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

[FlyingKangaroo]

I'm sorry, that sort of thing drives me nuts. Paying more for status; the airline is manipulating you to pay more than you need to. The status benefits these days on Qantas and Virgin are so eroded they are not worth 'chasing'. I wonder if people tot up the extra they've paid over a year for 'status' whether they'll think its worth it?

You might thank Virgin management for saving you heaps going forward - use it towards something useful.

In principle I agree with you. But in my case, the decision was calculated, so no need to be sorry that I made a decision that I made sure was in my favour.

An extra $15-20 per flight to pay for Choice on just the number of flights I needed for the status I was after was worth the benefit of securing at least Gold as it meant I had access to partner lounges and various benefits when flying Y or PY on those carriers, and having to fly domestically in the US frequently, it saved quite a bit in baggage fees on United, far more than I ever paid on Choice up-charges.

Same reason I do it with QF when it makes sense based on my planned flying patterns for the year ahead. You certainly won't find me doing overnight status credit milk runs from the Gold Coast to Auckland via Melbourne, because no one can convince me that any status is worth several thousand dollars that would otherwise not leave your wallet.

 

[leesionn]

While I largely enjoy reading through AFF and I do like the community, I do think at times the Frequent Flying part can become somewhat of an echo chamber. I'd guess the majority of travellers probably do not place an emphasis on status, and as such will not really choose who to fly based on status credits, aside from extremely frequent travellers (people in this forum, businesses etc).

I personally believe that there isn't much point in being loyal to any one airline, in my opinion it can get too restrictive - I'd rather focus on flying a product I want to try, flying an airline I want to try, and/or flying the airline most convenient to me at the best price. Also, as seen with the Velocity changes, while you may be loyal to them they don't have to be loyal to you back, and can change things in an instant.

For the bulk of my travel domestically, Virgin tend to have the best fare, so I mainly fly with them.

Not looking to engage in any debates here etc, just my 2 cents

Enjoy all your weekends.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

While I largely enjoy reading through AFF and I do like the community, I do think at times the Frequent Flying part can become somewhat of an echo chamber. I'd guess the majority of travellers probably do not place an emphasis on status, and as such will not really choose who to fly based on status credits, aside from extremely frequent travellers (people in this forum, businesses etc).

I personally believe that there isn't much point in being loyal to any one airline, in my opinion it can get too restrictive - I'd rather focus on flying a product I want to try, flying an airline I want to try, and/or flying the airline most convenient to me at the best price. Also, as seen with the Velocity changes, while you may be loyal to them they don't have to be loyal to you back, and can change things in an instant.

For the bulk of my travel domestically, Virgin tend to have the best fare, so I mainly fly with them.

Not looking to engage in any debates here etc, just my 2 cents

Enjoy all your weekends.

That's sensible balanced talk; we can't have that here! (jk)

But agree --- AvGeeks (myself included) can easily overestimate how much the average person cares about anything except getting where they're going as easily/cheaply as possible.

Fly well!

 

[ozstamps]

Also, as seen with the Velocity changes, while you may be loyal to them they don't have to be loyal to you back, and can change things in an instant.

'Also, as seen with the Velocity changes, while you may be loyal to them, they don't have to be loyal to you back, and can change things in an instant.'

Yes, we have seen that this year, in spades sadly.

Oddly, their dopey program changes have been quite liberating for me.

Tonight I tried to log into my long dormant Qantas account. Been years since I did that. Nothing was working.

Had to set up all the 2FA etc, and new email and cellphone details etc, via a long phone call, and to my great surprise, discover I have about 800,000 Qantas points, and wife has about 425,000.

Decided to see where we could go with some Qantas points before the ever constant devaluations of all award charts. To my huge surprise there is wide Business Class, 'Classic' bucket AVAILABILITY, and for TWO pax, and to interesting places, in real widebody planes, with flat bed suites - not 737s with TEMU shower curtains, on the long flights to Bali or the Pacific.

And lounge access too for Biz Class travellers flying overseas - what a novel idea! A leading edge concept totally lost on Nickel and Diming Bain who are way too cheap to bung SQ or Air NZ a few bucks in SYD etc, to allow lounge access.

I see we can fly to Jakarta for 67,000 points on BA, in a 777, in top end business class each way. (Half the points of flying QF metal oddly on same days.)

And Johannesburg awards were also attractively priced etc on a quick look.

