Singapore Airlines devalues Virgin Australia Velocity points – 1 Jan 2019

As of today, you can exchange Virgin Australia Velocity Points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles at the rate of 1.35 (VA) to 1 (SA) points

Deadline: 1 January 2019

From January 1st 2019 – the rate will be cut to 1.55 (VA) to 1 (SA) points.

If my maths is right (and I wouldn’t place any bets) that’s about a 12% devaluation.

So – unless you use your VA points for something more important – I advise transferring them to Singapore Airlines tout suite!

NOW – 100,000 Velocity points will convert to 74,074 KrisFlyer miles
AFTER Jan 1 – 100,000 Velocity points will convert to 64,516 KrisFlyer miles

The same is true the other way round:

Receive 1 Velocity Point for every 1.35 KrisFlyer miles converted before 1 January 2019. After 1 January 2019, you will receive 1 Velocity Point for every 1.55 KrisFlyer miles converted, and Velocity Points will be credited directly to your Velocity Frequent Flyer account from then. A minimum of 5,000 KrisFlyer miles is required for each conversion. Please note that all miles converted cannot be reversed.

Krysflyer page on Singapore Airlines website

Another nail in the Velocity Points coffin?

In the past, with great availability on Virgin Australia AUS – USA flights, collecting Velocity points, and using them for Virgin Australia Business Class to the USA was great value. Now, you will be lucky to find a seat 355 days in advance.

The second most useful thing you could do with them (in my opinion) was to use them to convert to KrisFlyer miles for use on Singapore Airlines. You could also apply them to other Star Alliance members, such as Thai, ANA, Lufthansa and Swiss to name a few of the more desirable members .

Reducing the exchange rate between KrysFlyer miles and Velocity points represents another coil on the downward spiral of this loyalty program.

Action Required

Convert your Virgin Australia points to Krisflyer points ASAP – and before the January 1st, 2019 deadline.