For the value of Qantas points, see What are Qantas points worth?
Not all Velocity points redemptions are created equal. Your hard earned points could be worth half a cent each or ten times that amount – it all depends what you spend them on.
Velocity don’t tend to shine much light on this fact because it’s better for them if you cash your points in for a lower value reward. Identifying the best redemptions can be challenging so we’ve crunched the numbers to help you make heads or tails of it all.
To create this graph, we analysed hundreds of flights on Virgin Australia and partner airlines such as Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, ANA, United and Etihad. The data set focused on the most popular domestic and international routes flown by Australian travellers.
The price of the cheapest paid fare for each route was divided by the amount of points needed to book the same reward flight, less any taxes and fees. Whilst this provides us with a realistic idea of the kind of value that you can obtain from booking reward flights, there are a few things that you should keep in mind:
- These numbers are for guidance only; actual value can vary quite substantially
- Reward seats are released in limited numbers so you can’t rely on them always being available to book, especially during peak travel periods
- The “value” of a particular flight can be quite subjective
- There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong way to redeem your points
Flight redemptions
Whilst reward flights are one the best uses of your Velocity points, Any Seat and Points + Pay flights are not. In fact, booking an Any Seat flight or reducing the cost of an airfare through Points + Pay are some of the worst ways you could redeem your points.
Reward flights are what most people are referring to when they talk about booking flights with Velocity points. With reward flights, you pay a points price that is determined by flight distance and a cash amount to cover taxes and fees (e.g. Sydney to Singapore in economy for 29,000 points and $179).
The lowest value reward seats are domestic economy where you will generally be getting around 1 cent per point. The best reward flights are those in international business class and first class where you can often expect to see 4 or more cents per point in value.
With domestic economy reward flights specifically, Virgin Australia use tiered pricing so a flight from Sydney to Melbourne could cost anywhere from 5,900 to 12,900 points (plus ~$43 in taxes) depending on availability and demand. For other types of reward seats the amount of points required remains static.
Whilst reward flights are certainly the preferred way of spending Velocity points, they’re not always easy to find as airlines only release them in limited quantities. You often have to book well in advance or be flexible with dates, especially if it’s in a premium cabin or during peak travel periods.
To search for reward flights, select the ‘Use Points’ button on the Virgin Australia website or app and look for the results with the purple ‘Rewards Seats available’ tag. Free tools like Gyoza Flights or Flight Seats can help you gauge the availability of rewards.
Unhelpfully, the Virgin Australia website encourages Velocity members to use their points to pay for the taxes and fees of reward flights but this isn’t recommended as you’ll be doing so at the Any Seat or Points + Pay rate of just 0.6 cents per point. Instead, always pay for this cash component with money if you can afford it.
Any Seat and Points + Pay refer the process of booking a regular paid airfare either partially or entirely with your Velocity points. These redemption methods use a fixed rate of 0.6 cents per point so the amount of points you need to book a flight is determined by its cash price.
The advantage of using your points in this way is that you can book any flight with unsold seats (hence Any Seat) so availability is much better than with reward flights. You also don’t need to worry if you’re a few points short as you can use cash to pay the difference (hence Points + Pay).
However, 0.6 cents per point is abysmal compared to the value you can often obtain from reward flights. For that reason, Any Seat and Points + Pay really only make sense if you’re points rich and cash poor. Almost everyone else would be better off saving their points for reward flights.
Upgrades with points
Upgrading your Virgin Australia flight to business class can sometimes be a good use of your points. However, you must be travelling in an eligible fare class (Economy Lite and reward seats can’t be upgraded) and simply having the right amount of points doesn’t guarantee you an upgrade.
Upgrades make the most sense if someone else is paying for your ticket (e.g. your employer only lets you fly economy). It’s generally a bad idea to buy an airfare with the expectation that you can upgrade it, especially if you could have flown with another airline for less or booked a business class reward seat outright.
That being said, if you happen to be travelling on the right fare and have the points spare to request an upgrade, by all means take the punt if you think it’s worthwhile.
Transferring points to KrisFlyer
Velocity points can also be transferred to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer programme. Doing this grants you improved access to reward seats on both Singapore Airlines as well as their Star Alliance partners. It can also sometimes mean cheaper flights and lower carrier charges.
However, transfers from Velocity to KrisFlyer use a 1.55:1 conversion rate, meaning 155,000 Velocity points will only get you 100,000 KrisFlyer miles. KrisFlyer miles also expire three years after they’re earned and if you want to transfer them back to Velocity you’ll be hit with another 1.55:1 conversion rate.
Moving your Velocity points to KrisFlyer can be great value, particularly if you’re after something that isn’t available through Velocity directly (e.g. Singapore Airlines first class), but you should be aware of the downsides and only transfer them if you’re absolutely sure of the flight availability.
Other points redemptions
If you don’t have any desire to fly then you may want to redeem your Velocity points on something else. To keep things simple, the graph above just lists gift cards, products and hotels but there are a number of other ways that you can spend your Velocity points:
- Luxury Escapes – 0.75 cents
- Hotels – 0.6 cents
- Car hire – 0.6 cents
- Myer – 0.5 cents
- Products – 0.5 cents
- Gift cards – 0.45 cents
If you want to cash your points in one of these lower value options, that’s perfectly fine. However, if you are going to redeem them on something that gets you under 1 cent per point then it’s worth thinking about how and where your points are being earned.
For example, 100,000 Flybuys points could buy you $500 worth of groceries at Coles but if you converted them to Velocity points and then redeemed them on the Rewards Store (0.5 cents per point) you’d only end up with a product or gift card worth about $250.
In that case, you would be better off keeping your points in the Flybuys system where you can get double the value. The results are often similar for other rewards programmes that allow you to transfer to Velocity.
In summary
You should be booking reward flights if your goal is to extract the most value from your Velocity points balance. International first and business class rewards are the best but even something like domestic economy can often get you over 1 cent per point.
Using your points to book Any Seat or Points + Pay flights isn’t recommended as you’ll only ever get 0.6 cents per point in value. You also shouldn’t use points to pay for the taxes and fees of a reward flight – use cash instead.
Redeeming your points on things like gift cards, products, hotels and car hire isn’t a great idea as all of those categories are valued at under 1 cent per point.
At the end of the day, how you choose to spend your points is entirely your own decision. If you want to cash them all in for a lower value reward, go for it. Still, you should always at least try to booking reward flights before resorting to another option.
Velocity points value calculator
Use this calculator to get a rough idea of the value of your Velocity points balance.
