Virgin Australia unveils new loyalty program to promote business travel as battle with Qantas heats up

Virgin Australia’s new loyalty program will target businesses who care more about cheap fares than building a stockpile of points.

Virgin Australia has rolled out its own version of Qantas’s Business Rewards scheme, to attract more business travellers to the airline. Picture: Supplied

Virgin Australia has unveiled a new loyalty program targeting value-conscious businesses that care more about cheap fares than building a huge stockpile of points.

Intended to rival Qantas’s Business Rewards scheme, Virgin’s Business Flyer program will see members earn instant discounts on fares and cheaper annual lounge access.

Flights booked will earn Velocity points for the business as well as individual traveller but for now at least there are not other opportunity to build points balances other than in the air.

Membership is free and expenditure of more than $2000 on airfares in the first three months will earn two people from the business gold Velocity status.

Virgin boss Jayne Hrdlicka said they were targeting small and medium enterprises which made up 99 per cent of the 2 million businesses in the country.

Ms Hrdlicka said Virgin was already seeing a strong return in the business travel market as managers saw the value in face-to-face meetings after two years of phone calls and telecons.

“Everybody appreciates that relationships are a perishable asset and we all have stakeholders that are really important to our businesses and maintaining the relationship health of those important stakeholder relationships requires travel,” she said.

“And culture is a critical part of a business being able to hang on to its people and so people connecting with other people in big business is an important piece of the puzzle as well so those factors are coming together to accelerate the rate of business travel.”

Unlike the Qantas program which has dozens of on ground partners as well as linked credit cards to generate bulk frequent flyer points, the only way to earn points with Virgin’s Business Flyer at this stage is to book flights.

Ms Hrdlicka said that may change in time.

“We won’t lay out the rest of the strategy (today) but we intend to continue to innovate for our small and medium business community who we have spent a lot of time with, understanding what matters most to them,” said Ms Hrdlicka.

“Today is the beginning of a journey.”

The Business Flyer program replaces Virgin’s old “business accelerate” scheme which Ms Hrdlicka said was designed in a different era.

Editor-in-chief of Point Hacks, Daniel Sciberras said it appeared to be an improvement on the previous scheme by allowing members to “double dip” on Velocity points earned from business flights.

“In the future, we would love to see the Business Flyer continue to grow and expand the earning possibilities further, beyond predominantly flying,” said Mr Sciberras.

“Products such as co-branded credit cards and on-the-ground partners would be welcome additions to the program.”

The launch of the new business loyalty scheme came ahead of the reopening of Virgin’s exclusive, invitation-only lounge on April 20.

Previously known as The Club, the lounges in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane were tipped to be renamed “Beyond” and compete with Qantas’s coveted Chairman’s Lounge, as a private sanctuary for captains of industry, politicians and VIPs.

Data from travel management provider Corporate Traveller showed business travel was storming back within Australia and overseas.

In the six weeks to March 23, the firm recorded a 416 per cent increase in international travel bookings and an 18 per cent rise in domestic flights.

Melbourne was the top destination for domestic business travellers while international business travellers were heading for London, Singapore, Los Angeles, Dubai and Port Moresby.

Originally published as Virgin Australia unveils new loyalty program to promote business travel as battle with Qantas heats up