Major changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer announced 17/10/24

[SYD]

I would think many SMEs are still on VA, although probably in Y otherwise they'd be BFOD.

Many companies have contracts with VA or QF; don't know what are the lengths of terms (i.e. before they can change their minds), but then again I'm not sure how many would switch due to a change in the loyalty proposition.

I wonder how many corporate clients pre-emptively “jumped” during the VA1.0 near death experience?

The last big corp I worked for was still with them from the collapse of AN* thru to pre-Covid (when I left). No idea if they’re still with VA. There would have been some wailing and gnashing of teeth for many regular travellers (including many using EY J to Europe) if they had to start again with QF. Fortunately I kept directing most of my international travel to QF to maintain dual VA WP and QF WP.

*some idiot came up with the great idea of switching from QF to AN around 2000. We had a good 18mths… Going back to QF cap in hand didn’t work.

 

[ozstamps]

None of my business friends are VA WOB anymore, at best it’s BFOD and a lot are now QF WOB.

Does google translate auto activate on this site?

 

[RooFlyer]

at best it’s BFOD

You'd think that should always be the case for a business.

As a self funder flyer, I don't miss any business flyers in the J cabin.

 

[bernardblack]

Yeah, I think as a forum we're quite unrepresentative of the market available to VA.

Velocity as a program and VA as an airline are competing with Qantas and QF, respectively, not directly with any number of better airlines (dozens!) or programs (AAdvantage, Aeroplan, KrisFlyer, Flying Blue, Asia Miles).

Will these changes make earning Velocity status somewhat harder for me personally, as someone who flies mostly for leisure and would do things like judiciously choose low-cost business flights to optimise credits? Yes, absolutely.

Would I earn status any more easily on Qantas? No. And so, my general Oneworld travel isn't credited to Qantas, nor even would I use it for EK now that Aeroplan is an option.

For redemptions, is Velocity worse than Qantas going forward? Probably not, depending on one's use case. Velocity gives you access to QR J (including at the end of the calendar), some SQ J and W, and close to departure, there's plenty of UA transPac J and some NH J as well. Qantas gives you a smattering of JL/AA/AF/KL long-haul J, their own J occasionally if you're lucky, and perhaps some EK with a tremendous cash copay. And for similar distances, Velocity rates are mostly still marginally better than Qantas.

For status, is Velocity worse than Qantas going forward? Probably yes, especially for international travel, if only for the more solid Oneworld alliance benefits you can get on Qantas vs Velocity's bespoke partner arrangements.

For short domestic flights, is VA inferior to QF? No, at least for me. It's generally cheaper and I would have lounge access by Amex even if my status were to lapse.

Do any of these things matter to the SMEs or leisure travellers who are the market I think VA is satisfied to target? Not in the least. They're competing on price.

 

[jakeseven7]

I would think many SMEs are still on VA, although probably in Y otherwise they'd be BFOD.

Many companies have contracts with VA or QF; don't know what are the lengths of terms (i.e. before they can change their minds), but then again I'm not sure how many would switch due to a change in the loyalty proposition.

Yea but there are many many many ways to game BFOD to the carrier of your choice.

 

[clifford]

Yea but there are many many many ways to game BFOD to the carrier of your choice.

Or, as before I retired, just ignore the company policy.

 

[jakeseven7]

Or, as before I retired, just ignore the company policy.

Lucky you, many don’t have that flex so we have to game it, like the APS

 

[anat0l]

Here's Executive Traveler's write-up on the new SC system about to come into force.

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/virgin-australia-news

I don't know if this was posted anywhere else, but there are interesting comments from the CEO about how the new system is simpler and fairer. This block of text is fascinating:

“A good example is that sometimes you can see people who get discounted business class actually paying less than some on the (economy) Flex fare,” Rohrlach suggests.

“From a loyalty perspective (it means) that we’re actually under-rewarding those who are booking last-minute Flex fares” – so the new spend-based structure “will recognise those who are booking those last-minute fares will therefore get a lot more status credits.”

Come to think of it, I'm sure that there must have been some bubs on flights complaining how they spend $x on Virgin Australia a year to be treated like crumbs; or to froth at some cheap fool who is occupying a better seat, possibly in Business, compared to them.

 

[mviy]

I have been focusing on status with QF as there was no lifetime status with VA and QF flies to LHR, my main overseas destination.

Now VA has introduced lifetime status, but made it very expensive to obtain starting from 0. Thinking it is probably not worth chasing.

 

[ozstamps]

“A good example is that sometimes you can see people who get discounted business class actually paying less than some on the (economy) Flex fare,” Rohrlach suggests.


