How Virgin’s new flights with Qatar will reward Velocity members, and compete with QFF

Virgin Australia’s new flights with Qatar Airways open up more opportunities for Velocity members. How do they compare to Qantas frequent flyers?

Virgin Australia’s new flights with Qatar Airways provide an attractive new proposition for frequent flyers, but probably not enough to convince Qantas loyalists to switch allegiance.

In a major sweetener for Velocity members, Virgin is offering 10,000 bonus points for booking an economy seat on new flights to Doha, or 20,000 for business class.

As a result, business class travellers stand to collect a considerable 63,708 points for a European jaunt, or enough to fly from Sydney to Perth and back.

But frequent flyer experts said the real test would be the availability of reward seats on the Qatar-operated flights, with the ability to redeem points valued highly by members.

Virgin Australia said from January 21 next year, Velocity members would be able to book reward seats on flights between Australia and Doha, which are expected to start in June.

However, searches showed economy seats could already be booked with points on the new routes, with 93,200 needed for Sydney to Paris plus $481.20 in taxes.

Business class reward seats were a little harder to find, but on Brisbane-Paris, a QSuite could be booked in October for 162,500 points plus $889.51 in taxes and charges.

Other examples included Perth-London for 797,700 points in business plus $655.91, or economy for 60,000 points and $451.91.

Virgin Australia’s Qatar partnership promises new benefits for Velocity members. Picture: Getty Images

Point Hacks managing editor Daniel Sciberras said on Sydney-London, the Velocity reward seats did not stack up too well against Qantas reward seats on the same route.

“On Qantas, you need 55,200 points in economy and 144,600 in business class, whereas on Virgin Australia it’s 80,000 in economy and 158,500 in business,” Mr Sciberras said.

“Taxes are about $270 in economy one way for Qantas and about $470 with Virgin. They’re both about $680 in business one way.”

It is likely reward seat availability on the Virgin flights will increase over time, and Mr Sciberras said the new services did deliver another bonus for Velocity members.

“They’re going to be able to use their points to upgrade at least from the Australian end to Doha, because the wet lease flights are technically going to be Virgin Australia flights,” Mr Sciberras said.

“It will be the first time since Covid Velocity members have been able to upgrade on long haul international flights with points unable to be used for that purpose on Virgin’s other partner airlines.”

The Champagne Mile’s Adele Eliseo.

Adele Eliseo of The Champagne Mile expects Velocity members to welcome the chance to use large points balances on travel to the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

With fewer opportunities for international flight redemptions with Virgin in the past, Ms Eliseo said members would likely be keen to make use of their points.

“I think Australian frequent flyers are looking for those opportunities to be able to use points, whether it’s Velocity or Qantas FF, on long haul premium cabin flights, so whoever is able to offer a decent amount of redemptions in that way is going to be the winner really,” Ms Eliseo said.

Qantas continues to see strong engagement in its frequent flyer program, aided by the introduction of Classic Plus rewards this year to provide more opportunities for redemptions.

For example, international reward seat bookings over December-January were up 70 per cent on the same period last year.

A Qantas spokesman said Classic Plus had been a “game changer” by giving members more options to fly where they wanted, when they wanted and more often, using their points.

“In the last year, record numbers of points have been earned and redeemed and a record number of reward seats booked, showing the value members are getting out of the program,” he said. “More Australians than ever will be using their points to travel internationally this holiday season.”

Points whisperer Steve Hui of iflyflat.com.au said the Virgin-Qatar partnership was a positive step for Velocity members, but it was unlikely to convince Qantas frequent flyers to jump ship.

“It’s not such a big game changer for people to go, ‘awesome I’m going to switch’,” Mr Hui said. “It takes more than flights to Doha to do that.”