Knowing your airline partnerships in advance of making firm travel plans allows you to consider and explore the best ways of getting yourself from A to B.

Doing a little research on the specific partners of both Velocity and Qantas can help you to understand where you can use your frequent flyer points in future.

If you are new to the frequent flyer world (or need a refresher), you may consider signing up to our free email course to access expert information and tips.

The list of partners each program has is fairly extensive, so I’ve tried to list them all but also give a brief comment on their utility. Here is the full overview:

Velocity Frequent Flyer partners

Virgin Australia have the following airlines as their primary partners for Velocity earn and redeem opportunities:

VA Partners | Point Hacks
  • HNA Group airlines: you can earn Velocity points on all flights operated by Hong Kong Airlines, and flights between Australia/New Zealand and Hong Kong/Greater China as well as domestic Chinese flights operated by Hainan Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines and Tianjin Airlines; you can redeem your Velocity points online for Hainan and Hong Kong Airlines flights but you need to call Velocity for Beijing Capital Airlines bookings; you cannot currently redeem your Velocity points for travel on Tianjin Airlines
  • Singapore Airlines & SilkAir: for travel to Singapore and onto Asia, Europe and North America; you can redeem your Velocity points for travel in all cabins
Singapore Airlines 777-300ER First Class

You can redeem your Velocity points for First and Suites Class travel on Singapore Airlines

Other partners include Alitalia and South African Airways.


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Qantas Frequent Flyer partners

oneworld partner airlines

The programs below are all oneworld members, and as a result you can use your Qantas Points to fly with them.

It is also worth remembering the same is true of other oneworld member programs, specifically Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles, which you can also accrue points with from credit card spend in Australia.

QFF Airline Partners | Point Hacks

The most used oneworld partners are:

  • Qantas: naturally
  • Cathay Pacific & Cathay Dragon: to Hong Kong and onto Greater China, Europe, North America and Russia
Cathay Pacific Business Class

Cathay Pacific offers a good premium product and flies from six Australian cities to its hub in Hong Kong

  • American Airlines: to Los Angeles and onto and within North America; between North America and Europe
  • Japan Airlines: to Tokyo and onto Asia, the US and Europe
  • Qatar Airways: to Doha and onto Europe, North America and Africa
  • Malaysia Airlines: to Malaysia and onto Southeast Asia and London
  • Finnair: has connecting operations with Qantas, Cathay and British Airways via Southeast Asia to Helsinki and onto Europe
  • British Airways: to Singapore and London for a wide range of onward connections into Europe; watch high fuel surcharges
  • LATAM: for direct flights from Melbourne to Santiago and from Sydney to Santiago via Auckland and onto South America (leaving the oneworld alliance on 1 October 2020)

Lesser-known oneworld partners are:

  • Fiji Airways: to Fiji and onto Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hawaii (not a full oneworld partner but rather a oneworld connect member)
  • Royal Jordanian: some intra-Asia flights, e.g. Hong Kong to Bangkok, plus Middle East and into Europe from Jordan
  • Iberia: for travel from Spain to The Americas
  • Sri Lankan: direct Melbourne – Colombo flight recommences 30 October 2017; access to South Asia and some other light intra-Asia routes
  • S7: connections into Russia from Frankfurt

Bilateral partner airlines

Qantas also partner with a few non-oneworld airlines:

  • Jetstar: of course, as a Qantas-owned airline; Qantas points is the only way to use and earn points to fly on Jetstar
  • Emirates: for flights to New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Dubai and onward throughout its very extensive network
Emirates A380 Business Class Cabin

Redemptions in Emirates Business (or First) Class is a great use of Qantas points

In all cases for the above list, this means they allow points redemptions on these airlines, and sometimes also codeshare with them—where your flight number will begin with QF, but operated by the partner, not Qantas. This is helpful as you’ll earn more Qantas Points and Status Credits on these flights, but potentially at an additional cost when booking through Qantas.

Qantas will commence a codesharing partnership with Air New Zealand from 28 October 2018.

Summing up

It’s not surprising that Qantas have a wider range of partners than Velocity, given their long-standing oneworld membership.

Having said that, using points on partners is still a great way to get good value out of your points in either program.

Some routes and classes of travel are only available if you redeem on a partner, and knowing the partners and their route networks will stand you in good stead when you come to researching availability and looking for opportunities to use your points down the track.

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Virgin Australia and Air NZ end partnership: here is what you need to know was last modified: July 27th, 2022 by Matt Moffitt