Virgin Australia shakes up Velocity reward seats!
Hey friends,
There’s been a lot happening with Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program over the past month or so. We had the announcement of Qatar making a significant investment in Virgin Australia. More recently, Virgin Australia announced sweeping changes to the Velocity Frequent Flyer program with new status tiers and points reshuffles and Virgin Australia is potentially having a shakeup with their codeshare partners.
If you missed my last newsletter talking about Qatar’s investment, you can find that here - Qatar takes a 25% minority stake in Virgin Australia. But let’s dive talk about the other two changes.
💥 Frequent Flyer Program Shake-Up
Velocity Frequent Flyer announced significant updates to its loyalty program, which will roll out between now and October 2025. It’s a mixed bag of news, with Velocity making some changes that reward its most loyal members, but there’s for the rest of us it seems we’ll be worse off, here’s a summary of some of the key changes.
1. Dynamically Priced Domestic Economy Rewards
Virgin Australia will introduce a dynamic pricing system for Economy Reward seats, moving away from the current three-tier model. This change will expand the range of points required, particularly at the higher end.
For instance, Zone 1 flights (1 to 600 miles) will see redemption points increase from a maximum of 9,900 to 12,900 points, marking a potential 30% hike for the most expensive redemptions.
2. Increase Airline Partner Reward Pricing
The number of Velocity Points needed to book Reward Seats with Virgin Australia's airline partners will increase for certain cabins and routes. Here’s a comparison of a few specific routes:
Sydney to Singapore In Economy: 30,000 pts (+1000pts / 3% increase)
Sydney to Tokyo In Economy: 45,000pts (+3000pts / 7% increase)
Sydney to London in Business: 158,500 pts (+19,500pts / 14% increase)
3. New Status Tiers
Velocity is launching Forever Gold Status to honor members who have consistently flown with Virgin Australia and its partners over the years. Forever Gold members will receive the benefits of Velocity Gold membership for life—specifically, for 100 years from the date their status is unlocked.
Velocity will also introduce a new Platinum Plus status tier for the most VIP flyers, who earn at least 2,000 Status Credits per membership year.
4. Reduced Velocity Points On Virgin Australia Flights
For bookings made from 2 April 2025, members will earn a reduced 4 Velocity Points per $1 spent on eligible Virgin Australia flights rather than 5. Existing flights booked before 2 April 2025 will continue to earn 5 Points per $1 spent.
Conclusion
There were quite a few more minor changes, but in my opinion, the above are the bulk of the changes. Overall, most people have had an overall devaluation of their velocity points which is just always going to be the case moving forward.
That’s why it’s best to spend your points for reward travel as soon as possible and not hoard them!
✈️ Virgin to axe Etihad & Singapore Airlines partnership?
Virgin Australia’s long-standing partnerships with Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines would be cut back as part of the proposed 25% investment by Qatar Airways.
Although the investment is yet to be approved by Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board, both airlines have applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) seeking approval for their “proposed integrated alliance.”
“Qatar Airways will become Virgin Australia’s exclusive interline, codeshare and loyalty partner headquartered in the Middle East or Türkiye (excluding interline for passenger re-accommodation purposes),”
This would appear to immediately remove Etihad Airways, which has been a Virgin Australia partner since 2010, from Virgin’s roster of partner airlines.
In addition, the application states “Virgin Australia will not codeshare on the international flights of other airlines to, from or within the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.”
This appears to effectively restrict Virgin’s Singapore Airlines codeshare flights to Asia and India, while Qatar Airways would be the sole VA partner for travel across Europe, the UK, and Africa.
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