Long haul J award booking on SIA with Velocity - use Velocity direct, or convert to KrisFlyer?

4 replies

andyf

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 07 Dec 2014

Total posts 55

So does anyone have any advice on deciding how to get best value on an SIA J-class award booking using Velocity points. You can either book directly with Virgin, or, convert your Velocity points to SIA Miles with Kris Flyer and book directly with SIA. Which delivers more bang for your points on the same route (e.g. Sydney to London/Europe)?

Brandon Loo

Member since 10 Jul 2018

Total posts 105

Using Sydney to London as an example, booking through Velocity is actually a little better value - 139,000 Velocity points for one way Business class, compared to 141,750 Velocity points needed to transfer to Krisflyer for the equivalent redemption. Taxes are similar across both programs.


Booking through Velocity is better if you have companions as there's no restrictions, whereas through Krisflyer you can only book for nominated friends and family.

However availability won't be as great through Velocity, so if the flight you want is available on Krisflyer only, then I'd transfer my points there.

Doubleplatinum Banned

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum

Member since 07 Feb 2013

Total posts 431

Velocity is always better value have booked it on points over 15 times and run the numbers down to the letter! Like Brandon said though your availability is always going to be less than through krisflyer.

Chris C.

Member since 24 Apr 2012

Total posts 1,116

If booking SQ flights is the main ongoing 'goal' of how you spend your points, it might be worth looking into KrisFlyer a little more and trying to earn points there where it makes sense, rather than Velocity - particularly from your credit card.

Sydney-London business class one-way is only 105,000 KrisFlyer miles (versus 139,000 Velocity points to book the same flights), and some cards have identical earning rates for both schemes (e.g. AMEX Explorer gives you the equivalent of 1.5/$1 whether you transfer to Velocity or to KrisFlyer), so if that's where most of your points are coming from, you could still use Velocity as a way to top-up your KrisFlyer balance, but that's up to you!

andyf

Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards

Member since 07 Dec 2014

Total posts 55

If booking SQ flights is the main ongoing 'goal' of how you spend your points, it might be worth looking into KrisFlyer a little more and trying to earn points there where it makes sense, rather than Velocity - particularly from your credit card.

Sydney-London business class one-way is only 105,000 KrisFlyer miles (versus 139,000 Velocity points to book the same flights), and some cards have identical earning rates for both schemes (e.g. AMEX Explorer gives you the equivalent of 1.5/$1 whether you transfer to Velocity or to KrisFlyer), so if that's where most of your points are coming from, you could still use Velocity as a way to top-up your KrisFlyer balance, but that's up to you!

Thanks Chris! I actually transferred across my ANZ points to Velocity at their last promotion, but kept my Amex points with Amex for exactly this reason; because Amex allows 1:$1 transfer (on my particular card) for both Velocity and KrisFlyer; but ANZ was better value to go to Velocity regardless.


I do a variety of travel, including to the US, so having the flexibility of being able to choose between the two programs is great. Travelling to Europe, the advantage of Velocity is the choice between SIA (either using Velocity points or transfer to KrisFlyer), Virgin (VA/VS via Hong Kong), and Etihad are all available.

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