How to Redeem Your SkyMiles on Virgin Australia Business Class
Aug 12, 2010, 7:48 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Home: Arlington, VA; Home airports: IAD/DCA/BWI
Programs: Active: AA, UA, DL
Posts: 4,095
How to Redeem Your SkyMiles on Virgin Australia Business Class
Based on my experience:
1. Have at least 150k miles available.
2. Call DL.
3. Specifically ask to book on V Australia, flying business class, booking into "Z" class. Give initial set of dates. Don't forget that VA also has LAX-BNE and LAX-MEL flights, in addition to LAX-SYD. Note that LAX-BNE and LAX-MEL don't run every day of the week. (VA is quite generous with their award availability for business class!
)
4. Allow the agent to put you on hold as she/he looks up the instructions on how to make VA bookings. (Every single agent I spoke to did this. It looks like they're not well-versed in VA bookings.)
5. After agent comes back, you can ask for availability on others dates, and he/she will answer you very quickly, as they are now familiar with the commands.
6. If the agent quotes you 100k miles, tell them to "price as booked," it's supposed to cost 150k miles. What happens is that the system thinks there's a lower bucket available for the same cabin and will change the booked bucket to that one. But that new bucket is coach.
7. Bring out credit card to pay for taxes and fees, around $280.
8. Price out a similar itinerary on DL.com for coach. Most likely you'll be laughing at the bunch of ignorant frequent fliers paying 140k miles to fly LAX-SYD on DL metal in coach, as hardly any "low" awards are available in either cabin.
9. Smile that you've outsmarted DL.
10. Pay your credit card bill in full
Addenda: If you're looking for feeder flights into LAX, advise the agent that you'll be doing so. If you have a good agent, they'll block the space on the VA flights first before searching for the domestic legs. When I booked my tickets, it took about an hour and a half in total, as the itinerary had to be manually-priced. The pricing desk had to try different things to get the PNR to store the price. The solution was that they found someone familiar on how to do manual pricing. I don't blame the agents, I blame the outdated system and the management idiots in corporate HQ.
Here's my suggestion on what to do before making the final booking if you have feeder flights:
1. Have a few dates in mind for the US-Australia flights.
2. Call DL and make note of which dates have availability for the VA flights. Don't ask about domestic flights yet.
3. Use DL.com and AlaskaAir.com (DCA-LAX is a gem!) to search for feeder flight availability. Good luck with DL feeder flights. 
(I spent at least 2 hours doing this! Just 10 minutes on the phone asking about the VA availability.)
4. Call back DL to make final booking.
There you go. That's how Wiirachay and his parents just burned 450k miles in one day for 3 business class tickets.
1. Have at least 150k miles available.
2. Call DL.
3. Specifically ask to book on V Australia, flying business class, booking into "Z" class. Give initial set of dates. Don't forget that VA also has LAX-BNE and LAX-MEL flights, in addition to LAX-SYD. Note that LAX-BNE and LAX-MEL don't run every day of the week. (VA is quite generous with their award availability for business class!
)4. Allow the agent to put you on hold as she/he looks up the instructions on how to make VA bookings. (Every single agent I spoke to did this. It looks like they're not well-versed in VA bookings.)
5. After agent comes back, you can ask for availability on others dates, and he/she will answer you very quickly, as they are now familiar with the commands.
6. If the agent quotes you 100k miles, tell them to "price as booked," it's supposed to cost 150k miles. What happens is that the system thinks there's a lower bucket available for the same cabin and will change the booked bucket to that one. But that new bucket is coach.
7. Bring out credit card to pay for taxes and fees, around $280.
8. Price out a similar itinerary on DL.com for coach. Most likely you'll be laughing at the bunch of ignorant frequent fliers paying 140k miles to fly LAX-SYD on DL metal in coach, as hardly any "low" awards are available in either cabin.
9. Smile that you've outsmarted DL.
10. Pay your credit card bill in full
Addenda: If you're looking for feeder flights into LAX, advise the agent that you'll be doing so. If you have a good agent, they'll block the space on the VA flights first before searching for the domestic legs. When I booked my tickets, it took about an hour and a half in total, as the itinerary had to be manually-priced. The pricing desk had to try different things to get the PNR to store the price. The solution was that they found someone familiar on how to do manual pricing. I don't blame the agents, I blame the outdated system and the management idiots in corporate HQ.
Here's my suggestion on what to do before making the final booking if you have feeder flights:
1. Have a few dates in mind for the US-Australia flights.
2. Call DL and make note of which dates have availability for the VA flights. Don't ask about domestic flights yet.
3. Use DL.com
and AlaskaAir.com (DCA-LAX is a gem!) to search for feeder flight availability. Good luck with DL feeder flights. (I spent at least 2 hours doing this! Just 10 minutes on the phone asking about the VA availability.)4. Call back DL to make final booking.
There you go. That's how Wiirachay and his parents just burned 450k miles in one day for 3 business class tickets.
Last edited by Wiirachay; Aug 13, 2010 at 12:04 am
Aug 13, 2010, 6:43 pm
#7
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 95
low-mid-high
Do they have all those classifications on VA that you have on Delta? Where do you find out what they require? If 150,000 each way will get you business class -- I would be very happy to do that next year. DL starts at 150,000 but htere are hardly any seats for that -- that means probably 240,000 each and that is a lot. So if VA will do it for 150,000, I already have that much and am there for next year!
Aug 13, 2010, 8:30 pm
#8
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Home: Arlington, VA; Home airports: IAD/DCA/BWI
Programs: Active: AA, UA, DL
Posts: 4,095
Do they have all those classifications on VA that you have on Delta? Where do you find out what they require? If 150,000 each way will get you business class -- I would be very happy to do that next year. DL starts at 150,000 but htere are hardly any seats for that -- that means probably 240,000 each and that is a lot. So if VA will do it for 150,000, I already have that much and am there for next year!
, then it would be 150k.Go burn your SkyMiles on J seats at low levels to Australia!
Aug 14, 2010, 6:06 am
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, MR LTT, HH Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 32,040
Aug 14, 2010, 5:48 pm
#13
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Wayne, PA USA
Programs: DL MM, Marriott Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, HHonors Gold
Posts: 7,242
I thought Delta's partnership with Virgin Atlantic ended years ago. When did they resume it? Can we get award tickets to other destinations, such as LHR?
Aug 14, 2010, 6:19 pm
#14
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Welcome to Boston. Expect stupid.
Programs: Foodland Maika'i Plastic Card, DL GM when it meant something
Posts: 300
Now, how to determine availability before calling? AFAIK you can't check on their website unless you're a member of their FF program, which you can't join unless you live in the S. Pacific. EF and KVS do not cover VA awards either.
Aug 14, 2010, 7:44 pm
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Worldwide
Posts: 12,949
BTW, does anyone know what VA's Economy award booking class is?
Last edited by KVS; Aug 15, 2010 at 2:08 pm Reason: Update: Award/Upgrade Carrier Count