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.
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.