So none of my hard-earned money to Virgin now, unless totally essential, and then only on LITE fares, for which we get all Lounge and row 3 seating perks etc for 18 months.

Very liberating.

Dumb for Virgin, and smart for me and others, but I do thank them for forcing me to see sense at long last, and look over the fence for the first time in decades. Many thanks.

No vendor deserves client loyalty, if they move the goal posts dramatically. It is like Trump and tariffs. Mess with the Status quo, and you WILL regret it very soon.

 

[clifford]

With everyone moving over to QF, the fare difference will only increase between the 2 airlines. I find VA perfectly adequate for domestic travel and since I only really need lounge access as a tangible benefit - as I'm never going to get to Platinum, I'll be happy to use my SQ Gold to get into the VA Lounges that might be near empty given all the comments above. When my SQ Gold ends in a few years, I might have to pay more for a QF flight and use my QC Life membership more often.

To each his own.

I'm QF WP, and will be for the foreseeable future (hopefully). I'm also VA Plat and like many others, I'm letting it bleed out. And, like you, I'm also a *G member, (for life) so I don't care a jot about losing access to VA lounges via Velocity. UA *G will help me out there, as long as the alliance holds, or VA exists.

I just can't believe that the Americans did this to a second grade airline. What were they thinking? Their money might go down the gurgler in due course. Times are cyclical.

 

[anat0l]

I just can't believe that the Americans did this to a second grade airline. What were they thinking? Their money might go down the gurgler in due course. Times are cyclical.

You're making a long term bet that VA will meet some sort of fiscal demise.

By that time, the Americans would have flogged off VA and maybe still counting the money.

Let's not forget VA would be dead if not convincing said American mob to take a chance on saving the airlines. Could always happen again (and a free pass to forgive debt again).

 

[RooFlyer]

Dumb for Virgin, and smart for me and others, but I do thank them for forcing me to see sense at long last, and look over the fence for the first time in decades. Many thanks.

If you haven't compared airlines, even considered Qantas in decades, just who's well, not sensible?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If you haven't compared airlines, even considered Qantas in decades, just who's dumb?

VA wins on price… it’s unlikely you’re going to be losing anything by always choosing VA/not comparing.

 

[mel-world]

FFS, this is getting tedious. We come here to get a variety of opinions, advancing a discussion. Not a tit-for-tat argument covering the same ground. Be thankful we have a choice of airlines and a freedom to choose.

 

[RooFlyer]

VA wins on price… it’s unlikely you’re going to be losing anything by always choosing VA/not comparing.

But the OP wouldn't know about relative pricing, since they haven't even looked at Qantas for 'decades'. And there is more to choosing an airline than price.

Even after the prolonged moaning here for months - only just looked at Qantas? Virgin should send a gift, as their stickiest client ever.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But the OP wouldn't know about relative pricing, since they haven't even looked at Qantas for 'decades'. And there is more to choosing an airline than price.

Even after the prolonged moaning here for months - only just looked at Qantas? Virgin should send a gift, as their stickiest client ever.

I’m taking the comment with a grain of salt. I think 99.9% of people would be aware VA is competitive on pricing, and are at least a little bit across pricing on Qantas. You probably don’t need to compare on a daily basis.

There’s no way VA even comes close to QF’s lead-in prices for domestic business class.

 

[nutwood]

I’m taking the comment with a grain of salt. I think 99.9% of people would be aware VA is competitive on pricing, and are at least a little bit across pricing on Qantas. You probably don’t need to compare on a daily basis.

There’s no way VA even comes close to QF’s lead-in prices for domestic business class.

