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:
- 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
You can redeem your Velocity points for First and Suites Class travel on Singapore Airlines
- Etihad: to the Middle East and Europe; beware of the Etihad Airways Reward Seat Carrier Charge; read how to use Velocity points for Etihad flights
- Delta: to and within the US
- Air New Zealand: redemptions only for flights within New Zealand and between Australia and New Zealand
- Virgin Atlantic: long-haul travel to/from London and the US, Caribbean, Dubai and some Asia and African destinations. Read more in our guide to using Velocity Points for Virgin Atlantic award flights
- Hawaiian Airlines: to Hawaii and onto North America
Other partners include Alitalia and South African Airways.
American Express Velocity Platinum
- Sign-up Bonus:
- Up to 100,000 bonus Velocity Points¹
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- 1.25 Velocity Points earned per $1 on all eligible spend except for government bodies⁵. 2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent on selected Virgin Australia purchases⁵. 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 on Government spend⁵
- Annual Fee:
- $440 p.a.
- Offer expires
- 30 April 2026
- The American Express Velocity Platinum Card has 70,000 bonus Velocity Points on offer for new American Express Card Members who apply, are approved and spend $5,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months of approval, plus an additional 30,000 Velocity Points when you spend a minimum of $1 on your Card within 90 days of paying your second year annual Card Fee¹. (Offer ends 30 April 2026. New Amex Card Members only. T&Cs apply.) Includes several perks such as Virgin Australia Lounge Access² every time you fly domestically with Virgin Australia, 2 VA Guest Lounge Passes³ each year and a Complimentary Domestic Return Virgin Australia Flight⁷.
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.
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 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
Redemptions in Emirates Business (or First) Class is a great use of Qantas points
- airnorth (partnership ends 30 April 2020)
- Air France-KLM
- Air Niugini
- Air Vanuatu
- Alaska Airlines: from Hawaii to the US mainland and within the US; check out our overview of Alaska Airlines First Class
- China Airlines
- China Eastern
- EL AL
- Jet Airways (all flights suspended effective 18 April 2019)
- South African Airways
- WestJet
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.
Earning Points: First Principles
- Getting Started with Frequent Flyer programs
- Earning by Flying
- Buying points and miles
- Earning from Credit Cards
- Earning from Offers & Partners
- Ask Questions & Keep in the Loop
- Earning and Using Points – First Principles
Using Points: First Principles
- Who, What, When, Where and How?
- Planning
- Flexibility
- Tools
- Flexible Points Programs
- Maximising Points value
- Qantas and Virgin Australia Key Partners
- Searching for points seats
If I have air nz, velocity (gold), virgin atlantic, krisflyer and asia miles memberships – and I’ve bought flights to/from NZ with Air New Zealand. Which FF membership would be the best to record against that flight?
Hi, we fly to NZ every year on Virgin and we are members of the Virgin Lounge. Usually we can access the Air NZ lounge at the airport. Now with demise of the partnership between Air NZ and Virgin, will be still be able to access the Air NZ lounge using our Virgin Lounge membership?
No, unfortunately not! Sad news.
So AirBerlin is with both virgin and qantas?
How do I transfer all my QFF pts over to airberlin and then transfer those all to velocity?
Hi. I am going on holidays this December and i booked my flights through Student Flights. Im flying American Airlines from sydney to LA and Emirates from Geneva to Manila with Dubai stop over. Now, i want to use my qantas points in these flights to upgrade economy to premium economy. Is it possible? If yes. How?
As far as I know, you can only use Qantas points to upgrade on Qantas-operated flights. If American Airlines and/or Emirates allow you to bid on an upgrade with cash on their websites prior to departure, then I would suggest that; or you could ask at check-in about upgrading with cash.
You can only use qantas points on Qantas operated flights. Not even qantas codeshare. Emirates doesn’t have premium economy in any case
I know this is an older post, but i was able to upgrade to business class on a Qantas economy RTW ticket redemption on a leg operated by British Airways. Cost me an extra 110k points (Athens to Bangkok via London) but worth it.
Keith
Do you expect that Hainan Airlines will be in the table 1 with Velocity?
Any word on when reward flights will be available?
I also read on the email that you could now book ALL classes of Singapore Airlines directly through Velocity.
Not sure about Hainan being in Table 1 – it would certainly be welcome to have some cheaper redemptions compared to Table 2!
The latest I’ve read is that award flights will be available “in the coming weeks” (as of 10 July 2017).
As for booking Singapore Airlines First Class seats, yes, the email did say that but then the more information page you click through to only provides an award chart for Economy, Premium Economy and Business.
I could be wrong but given Singapore doesn’t release First Class space to other partners like United, I think it unlikely they would release it to Velocity, especially given Velocity members can transfer their points to KrisFlyer for those redemptions. However, if they do make First Class redemptions available to Velocity, that’s great news!
Matt, I remember reading about Velocity’s proposed partnership with Air Canada. Since you have not included it here, wondering if that is not proceeding?
Also, is it just me or it is indeed a bit curious that AirBerlin gets to keep a foot in both camp? 🙂
Lastly, I think the line of distinction in terms of Star Alliance & OW partners has never been more blurry. For instance, you can redeem QF points on Jet Airways, but you can also redeem Etihad Miles, which is part of Star Alliance, for Jet Airways flights. Same with South African which is in Star Alliance camp.
Basically, these days it seems there are almost always ways around getting on almost any airline, with a decent enough mile/point balance.
I agree that it is quite simple to cover all alliances if you have flexible points currencies to use. Just remember that Etihad (nor Emirates or Qatar) are part of any major alliance but do have bilateral agreements with individual airlines.
Yes, airberlin is a bit of an anomaly. If you have airberlin Gold status, you are set in Australia for elite privileges on both Qantas and Velocity. I enjoyed that for a couple of years before my status expired in February of this year.
Great question about Air Canada. If you have a look at the Air Canada-Virgin Australia partnership page, it states:
“Velocity is currently in the process of implementing a new partnership with Air Canada. If your flight is operated by Air Canada with a VA flight number, you are eligible to earn Velocity Points (not Status Credits) for travel from 1 June 2017.”
Do note that currently “Virgin Australia codeshares on Air Canada’s non-stop services between Los Angeles and Calgary, Montreal and Toronto,” so that isn’t too many routes.
Plus, if you have a look at the table on that page, you’ll see that seems it’s only Velocity members with Silver status or above that can earn Velocity points on these flights.
I think it would be reasonable to expect that VA and Air Canada expand their relationship to include all Velocity members and more routes but one can never be sure.
The email from velocity said that all sq cabins will be bookable on velocity. Is that a mistake?
Yes, the email did say that but then the more information page you click through to only provides an award chart for Economy, Premium Economy and Business.
I could be wrong but given Singapore doesn’t release First Class space to other partners like United, I think it unlikely they would release it to Velocity, especially given Velocity members can transfer their points to KrisFlyer for those redemptions. However, if they do make First Class redemptions available to Velocity, that’s great news!
But remember that sq don’t release business to united either… At least lie flat. So Virgin don’t follow the same rules as start alliance.
The Velocity award chart now shows that Singapore Airlines First and Suites Class redemptions are bookable with Velocity points. This and associate guides have been updated.
Is there really no cancellation fee on velocity partner bookings? Where can I find that written on their website?
I got that wrong – I called to check and it’s changed. I’ll update the post, but it’s 7,500 points or $60 to cancel. When booking, for any taxes and fees over $50, they will add another $30 in credit card fees.