Flying at the pointy end across the Pacific is a popular way to spend frequent flyer points. But with premium seats to the United States in hot demand from paying customers, securing a reward booking can be tough. When it comes to using Velocity Points, though, there’s a trick that’s worth knowing – and it can get you flying United Polaris Business Class.
If you’re trying to book far in advance – close to a year until departure – you’d be lucky to find a reward seat at the front of the plane. But United is savvy. As the departure date nears, the airline gets a better idea of how many seats may not be snapped up by fare-paying customers. And that’s when reward seats become available.
Between Australia/New Zealand and the United States, this usually starts to happen about one month from travel time. And once you’re within a week of departure, there’s a very, very good chance you’ll find something.
Case in point: I needed to book a last-minute flight to Los Angeles, ideally on points. And by last-minute, I do mean that. I booked a flight at midnight to depart at 9 a.m. At this point, the price of a one-way Business Class ticket came in at $8,595. But, just like magic, there was a reward seat bookable on the same flight.
Rather than the hefty asking price of the airfare, my journey quickly becomes a lot more affordable thanks to points. In fact, the cash cost is like buying a domestic Economy flight: $119.74 all up, including Virgin Australia’s credit card fee. But that’s for a transpacific flight in United Polaris when redeeming 95,500 Velocity Points at the same time. You might even be able to earn enough points for a flight like this from one well-timed credit card sign-up offer.
MyCard Premier Credit Card
- Sign-up Bonus:
- 110,000 bonus Velocity Frequent Flyer Points⁹
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- 2 MyCard reward Points per $1 spent on Eligible Transactions online or overseas and 1 MyCard reward Point per $1 spent on Eligible Transactions everywhere else, capped at 200,000 MyCard reward Points over a 12-month period
- Annual Fee:
- $300 p.a.
- Earn 110,000 bonus Velocity Points via Autoredemption (converted from 220K MyCard Reward Points) with a MyCard Premier Credit Card when you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases within 90 days from approval.⁹ Automatically transfer myCard Reward Points to Velocity Frequent Flyer Points each month with Autoredemption. Get 0% p.a. for 12 months on balance transfers, a 3% BT fee applies. Balance transfer must be applied for during card application and Balance Transfer rate reverts to Cash Advance rate after the promotional period.¹⁰
Booking United Polaris to Los Angeles using Velocity Points
Heading to the home of Hollywood? You’ll find direct United Airlines flights from Sydney and Melbourne. You can’t book Premium Economy on United with Velocity Points – but you can book Polaris (Business Class).
Sydney to Los Angeles direct is the route I flew, which costs 95,500 Velocity Points for a one-way Business Class flight. And just AU$118.18 to pay on the side (plus Virgin’s minimal credit card surcharge). That’s another great thing about using Velocity Points to fly with United – there are no ‘carrier charges’. You only pay the genuine taxes.
From Melbourne to Los Angeles, the points cost is the same. The taxes are marginally lower.
Of course, you can book Economy too. But when United Polaris only costs roughly twice as many Velocity Points as sitting down the back, it’s well worth doing if you can. United previously offered Brisbane-LA flights, but these have been suspended in favour of more direct services to San Francisco.
Booking United flights to San Francisco using Velocity Points
Los Angeles is a traditional point of entry into the United States for Australians. But San Francisco is a larger hub for United – and you can fly there direct from three east coast cities.
A flight from Sydney to San Francisco in United Polaris mirrors the exact same cost in Velocity Points and tax as Sydney-LA.
Following the trend, Melbourne to San Francisco also costs exactly the same in points and taxes as Melbourne to LA.
For Queenslanders, United offers a direct Brisbane to San Francisco flight as well. Taxes are the highest on this route of the big three Australian east coast cities, but the difference is still very marginal.
It’s also worth knowing that even though Virgin Australia and United Airlines flights appear on separate reward tables in Velocity, flights can be combined to form a connection. That’s handy if you need to fly on a particular date but can only find a Polaris seat through Velocity out of a different city.
For instance, a direct flight from Melbourne to San Francisco via Brisbane costs the same number of Velocity Points as a flight from either city. That’s flying Virgin Australia on the domestic hop and United Airlines across the Pacific. You’ll just pay a bit more in taxes, fees, and charges to add the domestic flight.
Other routes to fly United Polaris using Velocity Points
Velocity members can book reward flights across the United Airlines network – including in Polaris. But if you’re looking for a different way of getting to the US versus LA or San Francisco, keep reading.
