Jbw2019

Hi. First post I know, but hopefully someone clever can help me out......

i have about 500k miles, but really wanting business class to Sydney. Are there any clever ways to do this with partner airlines etc???

thank you!

Theirin

Hi Jbw, assume you're flying from London?

With VS miles your best bets would probably be via HKG on VS and Virgin Australia or via LA on Virgin/Delta/Virgin Australia/Air New Zealand.

The Singapore route won't work for you if you want to use miles and fly business because you can only redeem VS miles for economy flights between London and Singapore.

Once the AF/KLM miles bookings go live you can probably find a routing with them but expect a minimum of two stops from London.

The trouble with all of these will probably be availability though unless you're booking a long way out.

Jbw2019

Hi. Thanks for this. Funnily enough, I will be going from Bhx (with Emirates for work) but this is for my wife to join me - not enough Emirates miles yet....).
could I do that booking on the VS website when logged in, or will I need to call?

thanks!

Theirin

You'll probably struggle to get a single miles ticked from Birmingham - you'd be better of getting to London or Manchester first and going from there - although once the AF/KLM spending is live you might be able to route from BHX with them. I'd definitely give them a call and ask about it as the site isn't great for booking more complex miles routings.

irishguy28

AFKL does not fly to Sydney. AFKL flyers are booked on a variety of other airlines (Qantas, Singapore, Etihad, Garuda, China Eastern, China Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Vietnam Airlines etc) in order to reach Sydney - all of which goes far beyond the scope of the putative VS/AFKL frequent flyer tie-up. As such, the coming ability to redeem VS miles on AFKL won't help the OP get to Sydney - Virgin Atlantic would need to partner with these other (Skyteam) airlines in order to achieve that.

Why doesn't the OP investigate booking Delta via the US, or VA via HKG or LAX, or ANA via Japan?

Theirin

Not on one ticket but AF/KLM fly to Singapore and Singapore and Virgin Australia fly to Sydney, and both are VS partners.

AF/KLM will be the only VS options to redeem for business class to Singapore because you can't redeem Flying Club miles for business class on SQ between Europe and Singapore.

SkyTeam integration is reportedly coming though.

irishguy28

Meaning Virgin is joining Skyteam?

Theirin

Yes - it came up in another thread via a comment on Head for Points

UKtravelbear

That was a single comment. When he produces a full blown article on the topic then I'll belive him. But he hasn't

Theirin

I don't particularly treat it as good news - more competition for award inventory, potential loss of *A partners, lots of mediocre redemption/earning options. But I do think it's likely, given that DL/AF/KLM essentially run Skyteam and own VS.

craigthemif

Many FTers partners just want to be on the same flight, not taking the train to London or Manchester to take a series of flights via Asia to perhaps get to SYD the same week as you...

In which case your credit card is a far better resource than VS miles.

irishguy28

And it's for those very reasons that neither VS nor DL have shown any interest so far in having VS join Skyteam.

Given that Delta previously didn't want to "share" VS even with AFKL across the Atlantic (no codesharing or mileage earning for AF/KL fliers on VS flights, and vice versa), I really can't see why they would now want to go completely to the opposite extreme, and "share" VS with the entirety of Skyteam. And trust me, if VS and DL so far showed no interest in "sharing" VS with Skyteam, the arrival of AF/KL on the board will do nothing to swing the needle all the way over to full Skyteam membership and integration!

With each of DL/VS/AF/KL participating in an immunized joint venture across the Atlantic, and with full and reciprocal frequent flyer rights, there is no earthly reason to now make VS join Skyteam. None of DL's, AF's or KL's customers stand to gain any further benefit from having VS integrated into Skyteam - in fact, it works out as a disadvantage to each of DL's, AF's and KL's customers, as they have the "benefits" of VS anyway, but would stand to lose out on award space due to the extra "competition" of other Skyteam partners redeeming on VS.

Remember - AFKL's "access" to VS comes at the price of investing in the airline. Why, then, would AFKL's arrival now result in similar "access" being granted to the rest of Skyteam - at no cost to those members? (The joining airline pays for the costs associated with alliance membership, i.e. DL, AF and KL would effectively be "paying" to grant "access" to the other Skyteam members).

If VS saw Skyteam membership as a bonus or a plus point for their customers, then surely they would already have commenced accession.

Theirin

I hope you're right!

UKtravelbear

People seem to see that VS joining an alliance or having joint business arrangments as solely being the frequent flyers of the other airlines 'taking away' reward inventory from VS without seeing that members of VS flying club will have access to rewards on KL/AF flights to a whole host of destinations VS currently does not serve.

Theirin

I'm fully in favour of VS' direct partnerships with other airlines - but most of those direct partnerships are generally with top airlines.

As for alliances, if it was Star Alliance or One World I'd agree with you - but SkyTeam have, I would argue, on average the least impressive collection of airlines of any of the major alliances. In fact, I would say that they don't have a single stand out premium airline - nothing to complete with SQ, ANA, CX, QR etc.

So yes, VS joining SkyTeam would open up some new destinations, but generally speaking they would all require flying on airlines I don't want to fly on! I struggle to think of a single destination outside of the JV where a SkyTeam airline would be my favoured option. DL/AF/KLM are fine but we'll likely be able to redeem on all of those airlines anyway. On top of that, their current partnership arrangement with *A carriers such as SQ, ANA and Air New Zealand is a far superior arrangement than SkyTeam, in my opinion (if joining SkyTeam meant losing those business arrangements.)