Qantas vs. Virgin Australia: Which is the Best Frequent Flyer Program for Flights from Australia to Europe Using Points and Miles?

Qantas Frequent Flyer Vs Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer: Which Frequent Flyer Program Is The Winner When Using Points To Fly From Australia To Europe?

Pointrs subscribers know that you can use an airline’s loyalty program’s points and miles to fly many airlines and not just the airline of the loyalty program. We have 19 “Travel Better” Pointrs covering 19 leading airline loyalty programs and the airlines you can fly with them to take you all around the world!

Across Qantas Frequent Flyer and Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer you can fly 39 airlines in total! But which one wins for using points to fly from Australia to Europe?

Let’s break it down.

Qantas Frequent Flyer vs. Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer: Which Frequent Flyer Program Can Be Used To Fly The Most Airlines?

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Apart from being able to use Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points to book flights on Qantas, you can use Qantas Points to book flights on many other airlines, namely:

Oneworld airlines

• Alaska Airlines

• American Airlines

• British Airways

• Cathay Pacific

• Finnair

• Iberia

• Japan Airlines

• Malaysia Airlines

• Qatar Airways

• Royal Air Maroc

• Royal Jordanian

• SriLankan Airlines

• Fiji Airways

Partner airlines

• Air France

• Air New Zealand

• Air Tahiti Nui

• Aircalin

• Bangkok Airways

• China Airlines

• China Eastern

• El Al Israel Airlines

• Emirates

• IndiGo

• Jetstar

• KLM

• Latam Airlines

• Solomon Airlines

• WestJet

That’s 29 in total, including Qantas.

Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer

Apart from being able to use Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Velocity Points to book flights on Virgin Australia, you can use Velocity Points to book flights on many other airlines, namely:

Partner airlines

• Air Canada

• ANA

• Etihad Airways

• Hawaiian Airlines

• Qatar Airways

• Singapore Airlines

• South Africa Airways

• United Airlines

• Virgin Atlantic

That’s 10 in total, including Virgin Australia.

WINNER: QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER!

Qantas Frequent Flyer vs. Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer: Which Of These Airlines Can Be Used To Fly From Australia To Europe?

Of the 39 airlines you can fly using Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points and Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Velocity Points, which airlines fly to from Australia to Europe, using conventional routes from east to west with only one-stop or non-stop?

Qantas Frequent Flyer

The following airlines fly from Australia to Europe:

• Qantas

• British Airways

• Cathay Pacific

• Japan Airlines

• Malaysia Airlines

• Qatar Airways

• SriLankan Airlines

• China Airlines

• China Eastern

• Emirates

That’s 10 in total.

Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer

The following airlines fly from Australia to Europe:

• ANA

• Etihad Airways

• Qatar Airways

• Singapore Airlines

That’s 4 in total.

WINNER: QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER

Qantas Frequent Flyer vs. Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer: Which Of These Airlines Fly To The Most European Cities?

Of the 14 airlines you can fly to from Australia to Europe using Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points or Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Velocity Points, which gives the greatest choice of European cities?

Qantas Frequent Flyer

The airlines that fly from Australia to Europe fly to the following cities:

• Amsterdam

• Athens

• Barcelona

• Belgrade

• Berlin

• Birmingham

• Bologna

• Brussels

• Bucharest

• Budapest

• Copenhagen

• Dublin

• Dusseldorf

• Edinburgh

• Frankfurt

• Glasgow

• Geneva

• Hamburg

• Helsinki

• Lisbon

• Lyon

• Madrid

• Malaga

• Manchester

• Milan

• Munich

• Mykonos

• Newcastle

• Nice

• Oslo

• Paris

• Prague

• Rome

• Sarajevo

• Sofia

• Stockholm

• Toulouse

• Venice

• Vienna

• Warsaw

• Zagreb

• Zurich

That’s 42 in total!

Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer

The airlines that fly from Australia to Europe fly to the following cities:

• Amsterdam

• Athens

• Barcelona

• Belgrade

• Berlin

• Birmingham

• Brussels

• Bucharest

• Budapest

• Copenhagen

• Dublin

• Dusseldorf

• Edinburgh

• Frankfurt

• Geneva

• Hamburg

• Lisbon

• Lyon

• Madrid

• Malaga

• Manchester

• Milan

• Munich

• Mykonos

• Nice

• Oslo

• Paris

• Prague

• Rome

• Sarajevo

• Santorini

• Sofia

• Stockholm

• Toulouse

• Venice

• Vienna

• Warsaw

• Zagreb

• Zurich

That’s 39 in total!

So, despite Qantas Frequent Flyer having 10 airlines fly to Europe versus Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer having only 4 airlines, there is negligible difference in the cities you can fly to. This is predominantly due to being able to fly Qatar Airways using both Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points and Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Velocity Points. You can use Qatar Airways to fly to 38 of those European cities.

However, right now it is very difficult, if not impossible, to find reward seats using points on Qatar Airways using Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points. Excluding Qatar Airways, there are only 33 European cities you can fly to using Qantas Frequent Flyer Qantas Points versus 39 using Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer Velocity Points.

WINNER: VIRGIN AUSTRALIA

Qantas Frequent Flyer vs. Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer: Which Frequent Flyer Program Has The Greatest Availability Of Reward Seats Using Points To Fly From Australia To Europe?

While it’s all well and good to know that Qantas Frequent Flyer has more choice of airlines to fly to Europe than Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer and that Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer has more cities you can fly to, it’s of little value if you can’t find seats to book using your Qantas Points or Velocity Points.

So, which frequent flyer program has the greatest availability of reward seats using points for flights from Australia to Europe?

This is a challenging question to answer because availability varies over time. You can easily assume that Qantas Frequent Flyer has the greatest availability because they have the greatest number of airlines to choose from. You could also assume that Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer has the greatest availability because they have the greatest number of cities to fly to. But both would be false assumptions. Other considerations come into play, such as the number of flights per day and how willing an airline is to release seats for award bookings using points. There is also variability when it comes to the availability of classes of travel.

All we have to go on is our experience in searching for reward seats using points and that is how we have determined our winner, or winners in this case. And if you don’t believe us, you can see for yourself by keeping an eye out for our Seat Radar newsletters. Take the pain out of searching for award seats using points by letting us do the searching for you!

WINNER: FOR ECONOMY CLASS SEATS – DRAW

WINNER: FOR PREMIUM ECONOMY, BUSINESS AND FIRST CLASS SEATS – VIRGIN AUSTRALIA

Keep in mind there are many other airline loyalty programs out there and many that may require far fewer points for the same flights and may offer better availability. Pointrs subscribers already know this and know that Pointrs has done all the thinking for you to instantly tell you the cheapest loyalty program to use for the flight you want to book and how to earn those points if you don’t have them already.