United also runs a seasonal direct flight from Sydney to Houston – as well as flights from Auckland to San Francisco. The number of points required is based on a flight’s length, so those flying from New Zealand part with slightly fewer points (and pay less tax).
United also runs seasonal flights between Christchurch and San Francisco. Where there’s availability, these can be booked using Velocity Points in Polaris or Economy – just like any other United flight.
Flying United Polaris
What’s all the fuss about United Polaris, then – and why should you book it using Velocity Points? Well, Polaris is the airline’s best cabin – and best experience. It starts at check-in, where those booked in United Polaris use the highest tier of priority check-in, shared only with United Premier 1K and Global Services flyers. (That’s United’s equivalent of Qantas Platinum One and Chairman’s Lounge).
Once on board, well, they say a picture is worth 1,000 words. Here’s a peek at my Polaris pew in row one, booked with Velocity Points. You can bet I had a good night’s sleep!
Travelling with a companion? The cabin’s 1-2-1 layout is staggered. If you sit in the centre, every second row of seats is ‘together’. But, if you wind up here when flying alone, you can raise that handy privacy screen.
On the ground, United Polaris passengers have access to Star Alliance Business Class lounges in Australia. In Sydney, for instance, that’s a choice between the Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines lounges. But in the US, at eligible airports, United’s fanciest Polaris lounges await – and they’re only for those flying at the pointy end, not even for top-tier status members.
With great availability for last-minute travel, very low taxes and fees and a solid premium product, this is one trick to keep in your back pocket.
Also read: Delta plans new ‘premium lounge’ to rival AA Flagship and United Polaris
All photography by Chris Chamberlin, who travelled at Point Hacks’ expense using Velocity Points earned via the company’s Virgin Australia Business Flyer account.
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Chris, unfortunately since the start of August (or mid-July?) this is no longer possible.
UA has removed all partner access to I and X space, and given the IN space over to its own Credit Card and Status holders.
All partners, including VA and AC, have lost access to this last-minute (and advance) availability, so the only way to now fly UA Polaris using points is to buy a cash fare in Y (or Y+) and then put in a PP or MUA upgrade request, which puts you on the waitlist, followed by waiting until a day or two before the flight (or as late as during boarding)!
Was a great golden goose while it lasted, but it’s been nerfed now.
Great article. Very helpful in planning for next year. Also, came across an interesting anomaly. Just looked at Virgin Velocity to see what seats were available next week, BNE to San Fran . Came across VA flight, direct , 400k points Business one way, below that , same flight but with UA code , same seat only. 98,000 points.
Great tip article.
Have just done SYD-LAX on UA Premium Economy and had a look at the Polaris product – looked fine.
I’ve looked into Rewards seats SYD-LAX and SFO in UA Polaris on multiple dates over the next month or so – plenty for the out leg, but can only fine Economy for the return.
Having said that, it’s worth keeping an eye on award bookings as United opens up award space close to departure. I happily paid a couple of $60 change fees last year as award space opened up. I started with SYD-SFO in economy for 44.8K points, then changed to SYD-MEL-SFO in Polaris for 95.5K points and then finally ended up on SYD-IAH for 111.5K points. It was a very comfortable flight.
My friend did just as well, booking a Polaris award from SNA-SFO-SYD about two weeks out for 95.5K points (much easier flying out of SNA than dealing with the chaos that is LAX).
Interesting article. We just booked 4 x ff tickets mel – sfo return costing 360K points in total for economy. Would have loved to have gotten polaris seats but none avail. We were looking at paying the annual subscription for extra leg room as it worked out better than individually purchasing. My hubby is velocity platinum member. Apparently to get the subscription you have to have your mileage plus account attached to ticket which removes Velocity number. Hubby has said if I do this he will loose his platinum benefits such as lounge access and two bags. Anyone know if this is true. He also said they can bump you if on annual subscription however if you pay individually per person for each seat and each way you cant get bumped and you wont have to have mileage account attached. If you know the answer and I can win the debate I would love to know:)
Hi Leanne, this isn’t something we’ve looked into. Your best point of contact for this is United.
Great tip!!!!
The problem is booking connecting flights within North America. Although they are often available on United’s website, they never appear on Velocity.
Flew AKL-SFO return in UA J. Judging by my fellow passengers I doubt any of them had paid $9k for their seats… You could also tell this because all the odd numbered seats were allocated very early on and only people like point hackers would know these are the better seats for privacy. The amount of award space UA is realeasing on the Oz/nz to US routes must be impacting in some way on QF and nz revenue on these routes.