How To Book Singapore Airlines With Velocity Points

Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines are close partners, and with that comes the ability to redeem points for flights on either airline. You can use Velocity Points to book Singapore Airlines flights in Economy, Premium Economy, Business and First.

But there are two main ways to book a Singapore Airlines flight using Velocity Points, and the option that makes the most sense will depend on the cabin class you’re after, and the reward seat availability with each program.

The simplest option for most travellers is to book directly with Velocity, seeing that’s where your points are. You can book a Velocity Reward Seat for Singapore Airlines flights on the Virgin Australia website.

But the Virgin Australia and Singapore Airlines partnership goes even further by offering a unique benefit that allows members of both programs to transfer points from Velocity to KrisFlyer and vice versa.

Therefore, you can also transfer Velocity Points to KrisFlyer and book a reward seat directly with Singapore Airlines. This opens up a few things Velocity alone can't, mainly First Class and Suites redemptions, plus occasional KrisFlyer-only availability that Singapore Airlines doesn't release to Velocity. It comes at a cost though. The conversion rate is 1.55 Velocity Points for every 1 KrisFlyer Mile, so it's worth doing on purpose, not by default.

Below, we'll cover how to transfer Velocity Points to KrisFlyer, how the two programs compare on price and availability, and the exact steps to book through each one.

How To Transfer Velocity Points To KrisFlyer Miles

Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia allow members to transfer points between Velocity and KrisFlyer in either direction. The rate is:

• 1.55 Velocity Points → 1 KrisFlyer Mile
• 1.55 KrisFlyer Miles → 1 Velocity Point

That's a real cost. You lose over a third of your points' face value crossing over, so it's only worth doing when there's a specific reason (more on that below).

How to make a transfer:

1. Log in to your Velocity account
2. Head to the Linked Partners page on the Velocity website.
3. If not done already, link your Velocity account to your KrisFlyer account by clicking "Link" and following the prompts.
4. Once linked, click "Transfer Points" and enter the amount of Velocity Points you’d like to transfer, then click "Transfer Points".
5. Review the transfer and confirm your request.
6. Log in to your KrisFlyer account to see your transferred miles.

When Does Singapore Airlines Release Award Seats?

Singapore Airlines starts opening award seats at T-355, which is 355 days in advance. In most cases this occurs at 00:00 GMT (10am AEST), the same time revenue tickets are opened for sale.

Velocity Frequent Flyer opens up reward seats 330 days in advance, which means that KrisFlyer members could have snapped up some of the seats in the 25-day window prior.

How To Choose Between Booking With Velocity Or KrisFlyer?

Now that we have established that you can either redeem Velocity Points for Singapore Airlines flights on the Virgin Australia website, or first transfer Velocity to KrisFlyer and then book with Singapore Airlines, there is a natural question – which airline should I book with?

First, let’s compare the number of Velocity Points or KrisFlyer Miles you would need for a one-way redemption between Australia and Singapore. For KrisFlyer, we are using the Saver Award rate, so do note there is another more expensive option called Advantage.

It is worth mentioning that Singapore Airlines prices Reward Seats at two tiers, Saver (cheapest, sells out fastest) and Advantage (pricier, but sticks around longer). We are using Saver Rewards below for comparison in the below table.

At a glance, KrisFlyer's own price looks similar to Velocity's, sometimes even a little cheaper. But that's only true if you already hold KrisFlyer Miles. If you're starting with Velocity Points and have to transfer, the 1.55:1 conversion rate changes the maths completely.

Say you want to book Melbourne-Singapore in Business Class. Booking direct through Velocity costs 74,000 Velocity Points. Transferring to KrisFlyer to book that same seat at 72,000 KrisFlyer Miles would actually cost you 111,600 Velocity Points (72,000 × 1.55), a premium of over 37,000 Points for the same seat.

Most of the time, when you want to use Velocity Points, booking directly through Velocity is the cheaper way to fly Singapore Airlines. There are a few exceptions, but most of the time, the transfer rate eats any advantage that KrisFlyer's own pricing might have.

So why transfer at all? Because Velocity can't get you everything:

• First Class and Suites: Velocity doesn't offer redemptions for Singapore Airlines First Class or Suites. If you want to book these cabins, KrisFlyer is your only way in.
• Availability Velocity doesn't have: Singapore Airlines sometimes opens seats to KrisFlyer members that never appear in a Velocity search. If a specific date or route matters more than the points, it's worth checking KrisFlyer even at a worse rate.

Redeeming Velocity Points For Singapore Airlines Flights

Velocity members can redeem their Velocity Points for partner airlines such as Singapore Airlines based on distance reward tables, which are published on the Velocity website. The distance is calculated in air miles so if you want to work out how much a flight will cost, you can use a tool like Great Circle Mapper to work out the actual mileage and compare it to the Velocity reward table applicable for Singapore Airlines.

Booking Singapore Airlines flights with your Velocity Points is very easy and can be done online or over the phone. We recommend doing it online as there are no fees in this case.

How to book the Velocity

Step 1: Visit the Virgin Australia website and make sure you’re logged into your Velocity account.

Step 2: Make sure the "Use Velocity Points" toggle is on and enter your route, dates and number of passengers.

Step 3: Once you hit search, you will get redirected to the results screen. Here you will need to look out for some minor details. For starters if there’s a “Reward Seats” label you know that flight has a Velocity Reward Seat in at least one cabin.

If you’re confused about what a reward seat is and why some flights show up much more expensive than what you expected, you’re simply not familiar yet with the concept of a Reward Seat vs a Points+Pay seat. Both are vastly different and you can read all about it in our guide here.

Step 4: Once you find a suitable Velocity Reward Seat, proceed with your booking as you would with any other online booking.

You will see the option to pay the surcharges using Velocity Points, however, we recommend you pay with cash. Paying the surcharge/tax component using points will result in an awful of 0.59 cents per point. Ideally, we aim to redeem points for 1.5cpp at a bare minimum.

Booking fees

• Velocity website: no fee
• Membership Contact Centre: $70 or 8,800 Velocity Points per person per booking

Reward Seat carrier charges

Velocity applies a carrier charge for Singapore Airlines Velocity Reward Seats per segment, split by distance.

Use Search Tools To Find Award Space Fast

It can be a struggle to quickly scan multiple dates in order to find seats, which is why we are big fans of reward search tools Gyoza Flights and Seats Aero. Both let you search live award availability in one hit, rather than clicking through calendar after calendar on the airline's own site.

Gyoza Flights is an Australian tool built around Qantas Frequent Flyer and Velocity Frequent Flyer, and does a noticeably better job of showing connecting itineraries than most other tools.

Seats Aero casts a wider net across dozens of frequent flyer programs, which is handy if you're open to booking via a different program to Velocity or KrisFlyer, or if you want to compare availability side by side.

Both offer a limited number of free searches per month. Pro users on either platform can scan much further ahead and set up alerts that notify you the moment a Reward Seat opens up on your route, so you're not stuck refreshing manually.

Summing Up

Booking Singapore Airlines using Velocity Points is usually a straightforward process. In most cases, booking directly with Velocity will offer the best rate. Save KrisFlyer for First, Suites, or when Velocity comes up empty on a route you need.