A decent transfer bonus being offered as part of Amex's membership month.
2 Membership Rewards points = 1.25 Velocity Points (previously only 1)
Transferring Mininum 2,000 AmEx Membership Rewards Points to Velocity Frequent Flyer, Get 25% Bonus Points @ American Express
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7effect on 01/08/2022 - 16:16 americanexpress.com (650 clicks)
Last edited 01/08/2022 - 16:59 by 1 other user
Last edited 01/08/2022 - 16:59 by 1 other user
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Referee gets 200,000 MR points. Referrer gets 150,000 MR points.
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Exactly, Velocity is now more valuable than Qantas points, Qantas has diluted their points.
In terms of value by itself - virgin is def better. In terms of points partners and seat availability - both are bad lol
The number of reward seats on Qantas international flights is absolute dogshit to the point where I had to write a program to alert me when they are available on flights I want
@funk44: Qantas used to allow (pay?) for more parter seats as well. When I compared to both American Airlines and even Alaska - both had availability on certain routes Qantas didn't have access to - there is no way both of them had phantom seats.
Such a dissapointment Qantas has become. Also, your program sounds interesting?
@jaygee: Don't think QF ever allowed paying to access more reward seats.
The issue you're seeing now is airlines are playing games with reward inventory and dynamic pricing. You can see more award seats on AA and AS because they have a type of award seat that isn't released to partner airlines but cost more points. (Similar to SQ and their advantage and saver reward types). Airlines are willing to allocate more seats redeemable by points if they can get more points than the basic award price, but they can't do this across partner airlines alliance wide without having specific agreements in place.@Trance N Dance: I think you've misunderstood my point - I don't mean on AA or AS metal. AA and AS have more access to flights on say MH than Qantas does. Same leg, same route, same time. When I want to get somewhere complicated like Marrakech, I understand AA likely has more partners and so you can get more connections than Qantas outside of OW, but MEL - KUL is a standard route which Qantas SHOULD have access to, but they didn't. AA and AS did. AS' parthernship with MH is rather new, and they are already showing MH seats (though at a stupid reward price).
Another example is how Emirates had daily biz seats available on SYD - MEL on their own site on the week I checked, but when checking Qantas, not a single reward seat was popping up for the month I checked. Pre-covid, I generally found the availability to be exactly the same, if Qantas didn't show a seat on EK, then neither did the EK website.
I haven't done enough research on this, but there are def less award seats going around than normal, and Qantas seems to have less access regardless of the comparison.
@funk44: There's websites which do this for you.
You gotta look 11 months ahead, even then it's so bad
Krisflyer wasn't bad, but still not great.
@[Deactivated]: The idea is that it's automated so the program can check a couple of times a day and alert me via email if/when a reward flight comes available
So, technically, Velocity. Both are 2 Amex -> 1 airline point. So with the 25% promo you will get 1.25 velocity points per 2 amex.
In reality there are a number of considerations, such as where do you want to go, what awards are available, points expiry and what the rewards cost in both points and cash.
I'm not going to say what's better even though I have a strong opinion that one is much better than the other, but I will suggest you leave the points as Amex unless you have scoped out a redemption. A point in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Amex statement credits are pretty good value too,
so leaving them in Amex might be better instead of chasing airline points,
which are losing out to inflation and/or dilution.You must be new to Amex and never experienced the great Amex Halving.
@vr4indian: It wasn’t too bad. They gave about 4 months to move your points out before they halved in value.
@vr4indian: Early to mid 2019 Amex halved the value of their MR points by increasing redemption rates from (generally) 1:1 to airlines to 2:1. They then also decreased earn rates on their cards. It's not just airlines that can devalue their points, credit cards can do it too.
IMO a good value is Marriott points depending on their dynamic calculator.
27,000 points booked a nice marriot property worth 280/night cash, 2:3 conversion means about 40000 amex points which is 1000 points/$5 statement credit so about $200 worth
Virgin biz class availability for Singapore flights are terrible compared to Kris flyer. However, they don't expire. I guess if you're booking far enuff in advanced it's probably ok (and for smaller number of tickets)
I guess depends on where u want to go and when u want to fly
Personally, Ive decides to stop accumulating velocity and start collecting KF.
I recently booked sing biz Syd to Munich with velocity for 11 months time Start of May 23 and it took me 5 weeks checking every day to finally get flights. There was always heaps of Etihad biz available but the surcharges are outrageous like $1200 vs the $300 I paid for sing.
Krisflyer 100% - but the best value is not transferring any until you need to (unless there is an amazing bonus - this isn't one)
Move to velocity for the bonus 25%, then you can easily move the points back and forth between velocity and krisflyer pretty easily with a fixed conversion rate.
If you start with 100 points, move it 3 times and you'll end up with just 26 points. It is certainly easy to move it back and forth but you lose every time you do.
Oh shit you're right I thought the exchange rate was locked. Yeah you lose everytime you transfer LOL the amount you lose by is the same how sneaky. 1.55 : 1 ratio.
Much better off just booking Singapore reward flights directly through virgin's website with velocity points.
As mentioned above - Virgin no longer gets the same availability on Singapore flights as pre-covid and you can only book 330 days in advance compared to KF members at 355 days from memory.
Plus Velocity points are about to be de-valued slightly with a decent fee increase for partner redemptions.
Even with the bonus I'd be wary of transferring unless you have a specific redemption in mind and can actually find the seats. KF points are much more valuable due to being harder to obtain in Aus.
Velocity points don't expire as long, as the account is 'used' ever 1.5 years.
KrisFlyer points expire in tranches, irrespective of whether you're 'using' the account for accrual,
and this "per-tranche-expiry" is the biggest drawback for me.
