Virgin triples points-based reward seats on Doha flights

It should now be three times easier to land a top-value seat using Velocity Points

By David Flynn, January 21 2025
Virgin triples points-based reward seats on Doha flights

Virgin Australia is dramatically boosting the number of Reward Seats on its new flagship Boeing 777 flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Perth to Doha.

The airline says it has now “tripled” the Reward Seats offered in both business and economy class at the lowest number of Velocity frequent flyer points on all three routes, which launch across June.

(The specific start dates are Sydney-Doha on June 12, Brisbane-Doha on June 19 and Perth-Doha from June 25).

However, this booster doesn’t apply to Melbourne-Doha flights, which take off on December 1.

The additional Reward Seats on Virgin's Sydney-Doha, Brisbane-Doha and Perth-Doha flights are available for fast-fingered frequent flyers to book from this morning, the airline says, for travel through to 10 December 2025.

And we’ve already spotted many Reward Seats on random dates across these routes, including the in-demand Sydney-Doha leg which turned up first try: 

Be quick to score yourself a points bargain on Virgin's new Doha flights.
Be quick to score yourself a points bargain on Virgin's new Doha flights.

Combine this with an onwards leg on partner Qatar Airways from Doha to your final destination – most likely in Europe or the UK – and you’ll be sitting pretty.

One-way economy Reward Seats on Sydney-Doha and Brisbane-Doha come in at 56,000 Velocity Points, with a lower 42,000 Velocity Points for Perth-Doha (plus fees, taxes, and carrier charges).

One-way business class Reward Seats on Sydney-Doha and Brisbane-Doha cost 119,500 Velocity Points, or 89,500 Velocity Points for Perth-Doha (plus fees, taxes, and carrier charges).

“The tripling of Reward Seats available to our Velocity members between Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Doha means that international travel is more accessible than ever,” trumpets Nick Rohrlach, Chief Executive Officer of Velocity Frequent Flyer.

However, Virgin Australia has not revealed the total number of Reward Seats being unlocked on these flights, the baseline allocation from which the number has been tripled, or the split between business and economy Reward Seats in this ‘tripling’ of the overall allocation.

That said, it seems there’s now up to four business class seats earmarked as Reward Seats on each flight – and all of those business class suites are of course Qatar Airways’ Qsuite,

Virgin’s move follows criticism of rival Qantas over the lack of Classic Reward seats on the Red Roo’s international flights – especially recent claims of zero availability in business class for key routes to London and Paris throughout 2025 – in favour of the newer and more expensive Classic Plus option. 

Virgin Australia claims its new pool of Reward Seats on Doha flights will be unlocked at 6am today, Tuesday January 21 – so for those Executive Traveller readers who’ll be eagerly pouncing on the keyboard, let us know what you find.

Thanks for the early morning alert, looks like a LOT of availability as at 8AM.

06 Feb 2021

Total posts 63

If Virgin/Qatar indicate that flights, particularly in business class, to Europe etc., will be much easier to obtain  using points than they are with Qantas, (read impossible if you don't have platinum status,) as part of a long term strategy, then I suspect some people will alter their preferred points accumulation direction.   

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

15 Sep 2011

Total posts 11

Just booked Biz class to LHR in June - 158,000 points 1-way. Plenty of Econ return LHR-SYD for 80,000 points even in July school holidays. 

18 Sep 2015

Total posts 142

A question - are all the 777s operated by Qatar on behalf of Virgin equipped with QSuites? Or are they/some of them other airframes?

SCM
SCM

28 Sep 2022

Total posts 25

The way it reads is - just to Doha but not onwards?

I haven't been able to find any QR reward J seats to Europe, but plenty of SQ.


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