What is the Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer Program?
As the name implies the Velocity Frequent Flyer Program is Virgin Australia’s official frequent flyer loyalty program. Velocity comfortably takes its spot as the second largest program of its kind in Australia boasting over 10 million members. The program’s main rival is the Qantas Frequent Flyer Program with its slightly higher 12+million membership base. The program has a fairly similar structure to Qantas meaning competition for brand loyalty is fierce between the two flagships and a great win for Aussie travelers. The original fundamentals of the program still stand strong today whereby members can accrue points and status from flights that can be redeemed for further flights and privilege down the track. These days however points and even status credits can be earned from many different sources including partner airlines and redeemed at select partner airlines and on a wide range of goods and services on the ground. Unlike Qantas, Velocity is free to sign up in any instance so there is no need to worry about finding avenues through which the sign up fee can be avoided such as the case in Qantas. Continue reading this guide to find all the best ways to earn and redeem points below and to maximize the benefits of participation in the program!
Joining Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer
Virgin make it very easy to sign up to their program. No need to have any past travel history or affiliation with the airline. As there is no sign-up fee, unlike Qantas there is no need to chase free membership through a credit card or other airline partner. To sign up all you have to do is proceed direct to Virgin’s Velocity sign up page here.
How to earn points
Of course, still the most conventional way to earn points is by taking flights with Virgin and their partner airlines on eligible flights such as through Singapore Airlines, United and Etihad. Make sure you book these flights whilst you are logged into your Virgin Velocity account or by providing your membership number when booking with eligible partners. These days you don’t even have to fly often to rack up a considerable points balance with the airline partnering with hundreds of partners meaning points can be earned on everything including everyday shopping, accommodation, car hire, transportation, tours, and other transportation means. Further, your points balance can be significantly compounded through credit cards and financial services.
Earning points through Flights
In a nutshell, Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer members can earn points on all Virgin Australia flights purchased solely with cash, and on eligible partner airlines such as Singapore Airlines, United and Virgin. A number of factors will determine the number of points earned, but these are generally multiplied with higher fare categories and cabin classes and of course Velocity status tier. Virgin offer a handy points calculator on their website that can give you a guide to how many points your next flight might earn or alternatively how much you might need to redeem for a desired future flight or upgrade. When making a booking with Virgin make sure to double check you are signed into your account or with partner airlines that you provide your number when checking out to save any hassles or disappointment later. If unsure if the airline you are flying with is affiliated with Virgin it may be worth checking the drop-down list of eligible programs when checking out.
Hotels, Car Hire and Other Partners
Another way to earn points is through Virgin’s travel partners on the ground or through their own business subsidiaries. Both Qantas and Virgin compete for your business on the ground and unsurprisingly Virgin also are in the hotel game. Booking through Virgin Australia Hotels will earn at least 3 points per dollar. Alternatively booking hotels or other services through Flybys travels is also another potential method as these points can then be transferred into velocity points. On the car hire front Thrifty presents an opportunity to earn points within Australia and New Zealand whilst Europcar and Hertz will award points for bookings worldwide. For those who use rideshare such as for trips to the airport, Virgin have partnered with Ola as a points earning partner.
Credit Cards, Insurance, and other Financial Products
Perhaps the most popular way to quickly compound Velocity Points is through credit cards. Most Australian banks offer Credit Card and other financial products that are linked with the Velocity Frequent Flyer Program which earn points when you do your everyday spending on the card. Up to 1 point per dollar spent domestically and even more when overseas are common features of these cards but it pays to check your card’s exact earn rates which may change according to product category and have exclusions such as transactions to the ATO. Once you have initially linked your Velocity Frequent Flyer account to your card you don’t have to do anything else with points usually being credited to your account at the end of each billing cycle. Other cards may be attributed to the banks own reward program and earn points often at higher rates. These programs offer a wider range of options to redeem your points with one option being to manually transfer points at a pre-determined and usually lower exchange rate to another frequent flyer program which could include Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer. When signing up to these cards it pays to take advantage of sign-up bonuses usually available to new customers which can often land customers bonuses between 30,000 and 150,000 points depending on card tier and minimum spend other requirements being met or card fees being paid. By signing up for the occasional new credit card and managing spending responsibly you can quickly build up an impressive points balance and redeeming that luxury overseas business class fare quicker than you think!