This is the main thing stopping be from taking up KrisFlyer points. With Velocity, you could trickle a few points in every year to avoid any expiry.
The 50% bonus on Marriott transfers is really good value also.
That’s excellent! Transferred all mine last time when the bonus was 30% but this is even better! Hopefully I’ll have a lot more accumulated before September end.
Thankssuch a shame Marriot scrapped their awesome stay and fly packages.
what redemption gives you the best value now a days?
They just have a massive range of airline transfer partners but not necessarily the best value.
Is this worth it over Krisflyer?
I have 200k AMEX pts currently.
Yeah, AMEX does a bonus to Krisflyer once or twice a year I believe.
I still have 250k+ Krisflyer points but the fact they expire.
I wonder if it's stager to golden Velocity.
No idea if Velocity will have any availability. Krisflyer, I had to book 11 months ahead in business class for a business saver.
On my return, I got a 22 hour layover too! It's not easy finding saver flights, their shifting towards the other awards which cost much more points.
I don’t remember the last time Amex had a bonus to KrisFlyer.. probably years ago.
@momo1988: Happens once a year, around november-January.
November 2021 - 15% Bonus
November 2020 - 15% Bonus
anyone knows why amex points are worth 1.2c when its 0.5c when used on amex websites? the flexibility to convert to other points can double the value of the point?
Pretty much. The 0.5c redemption on AMEX websites is one of the worst value redemptions, compared to airline partners. I aim to get at least 2c per point when redeeming Qantas / Velocity points, and 2 AMEX points = 1 VFF point so worth 1c each. You can get more than 5c per point from airlines though, especially for business class / international flights / last minute flights / etc.
I think pointhacks chuck an extra 0.2c to the value because of the flexibility to redeem across so many partners compared to other providers.
thanks i see, i struggle to get 2c out of the point.. maybe i have just been looking at short haul flights like Singapore
A current Singapore business fare for 2023 to Europe is about 7k aud , so if converting the miles you get about 2.5c per velocity point (280 k points) plus about $300 tax cash on top
@Capitalshark: I booked for 236k return, but a few weeks later it got dumped 10% more points.
That's alot more velocity points, it's over 250k Krisflyer now return and I booked 11 months ahead and it was very difficult finding flights
I had to fly into Paris, leave through Amsterdam
I'm quite sure this value is calculated in context with converting MR to airline programs.
yeah i know but my point is no airline point is worth 2.4c (2x MR) on pointhacks, and when you book flights on amex its still the 0.5c rate
That 1.2c is just a made up valuation. I personally value my Amex at 0.5c per point.
First class on SQ from FRA to SYD, just paid $250, rest was points (around 250k 1way from memory).
flight in 4wks exactlyhave to slum it in business on the way there though :D
How did you even find the flights? I saw absolutely nothing for first class, but 250k is alot! My business was Adelaide to Paris for 118knot something each way.
You just of booked the advantage
250k Krisflyer pts are worth what 3.5k? So I spose 7k for a first class flight is cheap but it's still alot.
I booked the tickets late last year, was advantage.
Yeah business class is enough but I had points expiring so thought I'd go all out
Very easy for me to earn points with business expenses
Get 50% more points when you transfer your Membership Rewards points to the Marriott Bonvoy®loyalty program by 30 September 2022.10
Unless you are ready to book travel/have an urgent need to travel or need points for future bookings that you've already planned, I think this is a terrible deal. Keep the Amex points as is and when you need them, transfer them across to the airline you're planning to travel with.
The bottom line (or the keyword) here is redemption availability. Search around for redemption seats - in business/first (for international travel) and then transfer your points. As others have mentioned, you can get more value out of your points that way.
If you're just planning to fly domestically with Virgin, this might be a deal for some. For me personally, I wouldn't burn my Amex point on Velocity given there's zero business/first availability on most international routes I've looked for on random routes/dates combinations. YMMW
This is a bit harsh. There are absolutely good deals for economy international redemptions, some worth well better than 1.2c per point on classic reward redemptions.
Is that before or after qantas add ridiculous amounts of taxes on
This is a Virgin deal, so Virgin. Never pay taxes with points. I net out the cost outright and the cost of taxes.
@kipps: Ahh okay, yeah I’m virgin too just booked sing biz to Munich a few weeks ago. I can’t pay for international or domestic economy with points, in my head I only want what I would never pay cash for, skybeds. But I have friends with families and they happily do it when there are four of them
Would love some advice, struggling to get my head around all these points. Have 142,000 Amex points and going to cancel Amex card in 2 days to avoid yearly fee. Then sign up for ANZ Qantas card. Not sure whether to take $700 in Coles vouchers, or transfer to velocity or something else if I'm going to get better value?? Haven't had any experience with velocity points . I'm a single parent with 4 kids, won't be doing first class anywhere. Holidays planned are Bali and domestic. Am I likely to get more than $700 in velocity points? Thanks heaps for any advice, you guys have already given me and the kids a holiday to Queensland through Amex deal!
You aren't likely to get international return on 88,750 velocity points, much less for 5 seats. And the redemption value when using your points for domestic economy seats are so low that you might as well take the cash or gift card.
Cheers, sounds like the gift card is the way to go! Thanks
Depends on when you are looking to book. I just booked a Singapore airlines Business from Sydney to Delhi for 92k velocity points + $101. The same flight is for around $4200 on the Singapore air website. The transfer from AMEX to Velocity was instant.
@ThePointsGuru: That's not bad
Adelaide to Paris was around 118k or something for me through Singapore aka Krisflyer pts
Moving to velocity or Krisflyer .. Which has better value