Virgin Australia drops largest Velocity program in history as travel restarts

The airline’s frequent flyer program is “throwing out the rule book”, launching a promotion not seen in the history of Velocity.

Virgin Australia will today launch a promotion through its Velocity Frequent Flyer program, one that’s “not been seen in history”.

More than five million economy seats are up for grabs through the promotion, which equates to every available economy seat across all Virgin Australia domestic flights between December 1 and March 31, 2022 and no blackout dates.

The promotion runs for two days only, ending at midnight on November 23.

Velocity is also offering a 20 per cent discount on points purchases between 1000 and 100,000 points until December 17.

Virgin Australia said it was “throwing out the rule book” for the sale, with seats available for as little as 7800 points, plus taxes, fees and carrier charges.

“This is a reward seat frenzy at a scale not seen in our history and our biggest ever Velocity consumer promotion,” Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Nick Rohrlach said.

“We’re literally turning every available economy seat across the Virgin Australia domestic network into a reward seat for the next 48 hours. This means we‘re essentially making every Virgin Australia domestic aircraft a Points Plane.”

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

Virgin is predicting flights will sell out quickly - with the sale dates encompassing the school holidays and Christmas and New Year’s.

“Velocity members will be able to choose their preferred flight, and any available economy seat that can be purchased with cash, will also be available as a reward seat using points, and there’s no blackout dates – not even for the night before Christmas,” Mr Rohrlach said.

“We’re putting the power back in Velocity members’ hands to use their points, their way, in this promotion. If they want to take a flight, they can choose the flight that best suits them.

“If they don’t have enough points for their reward, then they can buy points with Points Booster with a 20 per cent discount.”

Virgin is noticing travel is kicking off again. Picture : NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

Virgin Australia is already seeing a massive shift in travel sentiment as Aussies desperate to embrace the summer holidays embrace getting away again.

“We’re seeing a huge positive shift in member confidence as we inch closer to a new normal,” Mr Rohrlach said.

“In the last fortnight we’ve experienced a phenomenal result from our November Points transfer campaign, with billions of financial services points transferred into Velocity, which is equivalent to pre-Covid levels.

“It’s clear that members are using points for beach holidays, with flights to Cairns and the Gold Coast more popular for points bookings than pre-Covid.

“Unsurprisingly, services between Perth and Broome are more popular than ever for points redemption bookings, which is consistent with the current WA border restrictions.”

Velocity Frequent Flyer has more than 10 million members.

Some of the points offers available to Velocity members, plus taxes, fees and carrier charges, include:

- Between Sydney and the Gold Coast for 7800 points

- Between Melbourne to Sydney for 7800 points

- Between Brisbane to Adelaide for 11,800 points

- Between Melbourne to Perth for 17,800 points

- Between Perth to Sydney for 17,800 points

- Between Gold Coast to Melbourne for 11,800 points

- Between Melbourne to Cairns for 17,800 points