Insurance is another way you can compound significant amounts of Velocity Points – a necessary expense for most people with cars, home and who travel. If you can find a policy that suits your needs at a competitive price, Virgin Money offers a range of insurances which like credit cards can offer significant sign-up bonuses and recurring points earn on the cost of the policy.
Everyday Spending
There are numerous ways that you can earn points for everyday spending such as on groceries, alcohol, fuel, and pharmaceuticals whereby points can be earned through the network of retailers servicing Flybys in addition to 7-11 fuel outlets. Through the Flybys program shoppers of the Supermarket Giant Coles and other retailers such as Kmart, Target Officeworks, Bunnings, First Choice and Liqourland you can transfer there hard earned points as a reward into Velocity points in blocks of 1000 which are converted to 500 Velocity Points. With Flybuys, it pays to download the mobile app and keep an eye out for ‘points booster’ and targeted spending campaigns which can quickly land you thousands of points and act as healthy way to boost your Velocity balance. Also keep an eye out for periodical transfer bonus promotions which can give an extra 10-15% points on top of your original transfers. Velocity Points can also be earned at often heavily boosted rates through the Velocity E-Store Portal with over a 100 different online retailers however with strong competition coming from other banking programs and cash back on offer through programs such as CashRewards it pays to weigh up which programs and promotions offer the best value to you.
Other ways to accrue points
There are also several other ways to transfer or attain points for your Velocity Frequent Flyer account. One popular such way is through family pooling between accounts whereby points can be transferred from family members or by purchasing points directly from Virgin which is a handy albeit sometimes expensive feature if you are shy short of your dream flight redemption. Points can often be transferred from other loyalty programs as well who may be able to convert points into your Virgin Velocity account
Redeeming Points
Velocity points can be redeemed for much more than just flights but keep in mind that their utility value wise is almost never going to be as good for non-flight redemptions which can include everything from hotels to gift cards and a wide range of consumer goods in the Velocity E-Store. If flying is on the agenda anytime soon it is always best to accumulate those points a for a rewards seat flight redemption.
Flight Redemptions
Your hard-earned Velocity points in our opinion are always best put to use for flight redemptions on the Virgin website. Whilst like with Qantas you can book ‘any seat’ or more flexible fare class in theory it is far better to be flexible with your date and routes and redeem a ‘rewards seat’ which maximise the monetary value of your points and won’t dent your points balance anywhere near that of a ‘any seat’ redemption. Virgin’s reward seats are not based on dynamic pricing but instead a miles table meaning that some routes with high competition and steep rarely reduced fares could be redeemed that are in the same miles bracket to high frequency and frequently discounted routes. On the flip side availability of reward seats varies greatly and they can be reasonably difficult at times to find especially for business and first-class redemption on flagship international routes For these flights that are otherwise expensive, a economy reward redemption can be an outstanding value redemption. On the higher frequency routes which often feature business class redemption for example you can greatly maximise the value of your reward redemption. Coming in at little over double the cost in points over an economy redemption for Business class these are excellent redemption opportunities as the cash price difference for Business is often 2-3 times that of economy! If you can afford the patience to build up that points balance redeeming a business or even first class overseas through partner airlines such as Singapore Airlines or United is going to the holy grail of redemptions for most travellers! To help find classic flight awards ensure you tick ‘points’ when searching for flights and can also filter flights to see calendar months worth of reward availability. To compare the points price with the cash price you can toggle between the two to help ascertain how good a value your desired redemption might be. With any case with a reward seat, they may require patience and strategy to find, and they won’t entirely be free and require a co-payment to cover taxes and surcharges which are usually less than $50 in Australia but can be significantly more especially for overseas premium class redemptions.
Aside from redeeming rewards seats customers with a sufficient points balance may be able to use a ‘points plus pay’ feature which as the name suggests allows to you use a combination of points and cash – but keep in mind the conversion rate for points Is rather poor and nowhere near as points efficient way to redeem a flight than through a rewards seat redemption. We’d only use this method as last resort.