Does anyone ever pay QF domestic J prices out of their own pocket? I've always thought they put those prices there for the occasional person in the happy position where the company or the tax payer is picking up the tab. I've flown Qantas domestically for many years, with a large number of flights in J, but I always got there by utilising points or status, one way or another.
Recently I think VA have been looking at QF prices and getting ideas. Business prices have increased considerably. Looking ahead, I was going to book LST - ADL when the direct route opens again. $880, with seven seats available. That means no-one has booked yet as they'll always keep one up their sleeve. That flight was $299 when they first introduced it and $499 once it was established. Needless to say, I didn't book. I'll wait until closer to the time and consider options. Had the price been reasonable, I'd have just booked it and paid. As it is, I'll probably book cheapest, on whichever airline, and upgrade with points or a low $ bid.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Does anyone ever pay QF domestic J prices out of their own pocket? I've always thought they put those prices there for the occasional person in the happy position where the company or the tax payer is picking up the tab. I've flown Qantas domestically for many years, with a large number of flights in J, but I always got there by utilising points or status, one way or another.
Recently I think VA have been looking at QF prices and getting ideas. Business prices have increased considerably. Looking ahead, I was going to book LST - ADL when the direct route opens again. $880, with seven seats available. That means no-one has booked yet as they'll always keep one up their sleeve. That flight was $299 when they first introduced it and $499 once it was established. Needless to say, I didn't book. I'll wait until closer to the time and consider options. Had the price been reasonable, I'd have just booked it and paid. As it is, I'll probably book cheapest, on whichever airline, and upgrade with points or a low $ bid.

Well… good question on who actually pays. When QF has sales in the region of $500 MEL-SYD it makes it ok to buy them for leisure. Compared to VA’s $349. The incremental cost is (almost) worth the outcome of OW sapphire.

 

[harryhv]

Does anyone ever pay QF domestic J prices out of their own pocket?

Sad to say, yes "people" do pay Qantas's ridiculous world-record high prices for domestic biz class. And who are these unfortunate "people" - why, that's you and me paying through our taxes or our super funds for govt officials and corporate execs. Of course Virgin would like to get a slice of this action too, but their offerings aren't quite good enough yet.

 

[nutwood]

Sad to say, yes "people" do pay Qantas's ridiculous world-record high prices for domestic biz class. And who are these unfortunate "people" - why, that's you and me paying through our taxes or our super funds for govt officials and corporate execs. Of course Virgin would like to get a slice of this action too, but their offerings aren't quite good enough yet.

Is there much difference between the two? My experience of J in either airline is a more comfortable seat, some indifferent food and some indifferent booze. I try to fly J, not because it's a good experience, but rather because it's not a bad experience. I genuinely fly for business and I fly a lot. Two hours jammed up against an potential Wallabies player, or a determined old lady, is enough to put my back out for days and I'll pay extra to avoid that. Booze, food, a convenient loo and first off the plane are all pleasant extras.

 

[elanshin]

Is there much difference between the two? My experience of J in either airline is a more comfortable seat, some indifferent food and some indifferent booze. I try to fly J, not because it's a good experience, but rather because it's not a bad experience. I genuinely fly for business and I fly a lot. Two hours jammed up against an potential Wallabies player, or a determined old lady, is enough to put my back out for days and I'll pay extra to avoid that. Booze, food, a convenient loo and first off the plane are all pleasant extras.

Minor differences that are more subjective on domestic hops (like f&b offering), curtains, lounges etc. The biggest difference these days is domestically WiFi is almost always available for QF where as it can be flakey for VA.

Or of course when you catch QF with a widebody - then its full lie flat which even for an hour or two is much more comfortable.

 

[Flyerwin]

Qantas's ridiculous world-record high prices for domestic biz class.

I just cancelled QF J SYD-PER and rebooked VA J SYD-PER - VA was about $600 more expensive for the times I wanted, but I wanted SC for VA as I've hit WP for QF this cycle. VA's new SC 12-month expiry system is hard to follow I have to admit... much prefer a hard annual renewal date.

 

[pauldab]

VA's new SC 12-month expiry system is hard to follow I have to admit... much prefer a hard annual renewal date.

VA is still the same date every year for retaining and the SC tracking is accurate enough if you ignore the SC count at the top of the page next to the point tally.
The status summary page is the place to do it.

 

[Flyerwin]

VA is still the same date every year for retaining and the SC tracking is accurate enough if you ignore the SC count at the top of the page next to the point tally.

That's what I had thought, but every month it looks like some SC expires and I have to earn more SC to retain status? Or am I just getting confused?

 

[pauldab]

That's what I had thought, but every month it looks like some SC expires and I have to earn more SC to retain status? Or am I just getting confused?

SC to retain is all based off SC accumulation after the last review date - check this page after logging in: https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/my-velocity/status and you'll see the actual SC count to retain (also where it'll say how you're going for the 50% VA personal-flying component). This page is also updated 1 day after SC is gained.
The review date is fixed each year based on the month you gained the current membership level.

This is tracked separately to the rolling 12 month SC tally which you use for promotion to the next stage of membership. That does drop off due to the rolling 12 month window.