given I am Australia-based but I do travel to/from Europe (though not as frequently as previously; probably just once/year or so these days).
Is it best to book these to VA given I’m Aus-based, or to Singapore Airlines, or to someone else like Air France (where I used to have status, and quite like flying on them)?
Any pointers here?
(One wrinkle is that we’ve already flown a leg with the tickets showing my VA FF number, but perhaps I can change the FF program to which I assign them?)
Thank you.
VA makes sense since the points won’t expire (unlike SIA KrisFlyer miles, which only last 36 months).
Hi Kris, can I book a return flight from Perth to the U.K. and use my velocity points to upgrade to business or first class and if so how many will I need per person return approx ……I know we can’t at the moment with COVID but just trying to plan for when we can. Also for a suite ……as they look amazing ! Thanks
Hi Clare, you can only use Velocity Points to upgrade on Virgin flights, not partner airline flights. You used to be able to transfer Velocity Points to Singapore Airlines to use them to upgrade a SQ booking, but that’s no longer available.
If you want to use Velocity Points to fly overseas with a partner airline, it has to be a reward flight booking (not an upgrade), which you can do via the Velocity website.
Hi Kris, If I book a VA rewards seat flight to Singapore (code share Singapore airlines), can I put my Kris flyer number onto the booking so I get rewards points on my Krisflyer, since VA wont give points?
No if it’s a reward booking you can’t earn points in any FF program.
Hey, I have heaps of VFF points and Gold status. I am flying Brisbane – Singapore – London; return London – Singapore – Cairns (Silk Air). I booked via Virgin Australia site paying for the Freedom fare (highest). How do I go about upgrading to Premium Economy using points?
I think you’d need to transfer your VFF points to KrisFlyer, but before you do that check with Singapore Air that your ticket is eligible for an upgrade.
Looking at travelling with the extended family next year. For the return flight from Singapore to Adelaide if we wish to use points to upgrade from economy to business class, how many points would that take, and what kind of fare class would we need to buy in order to use points to upgrade?
Hey Natalie, not sure, but there is quite a bit of info on SQ’s website (you can only upgrade using KrisFlyer miles, not Velocity points): https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/us/ppsclub-krisflyer/use-miles/redeem-miles/
Thanks Kris, that link is perfect. Looks like we won’t have enough points anyway.
Hi Kris
Have ~300K velocity points and heading to London/Europe next May 2020 for honeymoon. Really keen to fly some/most/all in comfort. Departing Melbourne what do you recommend as a good use of those points??
Hey Ian, I’m assuming you have two people travelling, in which case you only have enough points to enjoy business class one way (~139k per person). Have a look at Velocity’s points tables here: https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Redeem/Airlines/PointsTables/
Singapore Air or Etihad would be your best options.
Even to fly business one way and economy return will require more points than you have right now.
Another option is to use points to a destination halfway (eg Abu Dhabi) and then pay cash for tickets to Europe. These would have to be separate bookings.
Good luck 🙂