Well Mr Rohrlach - seeing you, VIRGIN, cheerfully added those lower priced fares into the market, on flights that were never going to sell out in Business Class, and hence increase your revenues, how is that the customer's issue? You can't have it both ways. Airline ticket prices have been fluid for 50 years.

On any given Virgin plane, EVERYONE in economy is paying less than those who bought Flex fares, and all get no meals, and all get economy seating, and that has been the case for decades. What a lame 'argument' for destroying the FF scheme for users.

In this of all years, with the IPO looming - drive many direct to the Qantas clutches.

As I posted earlier, the penny is JUST starting to drop for many, that the Velocity program has been devalued heavily for most - as the same article makes clear below. The % of Velocity members booking last minute Flex fares he lusts about, would be about 1% - if even that. Virgin is now a glorified single aisle, basically domestic only, LCC, and cannot afford to hand away market share right now.


'Starting this week, it’s about to become much more expensive to earn frequent flyer status on Virgin Australia.

Just how expensive?

Travellers will have to pay as much as $12,000 to earn Velocity Gold status for the first year – that’s the sweet spot for lounge access, extra luggage, priority boarding and so on.

Velocity Platinum status, which is the next rung on the loyalty ladder, will require spending as much as $24,000 in airfares.

That’s the take-away from a sweeping overhaul to the airline’s Velocity rewards program which comes into effect this Wednesday 2 April, 2025.'

 

[Caversham04]

My plan is to book BFOD on either Qantas or Virgin and credit to Qatar Privilege Club. If I get any status, it works on both airlines!! Net loss to VA due to their changes as QF have occasionally been cheaper for a couple of my recent travel bookings and I no longer need to be loyal to VA........

 

[anat0l]

I have been focusing on status with QF as there was no lifetime status with VA and QF flies to LHR, my main overseas destination.

Now VA has introduced lifetime status, but made it very expensive to obtain starting from 0. Thinking it is probably not worth chasing.

Well, here's one way to look at it.

My calculations might be wrong because I'm misreading the information, but let's say you purchase a SYD-LHR ticket on QR (going via DOH) in Business Class, with the VA flight number. I am assuming that the new VA services which wet least QR are treated as VA marketed but partner operated (cf. VA marketed and VA operated).

That will net you 250 SC one way, or 500 SC return.

You'd need two of those return trips in a year to get Platinum Plus for 12 months; assuming that the VA marketed flight number means counting towards the minimum 75% VA SCs for Platinum Plus (50% on other tiers).

To get Forever Gold, you'd need to do that same return trip 24 times. If you travelled to London four times every year, you'd have Forever Gold wrapped up in six years. Ironically, that's one less return trip if you did the same thing on QF in order to achieve LTG from a zero SC start (assuming Discount Business on QF; higher Business fares would net LTG sooner).

I don't know what VA will sell the QR J fares for, but I wonder how that might stack up against the "yardstick" of $12000 to get Gold status for a year (which assumes only using the cheapest domestic air fares to achieve the goal).

Note that any side trips added to the same ticket as the SYD-LHR operated by VA would use the distance-class chart rather than $ spend. This also ignores any potential SC promos, and although you can't purely Family Pool your way to top status, it can at least account for 25% of it (i.e. 3000 SC of Forever Gold).

 

[nutwood]

I note Rohrlach also "..estimates that just over 80% of published fares “will actually see an increase in status credits..."
I find this a bit worrying. If the man is being honest, his estimating skills need a serious overhaul. Ever since I heard of this enhancement, I've been doing the sums on flights that I book. I've been quite busy this year and have notched up 1835 SC's since I celebrated New Year, so I've got a reasonable body of data. In no instance would I have earned more SC's under the new system.
Admittedly I book Flex or Business as my plans change frequently. Booking Choice and paying over $180 for a single leg would have produced a different result. I also pay for my flights directly out of my own pocket, although they are for work. This means I fit my travels around the better priced flights.

 

[Caversham04]

Sorry, my reference was to do with Forever Gold (FG) which I failed to mention. I just double checked the Webinar and at time stamp 12:50 @Matt Graham mentions that VA are reconsidering family pooled points to be used to calculate FG. As it stands at the time of the Webinar neither the beneficiary or the contributor can use the points to go towards their FG calculations. (unless of course it has changed since the Webinar was released)

I hope that's been changed...... does anyone know?

My wife and I regularly family-pooled in one direction or another for many years when our renewal dates were a significant distance apart, depending on who was flying more and who needed the SC's. If all of those SC's disappear down the gurgler and aren't assigned to either of us for the purposes of Lifetime Gold, I shall be EXTREMELY annoyed. It's grossly unfair for them not to count for someone.......

 

[ozstamps]

I hope that's been changed...... does anyone know?

