Velocity Frequent Flyer is the loyalty program of Virgin Australia, the second-largest airline in Australia.
It’s easy to earn Velocity points in Australia and the program offers some great perks to its Gold and Platinum frequent flyers when flying on Virgin Australia. However, Virgin Australia flies to fewer international destinations than Qantas and has a smaller network of partner airlines.
If you’re new to Velocity Frequent Flyer, this guide will explain the basics of how the program works, how to maximize your points and how to earn elite status, helping you to enjoy more benefits when you fly!
Unlike Qantas Frequent Flyer, it’s 100% free to join Virgin Australia’s Velocity program. Simply sign up on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website.
However, the Velocity program is officially only open to residents of the following countries:
Australia
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Fiji
Cook Islands
Vanuatu
Tonga
Solomon Islands
Samoa
Once you’ve signed up, you can start earning Velocity points immediately! Points are the program’s currency and can be earned either from flying, or by spending on the ground with Velocity’s program partners. Later in this guide, we’ll look at the different rewards that you can redeem your Velocity points on.
Earning Velocity points from flying
Of course, you can earn Velocity points whenever you fly with Virgin Australia. You’ll earn 5 Velocity points per dollar spent on Virgin Australia flights.
You can also earn points when flying on partner airlines. Virgin Australia is not a member of a global alliance (like Oneworld), but it does have a handful of its own handpicked partners:
Qatar Airways became a Velocity partner in September 2022.
When flying with a partner airline other than Virgin Australia, the amount of Velocity points earned depends on the distance of the flight and your fare class, as per the tables for each airline on the Velocity website.
You can also earn 1-2 points per $1 spent on FlyPelican flights, and 2-5 points per dollar on Link Airways flights, although no other Velocity benefits apply and status credits are not earned on FlyPelican or Link Airways. (For more on status credits, see below.)
Earning Velocity points on the ground
There are also lots of ways to earn Velocity points without flying, especially if you live in Australia. Here are some of the ways:
Credit cards
Transferring points from Flybuys
Shopping online through Velocity eStore partners
Spending at 7-Eleven petrol stations & convenience stores
Buying travel insurance from Cover-More
Shopping at program partners including Snooze, Sendle or Looking4Parking
Getting home-delivered meals from Youfoodz
Buying from Virgin Wines or the Velocity Wine Store by Laithwaites
Completing e-Rewards surveys
Renting a car from Europcar, Sixt, Hertz, Thrifty or Dollar
Booking a hotel through Virgin Australia Hotels (powered by Rocket Travel) or Agoda PointsMax
Flybuys is one of Australia’s largest loyalty programs, offering ways to earn points at Coles, Liquorland, Kmart, Officeworks, Bunnings Warehouse and lots of other retailers. Plus, by taking advantage of Flybuys targeted bonus offers, your Flybuys points can really add up quickly! You can transfer Flybuys points to Velocity at a rate of 1,000 Flybuys points = 500 Velocity points.
Credit cards are another popular way to earn lots of Velocity points through everyday spend. You can earn Velocity points by spending on a co-branded Velocity Frequent Flyer card (offered by American Express or Virgin Money), or by transferring your credit card reward points to Velocity.
Most Australian bank-operated loyalty programs offer the option to convert your points to Velocity points. If doing this, wait until May or November as Velocity usually gives at least 15% bonus points on transfers from credit card programs during these months!
You can also earn lots of bonus Velocity points by taking advantage of a credit card sign-up offer!
Velocity Points Booster
If you’re short of the Velocity points you need for a particular redemption, you can buy them directly through Velocity Points Booster.
Buying points this way can be quite expensive, with prices starting at $36 for 1,000 points. The average cost decreases as you buy more points, but we generally wouldn’t recommend buying large amounts of Velocity points using this method as it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get back more value than what you paid for them!
Keep your Velocity account active to prevent points expiry
Velocity Frequent Flyer points will expire if your account is inactive for 24 months.
The good news is that all you need to do, to prevent your Velocity points from expiring, is to earn or redeem at least one point every two years. Even buying a $2 coffee from 7-Eleven and scanning your Velocity card would be sufficient!
Any Seat Rewards & Points + Pay
As the name suggests, Any Seat Rewards are available on every Virgin Australia flight. But the value is relatively poor, as this is effectively just converting your points to cash for any available retail airfare at a rate of around 0.6 cents per point. This is the same rate as you’ll get using “Points + Pay”, where you pay for some of your airfare using points.
One advantage of booking an Any Seat Reward or using Points + Pay is that you’ll earn Velocity points and status credits for your flight. That’s because these bookings are treated the same as a regular paid ticket.
Reward Seats
You can book Reward Seats on Virgin Australia flights, as well as for travel on 8 other partner airlines:
You won’t earn Velocity points or status credits on Reward Seat bookings, but these are generally much better overall value than Any Seat or Points + Pay bookings (especially if you’re booking Business Class). Reward seats cost a fixed number of points, as published in the tables on the Velocity website.
A different (slightly more expensive) table applies to reward seats on the other Velocity partner airlines.
As an example, it costs 17,800 Velocity points for a Tier 2 Economy Reward seat from Hobart to Perth, or 35,500 points in Business Class, one-way. This flight covers a distance of 1,875 miles, putting it in zone 3. When booking a Reward Seat, you’ll also need to pay any applicable taxes & Velocity carrier charges (in this case, $27.27).
To redeem points for flights on Virgin Atlantic, South African Airways or Hawaiian Airlines, you’ll need to call the Velocity Membership Contact Centre during opening hours.
Upgrading Virgin Australia flights
UpgradeMe Points upgrades are also a popular and valuable use of Velocity points! You can redeem Velocity points to upgrade any Virgin Australia flight when booked on an Economy Choice or Economy Flex ticket. The number of points required is published on the Velocity website.
With Virgin Australia, UpgradeMe Points upgrades can be confirmed instantly if there is a Business Reward seat available on your flight at the time of submitting your upgrade request.
Velocity status benefits with partner airlines
If you have Velocity status, you can also access some reciprocal status benefits when flying with selected partner airlines.