Virgin Australia shakes up Velocity reward seats
Big changes are coming for points-based reward seats on Virgin Australia and its international partners...
By Sid Raja , October 18 2024
There’s a lot happening in the world of Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program.
Lifetime Velocity status is on the way, along with a new perk-laden Platinum Plus tier.
The number of status credits you earn on a Virgin Australia flight will be directly tied to the price of your ticket.
But rippling through it all, and starting from today, there are some significant changes to earning and redeeming Velocity Points on Virgin Australia and its partner airlines.
To begin with, there’ll be an even lower baseline for booking points-based reward seats.
For example, short-hop flights in Zone 1 (1-600 miles, which covers the likes of Sydney-Melbourne and Sydney-Brisbane) will now start at 5,900 Velocity Points, down from 6,200 Velocity Points.
However, as of 21 January 2025 they’ll also be going up, with a new ceiling for most expensive reward seats.
Again, using Zone 1 as an example, the most expensive economy seats will climb from 9,900 to 12,900 Velocity Points.
The end result will be a broader spectrum of reward options, as shown in the table below and detailed on the Velocity website.
This suggests a move towards more ‘dynamic pricing’, where the number of points required for a specific flight will fluctuate based on factors such as demand, route popularity and time of year.
While this could mean higher costs for some flights, it also introduces the possibility of securing reward seats for fewer points, especially for travellers who can be flexible with their plans.
Partner airlines take a hit
Also taking effect from 21 January 2025 is a double-whammy for travellers on Virgin’s alliance of partner airlines such as Air Canada, ANA, Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airliners and United Airlines.
A revamped set of partner tables will see an increase in the number of Velocity points needed to claim a reward seat on "selected cabins and routes” – something Velocity attributes to escalating operational costs across the airline industry.
Here are some examples based on popular routes across several partner airlines:
- Sydney-Tokyo business class with ANA: increases from 78,000 points to 82,000 points
- Sydney-Rome business class with Qatar Airways: increases from 139,000 points to 158,000 points
- Sydney-Los Angeles business class with United Airlines: increases from 95,000 points to 102,000 points
- Sydney-New York business class with United Airlines: increases from 127,000 points to 136,000 points
The next date to circle in your calendar is 1 October 2025, when there’ll be a drop in the number of Velocity status credits earned on partner airlines.
Also read: Virgin launches lifetime Velocity status, Platinum Plus tier and Virgin moves to spend-based Velocity status earning
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 991
Last weekend, I used several direct programs to find reward seats using Velocity points. The disappointing thing was the lack of reward seats internationally with partners, while once I jumped on the SQ web site I found heaps of reward flights giving me the conclusion that the best option is to transfer points to KrisFlyer and book reward flights. They need to increase international reward flights via the Virgin website.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 May 2013
Total posts 68
I have done the same thing, I was looking for J to London, couldn't find any on Virgin website, so transferred to Krisflyer and booked 2 saver redemptions. Have been looking for J to Vancouver/Toronto for 2 years and absolute nada on Virgin.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 May 2018
Total posts 28
the trouble is the exchange rate of points
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
Did it for recent flights MEL-SIN-IST, IST-ATH-JTR, MYK-ATH-IST and IST-SIN-MEL across Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Aegean Airlines. The key was to swap out VFF for KrisFlyer Miles.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 991
Hey B-T I love the AH-JTR flight on Aegean, take off, they throw you a box of goodies in business, you don't have the chance to eat anything before landing, the circuit is longer than then the distance to the island from Athens.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
Yeah, the only tangible benefit to me was the 2+2 layout (with spacer) compared to 3+3 behind the curtain. But, hey, I had ex-Covid KrisFlyer Miles to burn or lose (even tho it was only a 40 minute flight).
The Seajets ride between Santorini-Mykonos on the 1200 seat high-speed, Australian made Powerjet Catamaran, with its 2Km wake tail (like an aircraft contrail on water), certainly was novel. As was flying in TK's wide body Boeing 777-300ER for the 90 minute hop IST-ATH-IST.
07 Mar 2022
Total posts 65
The government / ACCC has just started looking at "‘dynamic pricing" in other sectors, and the eyebrows have lifted suggesting linking a status credit to "dynamic pricing". However last week I had a GM complaining he had to make an urgent trip to Brisbane, and he was going to get 20 status credits and also about 1500 points, his comment was "how is that fair on a $1,100.00 economy ticket with Qanats".
28 Sep 2022
Total posts 19
The next date to circle in your calendar is 1 October 2025, when there’ll be a drop in the number of Velocity status credits earned on partner airlines.
What ????
08 Feb 2018
Total posts 165
Dynamic shrinkflation!
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
15 Jan 2013
Total posts 456
I am wondering how many points would be it be now to get an Adelaide to Singapore return on Singapore Airlines in Economy.I know it's 56,000 currently but what will that be in the future.
07 May 2021
Total posts 10
It will depend as its dynamic pricing now so depending on the time of the year could be less or more
02 Dec 2016
Total posts 92
I can only speculate that this move is to prepare for closer alignment with Qatar. They'll want to encourage ppl to fly with QR over SQ etc, so jack up the points now, and then show that it's less with QR. This way they keep their relationships in place with their partners, but drive as much traffic to QR.
The reality though is VA already has a lot of variance in the amount of points you need to redeem, and it's by no means consistent or clear most of the time. I've said it here before that VA are doing what QF were rightly heavily criticised of doing, and since made improvements in their program.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2017
Total posts 339
Considering there's been ACCC and IASC submissions where VA and QR are set to become 'exclusive' partners on the Europe corrdor (via Middle East), this means the SQ codeshares/reward seats on SIN-Europe are possibly likely to cease as QR takes over. The minor partnerships with EY and VS are likely to cease entirely.
Still plenty of SQ availability around Asia, so likely SQ will be kept as the 'South East Asian" partner of VA, and NH as the North Asia VA partner.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2018
Total posts 747
If given the choice of stop-over/plane-change between Doha (QR) and Singapore (SQ), it's a no brainer for me, it'll be Singapore - every .. single .. time.
09 Dec 2023
Total posts 7
The VC partners fattening VA up for a classic pump and dump.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2017
Total posts 339
Possibly combined with changes with Qatar's influence pending the 25% stake. Devalue the gains with the partner airlines and boost their own (Qatar) rates on VFF. The unlikely tip in the shadows is if they are preparing for a Velocity to Avios transfer in the future (I can't see QR moving VFF currency to Avios), whilst devaluing the Velocity/Krisflyer one.
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