Points Guru: What do 20,000 Velocity points get you?

Escape’s points expert, Sabine Leroy, answers your questions about frequent flyer programs.

I have 20,000 Velocity points. What can I do with them?

The best way to use your Velocity points is on Reward Seats. Even Virgin Australia admits it’s the best value. Reward Seats is where you use your points for seats that have been specifically designated and allocated for points use. There’s always taxes and fees to pay on top, but your points will cover the bulk of the ticket.

You can redeem your Points for Reward Seat flights across the Virgin Australia network starting at 6,200 Points. For that balance, you could score yourself a free one-way economy seat within Australia, to Bangkok or New Zealand.

With the right balance, you can score yourself a one-way ticket to Bangkok.

To get an idea of where you can go, jump online and visit Velocity’s Mileage calculator. Punch in your starting point and destination, and it’ll spit out how many miles you need to get there. 

As with most airlines, Virgin Australia has zones and a set range of points needed for each. The further the distance between the two cities, the more points you need to cover the fare.

For example, Zone 1 is for trips like Sydney to Melbourne which cost 6,200 to 9,900 for one way in economy or 15,000 for business. Zone 2 includes routes such as Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast jumps up to 9,400 to 14,900 in economy one way and 23,500 for business. Journeys like Brisbane to Perth are classified as Zone 3 and start at 14,100 to 21,900 in economy or 35,500 in business for one way trips.

Different journeys are in different point ranges.

To redeem your points for a Reward Seat, login into your Velocity account, enter your dates and destination in the flight booking engine. Toggle to select ‘Use Velocity Points’ to show available Reward Seats. Choose the Reward Seat fare from the options. You should book at least six months in advance to maximise your chances to score reward fares. 

You can also use Velocity Points on partner airlines including United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines, but you’ll need to save a bit more to get there. When you’ve passed the 50,000 points mark, you could fly one way from Sydney to Singapore in economy for 56,200.

You can also use Velocity Points with a bunch of partner airlines.

Or save a bit more and fly return Economy to Los Angeles from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane with United Airlines for 89,600 points, for example.

But don’t let them expire

If you’d prefer to save them for an overseas flight, make sure your points’ balance stays valid by maintaining activity. You can do this by signing up to Velocity point earning credit card, fueling up at 7-Eleven or linking your Flybuys to Velocity. That way every Coles shop or other Flybuys stores like Kmart, Target, Officeworks or Bunnings goes straight to your balance.

Have a question about points? Drop Sabine an email at [e-mail]. Personal replies are unfortunately not possible.

Originally published as Points Guru: What do 20,000 Velocity points get you?