MOR
Apr 8, 12, 4:55 am
I recently assisted a family member with a Virgin Velocity award redemption on Singapore airlines.
While doing the redemption I was not able to access any Business or First award availability using my Velocity points on dates where my Krisflyer account showed F and J availability. Although I did not sample a wide enough sample of dates and routes to say for sure, from my limited sample there was certainly some F and J award blocking by either SQ or Velocity.
However my family member was only wanting to fly economy so this was not a problem. What concerned me were the rather harsh conditions attached to the booking, which meant that all points would be forfeited if the booking was cancelled. Only taxes would be refunded.
The conditions were listed as:
DATE CHANGES ALLOWED BEFORE DEPARTURE WITH PENALTY
- POINTS WILL BE FORFETIED IF YOU CANCEL THE BOOKING
- TAXES WILL BE REFUNDED WITHIN 10 WEEKS
- PLEASE ENSURE PASSPORT IS VALID DURING TRAVEL DATE
- SPECIAL REQUEST IS SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION BY THE AIRLINES
- UPGRADE NOT ALLOWED AND REROUTING NOT PERMITTED.
So significantly no rerouting, date changes were $250 per change and all points lost if the booking is cancelled.
I have cancelled many BAEC and QFF redemptions over the years, and quiver at the thought that my hard-earned points would be lost in the event of cancellation.
SQ would seem to have driven a very hard deal with Virgin Velocity, because these conditions do not apply to Velocity's own bookings on Virgin Australia. Does anyone know if these no-cancellation conditions apply on Velocity bookings with Etihad.
Ultimately these harsh conditions just make it a disintentive to earn through the Velocity program. There is no point in using Velocity & partner services only to lose the points if you need to cancel or reroute a booking.
While doing the redemption I was not able to access any Business or First award availability using my Velocity points on dates where my Krisflyer account showed F and J availability. Although I did not sample a wide enough sample of dates and routes to say for sure, from my limited sample there was certainly some F and J award blocking by either SQ or Velocity.
However my family member was only wanting to fly economy so this was not a problem. What concerned me were the rather harsh conditions attached to the booking, which meant that all points would be forfeited if the booking was cancelled. Only taxes would be refunded.
The conditions were listed as:
DATE CHANGES ALLOWED BEFORE DEPARTURE WITH PENALTY
- POINTS WILL BE FORFETIED IF YOU CANCEL THE BOOKING
- TAXES WILL BE REFUNDED WITHIN 10 WEEKS
- PLEASE ENSURE PASSPORT IS VALID DURING TRAVEL DATE
- SPECIAL REQUEST IS SUBJECT TO CONFIRMATION BY THE AIRLINES
- UPGRADE NOT ALLOWED AND REROUTING NOT PERMITTED.
So significantly no rerouting, date changes were $250 per change and all points lost if the booking is cancelled.
I have cancelled many BAEC and QFF redemptions over the years, and quiver at the thought that my hard-earned points would be lost in the event of cancellation.
SQ would seem to have driven a very hard deal with Virgin Velocity, because these conditions do not apply to Velocity's own bookings on Virgin Australia. Does anyone know if these no-cancellation conditions apply on Velocity bookings with Etihad.
Ultimately these harsh conditions just make it a disintentive to earn through the Velocity program. There is no point in using Velocity & partner services only to lose the points if you need to cancel or reroute a booking.