Hilton Q2 promotion, Virgin Australia 35% off miles

[Hilton]

Hilton has revealed their Q2 Points Plus promotion.

Basically you’ll earn 1,000 bonus points on each stay completed between June 1 and August 15. Note that it’s not night- but stay-based and award stays also count.

It is one of the worst promotions we’ve seen from Hilton in recent years, although they deserve credit for running continuous offers all year round.

[Virgin Australia]

Virgin Australia has launched a sale on purchase of their Velocity points. Until May 8, you’ll get 35% off when buying at least 20,000 points, and the maximum you can buy is 250,000 points.

The unit price depends on the numbers of points you buy. If you are buying 50,000 points or more you are looking to pay roughly 15.2 AUD per 1k points, or in other words 74p / 98c per point.

As we’ve discussed last time, VA has three different redemption charts which you can find here. They have a pretty good award search engine and you don’t need to be signed in.

1. Virgin Australia

Redemption starts from 6,200 points in economy and 15,000 points in business. The pricing is however dynamic.

2. United & Virgin Atlantic

Flights between Europe and U.S. east coast most likely fall into the two categories below (business class):

  • 2,401 – 3,600 miles: 49,500 points
  • 3,601 – 4,800 miles: 59,500 points

Which means it costs only ~$500 for a one-way ex U.S (charges are higher ex Europe). The main catch is, availability in United’s business class seems extremely scarce.

They don’t seem to impose any fuel surcharge on Virgin Atlantic either. It is however impossible to check availability online and you must contact their call centre to book.

3. ANA, Singapore, Etihad, Qatar, Fiji, Air Canada, South African

Redemption on other partners are unfortunately more expensive, but it’s still decent value for short- and medium-haul flights within Asia:

  • 601 – 1,200 miles: 26,000 points
  • 1,201 – 2,400 miles: 38,000 points

ANA long-haul business is another bargain, as there’s no fuel surcharge.

Last but not least, you can also transfer your velocity points to Singapore’s Krisflyer miles in a ratio of 1.55 to 1, and the latter can be used to book SQ’s first class.

Be mindful that 35% off isn’t as generous as it sounds – they ran 40% off last July and 50% off before that.

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