As of today, it seems that Velocity Frequent Flyer has started to release award seat redemptions on its newest and hottest partner: Qatar Airways.
This is huge news for those with Velocity Points looking to redeem them on the fabulous Qatar Airways Qsuites or beyond.
You can learn more about the Virgin Australia x Qatar Airways partnership here
How many points do I Need?
To book a one-way flight from Sydney to Paris via Doha, you will need 139,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer Points. An absolute steal compared to what Qantas Frequent Flyer charges (Qantas charges 159,000 QF Points for the same itinerary).
The same price is true for a flight from Sydney to New York via Doha, which also clocks in just under 15,000 air miles, making it a 139,000 Velocity Points redemption.
If economy is your thing, you can snap up seats (and they are widely available) for just 75,000 Velocity Points one way (Sydney to Europe or the US).
To calculate your own itinerary, use a website such as GC Map to calculate the air miles and then compare them to the Velocity award chart.
How to book Qatar Airways Using Velocity Points?
Booking is straightforward; just head over to Velocity Frequent Flyer, make sure you’re logged in and click the “book with velocity points button”.
Once you get to the search results, keep an eye out for the purple label that reads “Rewards Seats Available”. If you don’t see this, it means rewards aren’t available while you can book using “points+pay”, that would be a terrible redemption as the points required would be the equivalent of a cash fare. If you don’t understand what that means, head on over to our Velocity Frequent Flyer beginners guide to learn more!
(If you see the image below, you’re seeing “points + pay” pricing; not what you want!)
Unfortunately, seeing the “Rewards Seats Available” label doesn’t mean you have struck gold and found yourself a business class ticket. More often than not, it’s Economy Awards, and you won’t find out until you click the flight to see.
(the image below is what you’re looking for, it means an award is available!)
While this is frustrating, it’s also the joy of frequent flyer points and even more rewarding when you finally find a seat!
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HT: to Russ on Instagram for the heads up!
As a QR platinum FF in my experience QR is quite miserable in releasing premium cabin award seats at reasonable pricing through their own program. More often than not any awards seating in the premium cabins is priced at double miles, even 10 months out. I would like to think they will look after their own FFlyers before doling out to award seats for VA members or other programs.
Personally, I’ve been having a great experience finding Qatar Airways via Avios. They’ve dried up a bit over European summer but otherwise, saver awards aren’t that hard to come by. It’s exponentially better compared to finding Qantas award space IMO. Also, the wards released to Velocity now are available to QR members. I’ve just comapred some award space and it’s the same 🙂
Thanks – this is a very interesting development as I would never of thought a One World partner would deal so directly with a competitor to Qantas
Can I upgrade Qatar flights (VA) with velocity points?
Hi JT, no you can’t. Only outright redemptions are possible.
Can I transfer Velocity Points to Qatar Avios
No it’s not possible. However, you can use Velocity to book Qatar Airways flights.