Given the recent changes to the Velocity points redemption rates, I thought I'd try and get a one way Business Reward seat on a trip from MEL-EDI at the end of August.

Given the recent changes to the Velocity points redemption rates, I thought I'd try and get a one way Business Reward seat on a trip from MEL-EDI at the end of August.

Having seen the old and the new Redemption tables I thought I'd have enough points to do it, but every time I check the flights on the Virgin website (ex MEL and SYD), the cheapest being displayed is almost 900,000 points and some even go as high as 1.2 million points.

The same with the Economy fares - 245,900 points is the cheapest one way coming up.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it a website glitch or am I misunderstanding the redemption tables?

My guess is that there aren't any business rewards seats available across all of the sectors on the dates you're trying to book.  What you're seeing is the 'points cost' of a regular seat.

What are the column headings in the search results?

VA website will auto-hide the 'economy reward' and 'business reward' columns when there's nil availability.

Options:

1) Call VA to see if there are Business Reward seats that may not be showing up online.

2) Break your trip up into segments and search for Business Rewards seats segment by segment and if you get positive results and are flexible with your travel dates, you may just need to schedule in an AUH stopover :)

I've often looked for business reward seats, quite literally the week those fares open up and sporadic dates. I almost never see them available and I'm a gold status. I suspect it's something you'd have to book via phone as web searches have been futile.

Only for certain routes, I've booked an SQ J class fare less than a fortnight out many times now. VA gold.

International Reward seats to key destinations such as the US & UK are impossible, even upgrades to the pointy end are scarce - have been trying for an upgrade with points since October last year for April and no success to date (I'm Va Platinum). 

Looked ahead for February 2017 - no options available there either. 

Domestic reward seats - plenty!!!

As has been said try calling VA.

As a VA Plat I have had only good experience with international rewards in business 1 x 1 pax to Uk with Etihad (although had a 6 hour connection in AUH as direct connection had no reward availability - awful time spent in EY first lounge ;) - over Christmas and New Year and 3 x 2 pax to US in May, September and November. All booked on the website. All booked 10/11 months out. 

However, I mostly try for outside school holidays at both origin and destination to maximise chances.

Thanks all, sim86on was right, in that there is no reward availability across all sectors. If I break it down to the individual sectors, it's the AUH-EDI that has no reward availabiltity. I'll try calling VA, but it sounds like I'll only get as far as AUH on a Business Reward Seat. Still, better than nothing!