Virgin Australia Velocity Rewards
Velocity Rewards is the frequent flyer program of Virgin Australia, formerly Virgin Blue. It is easy to earn points with this scheme thanks to its large list of partners in all retail and leisure industries, as well as with flights with Virgin Australia and many of its partners.
Airline
Virgin Australia is Australia’s second-largest airline, and the largest by fleet size under the Virgin umbrella. It is a low-cost airline founded in 2000 which provides cheap flights, mostly around Australia and New Zealand. It’s fleet is relatively small by international standards, but is growing all the time. Virgin Australia currently operates 75 aircraft, including Boeing 737-700s and Boeing737-800s, and has many more on order. With its focus on fresh and funky design, innovative customer care and discount prices, Virgin Australia is the ideal airline for Australians or New Zealanders who travel within Australasia regularly and are looking to save money.
Australian low-cost airline, Australia's second-largest airline as well as the largest by fleet size to use the Virgin brand. It was founded by British businessman Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and is based in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Flights
Virgin Australia focuses on domestic flights and flights within Australasia. It’s main hub is Brisbane, but the airline also has hubs at Sydney and Melbourne, and in New Zealand, in Auckland and Christchurch. Flights between major Australian and New Zealand cities are very frequent and reasonably priced. Aside from this, Virgin Australia also runs regular flights to Thailand and Indonesia.
Entitlement
There are three tiers to membership of Velocity Rewards. Those are Red, Silver and Gold. Each of these three tiers comes with its own set of entitlements. Red membership allows members to begin building up points in order to move forward to Silver and Gold membership. With Silver or Gold status, members get access to the Virgin Australia lounge at airports, free checked baggage, priority check-in, personalised baggage tags and priority phone booking services.
Earn Velocity Points
The rate of points you can earn with Velocity Rewards depends on your membership status. Members with Red status can earn five Velocity points (which can be redeemed on flights and products) and five Status Credits (which help you move up to the next tier) for every dollar spend on flights with Virgin Australia, Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue. With Silver membership, you earn six Velocity Points and six Status Credits for every dollar spent on flights, and with Gold membership, you earn seven Velocity Points and seven Status Credits per dollar spent on flights. So, it is best to earn as many status points as possible to work your way up to Gold status, and this way, you can earn points faster whilst spending the same amount of money on air fares. Points are uncapped and never expire, meaning members can build up points at their own rate and then only spend them when they need to, rather than spending them because they have to.
Points can be earned in a number of ways. Aside from earning points by flying with Virgin Australia, members also earn points when they fly with any of Virgin Blue’s partner airlines, such as Delta, Emirates, Hawaiian Airlines or Skywest. This gives customers the chance to earn points when flying to destinations other than those covered by Virgin Australia.
Members can also earn points through other purchases too. In accommodation, members can earn points when booking hotel rooms with any of Virgin Australia’s partners such as Hilton, Crown, Travelodge, Intercontinental, Clarion, Candlewood, Vibe, Holiday Inn or Staybridge Suites. Members can earn points through car hire and car care services with Europcar, Fiat, Brunel and Airport Parking, or through purchasing insurance and business services from Virgin Money, Virgin Money Car Insurance, ING and Ibis World. Points are available via purchases with Blue Holidays, Cruise Pilot and Superpass. Also, by using certain credit cards members can earn more points, with partnerships with Suncorp, ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and Citibank.
Eligibility
Membership with Velocity Rewards is open only to permanent residents of Australia or New Zealand. People aged 16 or over are able to apply on their own, whilst applications can be made for children aged two or over with the consent of a parent or legal guardian.
