[Air Canada]
Just like Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada is celebrating their 40th anniversary and launched many member offers. The most relevant one is, there is a 125% bonus for purchasing points until July 11th.
Under the current offer, you are looking to pay 15.6 CAD / $11.4 / £8.9 per 1,000 points, which is as good as it ever gets if I’m not mistaken.
We wrote a guide on redeeming Aeroplan points a while ago. Some of the sweet spots include:
- Europe – Middle East, business, 45,000 points
- Europe – Middle East, first, 60,000 points
- Europe – Asia, business, 80,000 points
- Europe – Asia, first, 100,000 points
Aeroplan has many airline partners in and out of Star Alliance, for which you can redeem conveniently online with a very reasonable fee. Some partners, e.g. Etihad is releasing much fewer premium seats though and I’m not sure if they’ve fixed the Oman Air issue yet.
[Virgin Australia]
Virgin Australia is also having a sale on their Velocity points. Until July 10, you’ll earn a staircased discount, up to 40% off when you purchase the maximum 250,000 points.
At 40% off you are looking to pay 14 AUD / $9.4 / £7.4 per 1,000 points, which is very cheap. VA has three different redemption charts which you’ll find here. They have a pretty good 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 appears very difficult to find.
It seems that they don’t 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.
Interestingly, 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. It means that you could purchase Singapore’s miles indirectly via this deal at 21.7 AUD / $14.6 / £11.4 per 1,000 points.
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