How to Buy Virgin Australia Velocity Points

If you’re just a little short of the points needed for a Virgin Australia Velocity reward booking, you can buy additional points using Velocity Points Booster!

From 13-19 March, Velocity Frequent Flyer is even giving up to a 30% discount on all Points Booster purchases.

You can purchase up to 250,000 Velocity Frequent Flyer points per calendar year. But there may be a more cost-effective way to get the extra points you need for your Velocity redemption…

How Velocity Points Booster works

You can buy Velocity points on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website. It’s also possible to buy points by calling the Velocity Membership Contact Centre, however an additional fee applies.

At the time of purchase, you might be asked to specify how you plan to use your purchased points. There is no requirement that you have to use the points in the specified way – although it would make little sense to buy points without a specific redemption in mind!

With Velocity Frequent Flyer, there is no limit to the number of times you can buy points – but there is an overall annual purchase limit of 250,000 Velocity points. Before you can buy points, you need to already have at least one Velocity point in your account.

You can purchase points in increments of 500 points up to 5,000 points, then increments of 1,000 points up to 50,000 points. When purchasing more than 50,000 Velocity points, you’d need to buy in increments of 10,000 points. The minimum purchase amount is 1,000 points.

Prices start at $36 for 1,000 Velocity points, or 3.6 cents per point, at full price. It becomes a little cheaper as you purchase more points. Buying 50,000 points costs $1,172, which gives a cost of 2.34 cents per point. The maximum 250,000 Velocity points would cost $5,850 (also 2.34 cents per point).

Here is the Velocity Points Booster pricing table from the Velocity Frequent Flyer website:

Discounts on Velocity points

Velocity Frequent Flyer typically offers small discounts on buying points around 3-4 times per year. These discounts may be tiered, giving a higher discount if you buy more points.

During the current promotion launched on 13 March, you can get a 30% discount when buying any quantity of points through Velocity Points Booster. The offer expires on 19 March 2024.

Velocity last offered a discount on buying points in December 2023. That was a tiered discount of 10-40%, with larger discounts available when buying more points:

• Buying 1,000 – 10,000 Velocity points got a 10% discount
• Buying 11,000 – 50,000 Velocity points got a 20% discount
• Buying 60,000 – 120,000 Velocity points got a 30% discount
• Buying 130,000 – 250,000 Velocity points got a 40% discount

Beware that Velocity Points Booster transactions are processed by Points.com outside of Australia. While prices are in Australian Dollars, this means your bank could charge an international transaction surcharge if you don’t pay using a credit card without foreign exchange fees. It’s also possible that your transaction may not process if the email address used has a unique domain name.

When does it make sense to buy Velocity points?

The short answer is… rarely! Even at the best full-price rate, you’re paying 2.34 cents for each Velocity point (excluding any discounts or bonuses). Unless you’re redeeming the points for a highly valuable Business Class reward flight or upgrade, it’s unlikely you’d be able to get much more value than that out of your points when redeeming them.

It could make sense to buy points with Velocity Points Booster if you’re just a little bit short of a valuable reward. The points will credit to your account instantly, so it could be worth it if you need a small amount of additional points quickly.

But there are other ways to earn small amounts of Velocity points, such as shopping at 7-Eleven or transferring Flybuys points to Velocity.

During a good promotion, buying Velocity Frequent Flyer points may be worthwhile if you will be able to use them to book a valuable Business Class reward flight. For example, you might be able to redeem them for a long-haul Business flight operated by a partner airline like United or Singapore Airlines.

A more cost-effective way to earn large amounts of Velocity points is by taking advantage of Velocity credit card sign-up bonus offers. However, the points can take some months to arrive in your frequent flyer account. If you need Velocity points quickly, you could consider transferring points from a family member instead.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.