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Members of Virgin Australia’s frequent flyer program Velocity have a new airline on which to redeem points for flights as part of an expanded partnership with Tigerair Australia.
Starting Thursday, Velocity points can be used to pay for any Tigerair flight, with the number of points required depending on the cost of the ticket and what optional extras, such as seat selection, meals and checked baggage, are added to the booking.
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A dummy booking on the low-cost carrier’s website showed a $95 one-way flight from Sydney to Melbourne would require 14,616 points, while a $115 one-way ticket for the same journey required 17,693 points.
The figures suggested one Velocity point was worth a little under 0.65 of a cent towards the cost of a Tigerair ticket.
By way of comparison, a one-way flight in economy class between Melbourne and Sydney on Virgin was priced at 10,200 Velocity points, or 6,900 points plus a co-payment of $21.11.
Previously, Velocity members were only able to use points to book flights on Tigerair’s three international routes from Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth to Bali.
While the new partnership allows redemption of points for all Tigerair flights, Velocity members cannot earn points from flying on the low-cost carrier. Virgin owns 100 per cent of Tigerair.
Tigerair commercial director Adam Rowe said the partnership with Velocity gave passengers more choice and members of the frequent flyer program access to 12 destinations – including international service to Bali – in the low-cost carrier’s network.
“We are very excited to be partnering with Velocity Frequent Flyer, and to offer this new opportunity for Velocity members to use their Velocity Points to travel on our network,” Rowe said in a statement on Thursday.
“Tigerair Australia continues to grow in line with consumer demand and today’s announcement is further evidence of this.”
Velocity had 5.7 million members at December 31 2015, Virgin said at its 2015/16 first half results on February 11, with an average of 2,595 new members a day joining the program. The company is targeting having 7 million members by 2017.
Ben
says:A nice development, but if those points comparisons are right they need to seriously re-evaluate the point-dollar ratio. Who in their right mind would spend MORE points to travel with the LCC arm?
Andrew
says:Have to agree Ben, 39000 points for Mel to Bne last weekend with Tiger total cost to buy $200 verses VA 29,000 points or $300 dollars
Can’t see the value proposition, however, the tigger flight was much improved conpaired ti when they first started, well done VA mangement on that.
franz chong
says:tiger are slowly getting there but would not recommend them to anyone.maybe as an alternative to say a coach interstate through the day or overnight or a rail service but otherwise no.