Our newest partnership revealed; American Express & Velocity Rewards

[Velocity Frequent Flyer]

Finally, we can let you in on the latest piece of good news!

Taken from the joint press release just issued:

American Express and Velocity, the award winning frequent flyer program of the Virgin Australia group of airlines, have joined forces to launch the American Express Velocity Cards. The cards are designed to help people escape sooner and more often with the Virgin Australia group of airlines and its alliance partners.
There are three cards in the suite(1), with the American Express Velocity Platinum Card offering the richest travel benefits and rewards. The unlimited two for the price of one offer on the Platinum Card entitles members to complimentary international business class companion airfares on full priced seats flying with V Australia or codeshare partner flights with Delta(2). In addition, the card comes with a complimentary annual domestic return economy flight to a choice of 26 destinations flying Virgin Australia. Flights are booked through American Express Travel Services.

The American Express Velocity Platinum Card has the highest Velocity Points earn rate of any card in the market. For every $1 spent on the Card, 1.5 Velocity Points are earned. Three Points are earned for every dollar spent with the Virgin Australia group of airlines. Points can then be redeemed for flights, accommodation or other travel expenses through the Velocity Program.

“Flying business class doesn’t have to be just for work trips or affluent travellers. The American Express Velocity Platinum Card makes flying business class more affordable for all Australians and helps them escape faster on their next holiday”, said Rob Hennin, Vice President of Consumer Products for American Express.
Virgin Australia General Manager of Velocity, Phil Gunter said “We are constantly looking for new ways to ensure our members get the most value out of our Velocity Frequent Flyer program, and one of the easiest ways for members to earn Velocity Points is through everyday spending on direct earn credit cards. With their excellent earn rates and unique airline benefits, we know that these new American Express Velocity Cards will be very attractive to people who want to fly more often with Virgin Australia.”

Credit card comparison website, CreditCardFinder.com.au compared the American Express Velocity Platinum Card with other premium airline co-brand cards on the market and found it offered the best value.
"The American Express Velocity Platinum Card is the best rewards card in Australia for the high spending frequent flyer", said Jeremy Cabral, Editor of CreditCardFinder.com.au. “A domestic traveller who spends $2,000 a month on the card each year will receive $834 worth of value from the card annually. For an international traveller it's $1,319, which is impressive when you consider the card has an annual fee of $349."
National research(3) conducted by Galaxy on behalf of American Express shows that 2.5 million Australians have flown business class for reasons other than work, and people are more likely to pay for the cost of a business class airfare themselves (41%) than their place of employment (31%). It also highlights the popularity of using rewards points to pay for the cost of travel.

The research revealed that for around a quarter of Australians, a card with rich benefits, features and rewards is more important than a card with a low interest rate and annual Card fee.
“More than a million Australians have used credit card rewards points to fly business class and around three quarters of the population would fly business class if they could take a companion for free”, continued Hennin. “It shows that people want to fly business class and that picking the right credit card can be just the ticket to getting there. It’s not about spending more, it’s about choosing the right card and using it smartly so that every time you do, you’re one step closer to enjoying the holiday you deserve.“

The American Express Velocity Cards offer 2 single entry Virgin Australia lounge entries per annum, domestic and international travel insurance and purchase and retail protection. For more information about the American Express Platinum Velocity Card visit www.amexvelocity.com.au

Now that the news is out (finally!) your 'AFF 5' can offload any information that they gained from yesterdays luncheon.

These cards have been put together with the serious frequent flyer in mind, and we believe that there are more than a few of the Aust Freq Flyer community who will gain alot by utilising cards such as these.

Look forward to the the discussion!

Velocity Rewards Team

 

[yogi]

Well done. Seems like a good product for many flyers. Sadly, not really suitable for my needs, but hopefully some people will find it of use.

 

[Misha]

nice news. but now we need something else to keep up the suspense - i was on a high

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Would be good if the Virgin FF program was not such a Dog for those seeking to earn points redeem on flights.

Fix that, join *A...and then we may be talking.

 

[LiamR]

Thanks for the update VA (And 20mins ahead of schedule!)

Hope it shakes up the market.

 

[connieguy]

QF are ripping out F seats and replacing them with J seats as they see this market sector growing. Now DJ may cause QF real issues in filling those extra J seats as the high end of the QF J FFer decide to take a 2 for 1 DJ international long haul in J at less than 1 QF J full fare seat.

Gutsy move DJ / VR. I have probably 4 of those planned in the next 12 months. DJ and Amex have my business.

Well done.