Another way to seek an upgrade to a higher class of travel such as business class is by leveraging your points for an upgrade. These can be requested on select flights if you are prepared to play the upgrade lottery
Redeeming for Hotels and Shopping
The other two main ways to redeem Velocity points is through the Velocity E-Store or through Virgin’s Hotel booking portal. For hotels points can be redeemed for stays at over 550,000 properties worldwide and can redeemed solely with velocity points or on a points+ pay basis. In any case, a minimum of 4,000 points will be required before you can start redeeming them towards hotels. In the Velocity E-Store they can be used to purchase gift cards and many other consumer goods but again we tend to stay clear of recommending using the store with points unless they are due to expire or you have no intentions to be in a position to fly whilst your points are still valid. If this is what you would like to use your points for though then we say why not though!
Velocity Frequent Flyer Status
Like Qantas there are two key complementing features of the Velocity Frequent Flyer program. The first obviously is its points earning and redeeming functionality that has been so successful in attracting millions of members, the other being its status program. Velocity Frequent Flyer Status has four tiers with each affording an ascending level of privilege and perks to a flyer’s membership. These are the starter level Red ascending to Silver, Gold and Platinum. Apart from Red membership that has no tangible benefit other than been acknowledged as being able to earn and redeem points, higher levels can be unlocked through earning both status credits to reach and further credits to retain each calendar year. Lifetime tier status can be rewarded for those who reach certain thresholds of status credits through their lifetime. To advance beyond Red tier, the member must take at a certain amount of eligible sectors to attain and retain their Virgin membership level yearly in addition to the status credit requirements. Keep in mind Virgin calculate status credits daily so while you can advance to next level immediately when you reach the status tier its important to remember that credits disappear exactly 12 months after they were rewarded meaning your balance can suddenly fluctuate For those who are new to Velocity one value added bonus to red membership is the ability to earn double velocity points when booking and flying Virgin in the first 3 months which is a great way to accelerate your points balance.
Silver
Ascending to Silver membership is where most Velocity Frequent Flyer members will get their first experience of added perks from the program. To reach silver, the member needs to reach a balance of 250 status credits and flown 2 eligible sectors within the last 365 days whilst to retain a further 200 status credits must be earned and 2 eligible flights flown within your 12 month membership year. At Silver, members will earn a 50% points bonus on top of the base rate earned for flights on Virgin Australia, international priority check in and boarding, additional checked baggage and 2 single entry passes to domestic Australian lounges yearly. Some of the benefits will also extend to partner airlines so its pays checking the Virgin website to see how your partner airline flight may be benefited by Silver Velocity status.
Gold
At Gold, the benefits of this tier really start to add up with a 75% Points bonus, on top of the base Points earned, when traveling with Virgin Australia, access to Virgin Australia lounges in Australia and over 150 partner operated airline lunges abroad and Priority Check-in, Boarding, Screening and Baggage on eligible flights. To reach Gold requires a balance of at 500 status credits and having flown 4 eligible sectors within the last 365 days. To maintain gold requires earning at least 400 status credits and flying 4 eligible sectors within the 12 month membership year.
Platinum
Platinum is Virgin Australia highest level of membership status affording the same perks of Gold plus a 100% bonus on top of base points earned when travelling with Virgin Australia, 4 Complimentary upgrades to Business Class for eligible domestic flights and even greater flexibility to fly ahead to your destination on an earlier flight. To attain Platinum a member’s balance must reach 1,000 Status Credits and have flown 8 Eligible Sectors within the last 365 days. To retain Platinum membership, you will need to earn 800 Status Credits and fly 8 Eligible Sectors within your 12 month benefit period.
Summing Up
It is not hard to see why the Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyer is the second most popular program of its kind in Australia and a strong alterative or simply complement to having Qantas Frequent Flyer Membership. With over 10 million members it has something to offer from the most occasional flyer to corporate travelers and VIPs alike. With membership being free there is little reason why not to join the program even if you rarely fly. With so many opportunities to earn points and ways to redeem them most members should find some benefit from the program even if it’s the occasional flight award seat covering a short flight such as Melbourne to Sydney for 8,000 points or a gift card from the rewards store. For the most serious of travelers, loyalty to Virgin Australia and full participation with the program can bring some seriously outstanding perks such as complimentary lounge access and corresponding perks on partner airlines.
