Last year, Velocity Frequent Flyer announced major changes to the way it awards status from 2025. It already switched the way it calculates status credits for Virgin Australia flights to a spend-based system back in April. And Virgin’s loyalty program will make even more changes in October.
One of the biggest changes coming in October 2025 is to the requirements for earning status.
Velocity has given almost a year’s notice about these changes. However, judging by the questions and comments on the AFF forum, it seems some people are going to be caught out by the timing.
Contents
Changes to the way you earn or renew Velocity status
Currently, to attain or renew Virgin Australia Velocity status, you would need to earn a minimum number of status credits and fly a minimum amount of eligible Virgin Australia flight sectors within a 12-month period.
From 1 October 2025, Velocity will drop the minimum sector requirement. It will replace this with a new requirement to earn at least 50% of your status credits from Virgin Australia marketed and/or operated flights that you’ve personally flown. This not only makes the program more complicated, but will also make Velocity status harder for many people to achieve – especially families who use family pooling.
In practice, this means that only up to half of the status credits you earn from Flybuys, credit cards, family pooling or non-codeshare flights on partner airlines will count towards your Velocity status qualification.
How Velocity review dates work
When you earn status for the first time, or upgrade to a higher tier, you’re not bound by the confines of any specific “review date”. Velocity simply does a daily check of the status credits and eligible sectors you’ve earned over the previous 12 months. Once you meet the requirements, Velocity will immediately upgrade you to the higher tier that you’ve earned.
Once you upgrade to a higher status tier, you’ll get to enjoy the benefits of that tier for exactly 12 months. The date at the end of that 12-month period becomes your personal “review date”.
If you want to renew your Velocity status for a second year, you’ll need to earn the required status credits and sectors for a renewal within the 12 months between the date you originally earned your status and your review date.
The timing of this change
If you currently hold Velocity status, and you want to renew your existing tier for another year, it would pay to carefully check your review date.
If your next review date is on or before 30 September 2025, Velocity will renew your status based on the current requirements. However, if your next review date is on or after 1 October 2025, you will need to meet the new requirements to renew your status.
For example, if your review date is on 3 October 2025, this means that you could have already earned enough status credits and sectors to renew your Velocity status under the current requirements – but still get downgraded at your next review date if you haven’t met the new requirements during your current membership year.
This has always been the case. It’s one of the reasons Velocity gave almost a year of notice about this change. And Velocity has now updated its website and app to show the new status credit requirements to members with post-October review dates. But a lot of people who will be affected by this are either unaware of it, or think it’s unfair.
AFF member comments
Here are a few of the comments about this from people on the AFF forum:
Long story, but I forward-planned most of my pre-May travel in August and September last year – well before they dumped the announcement on us in October. Lots of international due to circumstance, with a smattering of domestic. Not ideal, but nothing at the time indicated clearly that the requalification requirements would change.
I found out the hard way that the earn rates changed in April when I booked a couple of trips, but I figured it would still be ok because surely the old requal requirements would still apply?
Between work and leisure, I’d easily requalify by October, let alone my review date. After all, that’s what the app and the website showed.
Nope.
aamslfc on the AFF forum
I’m currently a Velocity Platinum member with a review date of 4 October 2025. I’ve already earned 1,685 Status Credits, including more than enough eligible sectors, and assumed I had requalified under the pre-1 Oct 2025 rules (800 SCs + 4 sectors).
However, Virgin has advised me (in writing) that because my review date is after 1 Oct 2025, I’m being assessed under the new rules, which require at least 50% of SCs from VA marketed/operated flights. I only have ~250 from VA flights so far, so they’re now saying I need another 150 VA SCs to retain Platinum.
This feels unfair and inconsistent with the original policy wording, which I interpreted (like many others) to mean the new rule applies to membership years starting from 1 Oct 2025, not ones already underway.
bails81 on the AFF forum
So according to the VA FAQs, anyone who has a review date after 1 Oct, will have their status determined under the new rules regardless of when or how the SCs were earned?
That really doesn’t seem fair. It will capture many who think they’ve maintained their status because that’s what the app says (unless that’s changed soon). I hit 800 SCs a week before my review date and it changed to “maintained” straight away.
Happy Dude on the AFF forum
The new criteria doesn’t kick in until 1st Oct, that would be quite unethical behaviour if, given once you usually hit the requirements within that period and criteria, that it changes, before the new criteria kicks in.
simmomelb on the AFF forum
How to change your review date
If you currently hold Silver or Gold status with Virgin Australia, there is one way to change your review date: Upgrade to a higher tier. Once you do this, your review date will immediately reset for another 12 months.
Remember, you can still upgrade to a higher tier under the current requirements until 30 September 2025.
However, this isn’t an option if you currently hold Platinum status as Velocity’s new Platinum Plus tier will only come into effect from 1 October 2025 – the same day as the rest of the status changes.
