How to book Delta flights using Velocity points?

Flights & Airfares
1

Hi all,

After all the guides I have read I thought i had this sorted but apparently not! I am hoping to go the the USA in July with my wife and we have 400,000+ Velocity points up our sleeves. I used the Delta website to search availability for the month and thought I had a decent deal by finding a return trip direct from SYD to LAX July 2-19 for a total of 220,000 Sky Miles plus $300 AUD. The exact same trip was listed as 600,000+ points on the Velocity website. The flight is being operated by Virgin on both legs. I rang both Velocity and Delta and neither of them allowed me to book (Velocity said they couldn’t find a “sale fare” and there doesn’t seem to be any way to convert my Velocity points to Sky Miles. Would I have needed to book these flights 300 days in advance in order to get them for approximately 100,000 Velocity points per person at that time of year? Does anyone have any advice on how to get the best reward for Velocity points redemptions to the USA in July?

Cheers,
James

2

Hi James,

You are looking at a peak period on the top 2 or 3 most popular routes so do not expect to find seats easily.

Even when looking at early Dec (at the edge of the calendar), I struggle to find Business Reward seats (costs less points but is limited). The 600k number you see is related to the $ costs of the ticket. Not very great value (use) of points.

This is one of the well-known pet peeves of Velocity program -  lack of international availability.

3