Earn Virgin Australia frequent flyer points on flights in India

Although Virgin Australia doesn’t have an airline partner in India, members of its Velocity Frequent Flyer program can still earn frequent flyer points on Air India and Vistara flights thanks to VA’s nifty tie-up with Singapore Airlines.

It works like this: you use Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program to earn miles when travelling in India, and can later convert those miles to Virgin Australia Velocity points on a 1.35:1 basis. Here’s how it’s done.

Earn Virgin Australia frequent flyer points with Air India

When travelling with Air India you’ll pocket 1.5 KrisFlyer miles per mile flown in first class and 1.25 KrisFlyer miles per mile flown in business class, while economy travellers will earn one KrisFlyer mile per mile flown on midrange and higher-priced tickets, but no points on the cheapest fares:

When booking on the Air India website, you’ll find most of the non-earning fares under the ‘Web Special’ category, while ‘Super Value’ fares are a mix of earning and non-earning tickets.

To check which type of ticket you’re about to book, select your preferred flight and fare type, and then scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll see a single letter appear as the ‘booking class’:

Simply look for that letter in the KrisFlyer earning table above – if it appears, you’ll earn points at the rate indicated. If it doesn’t, as is the case with a U-type fare, you won’t earn any KrisFlyer miles or Velocity points.

Earn Virgin Australia frequent flyer points with Vistara

For every mile flown in Vistara business class Singapore Airlines awards 1.25 KrisFlyer miles, while you can also pick up one KrisFlyer mile per mile flown on premium economy and flexible economy tickets.

Just steer clear of the cheapest economy tickets in the Super Saver and Saver categories, as these won’t earn any KrisFlyer miles, and thus, won’t earn Velocity points.

On the 705-mile journey from Mumbai to Delhi you’d collect roughly 881 KrisFlyer miles in business class or around 705 miles on points-earning premium economy and economy fares with either Air India or Vistara, as applicable, which translates to 652 and 522 Velocity points, respectively.

From Delhi onwards to Hyderabad, the 793-mile trek churns out approximately 991 KrisFlyer miles in business class – 734 Velocity points – or around 793 KrisFlyer miles in premium economy and economy, becoming 587 Velocity points.

Just be aware that you’ll need a balance of at least 5,000 KrisFlyer miles before they can be swapped for Velocity points, so if you’re also travelling across the Star Alliance with airlines such as United, Thai Airways or Air Canada, pool all of those points towards KrisFlyer and then take your bounty to Velocity.

Also read: Air India drops Sydney-Melbourne tag flights, goes non-stop to Delhi

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Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.