My wife and I regularly family-pooled in one direction or another for many years when our renewal dates were a significant distance apart, depending on who was flying more and who needed the SC's. If all of those SC's disappear down the gurgler and aren't assigned to either of us for the purposes of Lifetime Gold, I shall be EXTREMELY annoyed. It's grossly unfair for them not to count for someone.......

'does anyone know?'

I doubt even Virgin does.

The more blowback they get NOW from once loyal flyers before it rolls out, the more likely it is they'll 'tweak' the current crazy rules, and the weird % of pure Virgin metal flights etc, that the initial Brain Fart decree only decided to count.

Many folks flying for 10 years quite a lot, will not make the cut under the current 'plan'. It is only Gold they are offering, for goodness sakes, not Platinum or Platinum Plus.

 

[anat0l]

I note Rohrlach also "..estimates that just over 80% of published fares “will actually see an increase in status credits..."
I find this a bit worrying. If the man is being honest, his estimating skills need a serious overhaul. Ever since I heard of this enhancement, I've been doing the sums on flights that I book. I've been quite busy this year and have notched up 1835 SC's since I celebrated New Year, so I've got a reasonable body of data. In no instance would I have earned more SC's under the new system.
Admittedly I book Flex or Business as my plans change frequently. Booking Choice and paying over $180 for a single leg would have produced a different result. I also pay for my flights directly out of my own pocket, although they are for work. This means I fit my travels around the better priced flights.

I'm thinking of flights that might fall into the "increase in status credits" in the new system. Ideas that come to mind:

• Regional flights, i.e. operated by VARA. The one-way prices on even Lite fares on those can be very high, for a mere 10 SC sometimes
• Included in above, but mining town flights
• Lots of the above and others, flights on Flex (maybe even Choice) fares... and of course those booked at last minute (i.e. higher fare buckets)

 

[jase05]

My plan is to book BFOD on either Qantas or Virgin and credit to Qatar Privilege Club. If I get any status, it works on both airlines!! Net loss to VA due to their changes as QF have occasionally been cheaper for a couple of my recent travel bookings and I no longer need to be loyal to VA........

You won’t get any status credits flying Qantas or Virgin domestically with Qatar Privilege club.

 

[Kevin Bailey]

I have switched out away to a Star Alliance Airline so I can get full credit for all my mostly international travel. Last year of Virgin Platinum

 

[nutwood]

I'm thinking of flights that might fall into the "increase in status credits" in the new system. Ideas that come to mind:

• Regional flights, i.e. operated by VARA. The one-way prices on even Lite fares on those can be very high, for a mere 10 SC sometimes
• Included in above, but mining town flights
• Lots of the above and others, flights on Flex (maybe even Choice) fares... and of course those booked at last minute (i.e. higher fare buckets)

I totally agree. If I went looking, I could find flights that fitted. Pick the right time and it can be $900 from LST to MEL and that might only be cattle class. 75 SC's; Yay!!
Reality is, I think the people who are paying that sort of price are not being swayed by the SC's they are earning. They are over for some sporting event or they have a family emergency and they are cursing the sporting event. If they could get cheaper elsewhere they would.

 

[Bolthead]

I hope that's been changed...... does anyone know?

My wife and I regularly family-pooled in one direction or another for many years when our renewal dates were a significant distance apart, depending on who was flying more and who needed the SC's. If all of those SC's disappear down the gurgler and aren't assigned to either of us for the purposes of Lifetime Gold, I shall be EXTREMELY annoyed. It's grossly unfair for them not to count for someone.......

I have just analysed my flights from the last 13 years. I was checking the chance that we might get Forever Gold. My wife and I have been family pooling for over 13 years and I have been Platinum for that entire time. (actually a bit longer) My wife has been Platinum for about 7-8 years. (all leisure flights) I have also been keeping a spreadsheet for the past 13 years with my SC's. It took me a few days and I have changed the layout showing VA flights seperately as well as Partner flights, Flybuys etc. In the past 13 years I have collected approx. 9500 points. The interesting thing is it is about 50/50 in VA's marketed flights vs. Partner flights. I can appreciate that it is difficult to measure loyality however I have in the majority only flown VA domestically and their partners internationally. So, despite that I have been Platinum all these years I am about 4,500 short to meet the criteria of reaching Forever Gold. At this rate I will probably hit Forever Gold at the age of 90. (I am 66 now) As I have always known there is no such a thing as loyality in business. Both my wife and I have requalfied for Platinum so I am guessing by June 2027 we will both drop down to Silver. (maybe maintain Gold) As other have mentioned I will be now looking for BFOD and save my pennies for paying for International flights hopefully in PE or J.