Big change coming for Virgin Australia frequent flyers

Virgin Australia has opened up a new range of destinations for travellers. See how far your points will take you.

Members of Virgin Australia’s loyalty program Velocity will be able to redeem their points for economy seats to destinations as far afield as London, Paris and Rome, after Virgin resumed its frequent flyer relationship with Singapore Airlines.

The arrangements, effective from midday on Monday, mean a Velocity member can now spend 35,000 points getting from either Sydney or Melbourne to Singapore, and an extra 50,000 points flying from there to London, Paris or Rome.

While the new arrangement is currently just for economy class, it is expected seats in Singapore Airline’s premium cabins will become available to Velocity members soon.

Since Virgin Australia went into voluntary administration in April 2020, customers have not been able to redeem their Velocity points for seats on Singapore Airlines flights, although they could still earn points and status credits that way.

Nick Rohrlach, CEO of Velocity at Virgin Australia. Picture: Dallas Kilponen/Virgin Australia

Virgin Australia already has frequent flyer partnerships with Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada, Delta Air Lines, Etihad Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and South African Airways.

The airline will partner with United Airlines from April 2022, opening up more US destinations for reward flights.

Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Nick Rohrlach said the airline aimed to expand their international partnerships further in 2022.

“We know how much our members value the incredible service and expansive network of destinations across Asia and Europe that Singapore Airlines offers, and we are really thrilled to have their seats back in the program,” he said.

Since November, “hundreds of millions” of Velocity points had been redeemed on flights with Virgin’s international partners. This was a “staggering” result, and demonstrated “huge pent-up demand,” Mr Rohrlach said.

A recent survey of Velocity members showed 39 per cent were planning to travel internationally in the next 12 months - a result Mr Rohrlach said showed “the dial is starting to shift in terms of consumer confidence”.

Virgin was also in discussions to restore points transferability between Velocity and Singapore’s Krisflyer program, Mr Rohrlach said.

Steve Hui, the frequent Flyer “points whisperer”. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Frequent flyer program expert Steve Hui from the iflyflat.com.au website said the resumed arrangements was “good news for lots of Velocity members who are trying to find flights to Asia and Europe, and resumes the previous partnership Velocity had with Singapore Krisflyer when Singapore Airlines was a part-owner of the then Virgin Australia”.

Mr Hui said redeeming points for economy seats was “pretty boring” but “all eyes, ears and hearts will be on when redemptions switches on for Business and First Class, and when the points transfer ability comes back – as this is what everyone really wants”.

Originally published as Big change coming for Virgin Australia frequent flyers