 

[pshepvic]

My key things from the lunch, on the Platinum card firstly:

1. 2 for 1 Business Class on V Australia, including Delta codeshare flights. Previously, I think the only companion fares of this type were on the Amex Platinum Charge ($900 annual fee)

2. 3 points per dollar on spend with Virgin Australia

3. 1.5 points per dollar on other spend

4. NO points cap. I repeat, NO points cap.

5. Annual fee is $349 ($46 less than the Platinum Reserve card) but still get the annual return flight (within Australia)

6. Two annual lounge passes

7. 30,000 point bonus - this is probably worth close to, if not more than, the annual fee in the first year alone - depending how you value points (for me, I value them at about 4-5 cents per point when redeeming for Business class, so in my case 30,000 points is worth $1200-ish)

 

[kpc]

I love competition so overall this is good for the consumer with another FF credit card card option but....the automatic TF of points to Velocity cuts out all the options you have with the standard AMEX card to TF to other partners (SQ, MH, Starwood etc). For the Plat card, whilst you get a free accompanying business class ticket, this is only if you pay the FULL rate for a business class ticket (who ever pays the FULL rate for any fare?), and you have to pay the associated taxes / surcharges for the "free" ticket...so it may not be as sweet as it sounds! It would be great if you could "persuade" your company to fork out for the full business fare, and then you can then bring along your parther at little cost but that ain't going to happen!

My initial reactions anyway... I will look at it again in the am but not overwhelmed atm...

PS AMEX seem to be in bed with everyone .....:shock:

Disclaimer: I currently have the AMEX charge card and the credit card

 

[Noob]

Would be good if the Virgin FF program was not such a Dog for those seeking to earn points redeem on flights.

Fix that, join *A...and then we may be talking.

• ETIHAD AIRWAYS
• SINGAPORE AIRLINES
• DELTA
• AIR NEW ZEALAND
• SKY WEST
• VIRGIN ATLANTIC
• VIRGIN AMERICA
• HAWAIIAN AIRLINES
• MALAYSIAN AIRLINES

To over 600 destinations worldwide.
Rated the best for redemption of flights.
Rated Australia's best airline by Choice. (Oh yeah, two years in a row).
Rated higher on a "per star" basis than any other Australian airline by Skytrax.
What a dawg.

 

[pshepvic]

And the Gold card:

1. $199 annual fee, but still includes all the insurances - even covering you for flights paid for with Velocity points

2. NO points cap, again

3. 2.5 points per dollar on Virgin Australia spend

4. 1.25 points per dollar on other spend (equal earn rate to the Virgin High Flyer card, but lower annual fee, and includes free supplementary cards, which High Flyer does not)

5. 20,000 bonus points for taking it up and spending first $500, and a couple of Lounge passes thrown in each year for good measure

 

[connieguy]

this is only if you pay the FULL rate for a business class ticket

Look at it as an corp accountant would who buys LOTS of top end flexible QF J tickets. Pay full DJ J fare (less than QF full J fare) and get 2 execs on that long haul DJ flight for around the price of 1 exec flying QF J.

No brainer.

 

[Mal]

Interesting cards.

Won't get one personally, but think they are ideal for some people. And, like has been commented ... I like competition!

(I'm actually pretty excited to see Amex issue some cards that are chipped!! Hopefully that means Chip'n'Pin for Amex cards is due shortly!)

 

[pshepvic]

PS AMEX seem to be in bed with everyone .....:shock:

Interesting you say this, as I would have thought considering Amex are the premium credit card provider, that they would be good to get on board. I believe they offer better incentives to their existing customers to stay with them than the big banks, as discussed in another thread recently. The banks seem to only care about bringing on new customers, but forget about their existing ones. The point of the loyalty schemes after all are to keep customers, not just get new ones!

I thought it was more of a gap prior to today that there wasn't a Velocity/Virgin Australia branded card offered by Amex directly. Additionally, (IMHO) Amex acceptance has increased significantly in recent times, and I think it's an important product for Velocity to bring on.

Fair enough if you want to keep the Platinum Charge/Credit Card combo, as you can still get Velocity points that way too if you want to, but for many the cost of the Platinum Charge card is out of reach or not justified, but these new cards bring many of the benefits within reach.

 

[kpc]

Look at it as an corp accountant would who buys LOTS of top end flexible QF J tickets. Pay full DJ J fare (less than QF full J fare) and get 2 execs on that long haul DJ flight for around the price of 1 exec flying QF J.

No brainer.

...assuming that you have multiples of 2 travelling on the same flight, then it would probably be cheaper than QF but i guess most imprtantly it will help keep QF in check on those routes where there is competition from Virgin / Delta. Don't get me wrong, I think competition is great but I'm not sure I'll be rushing out to get one of these cards yet...I will look again tomorrow in more detail.

 

[notzac]

Interesting. Will be checking this card out v closely; I was already reviewing my CC options so it would seem that this may suit me very nicely.
Also, from the picture of the cards from the AmEx website .. is it just me, or is there a chip on this card?

 

[lovetravellingoz]

• ETIHAD AIRWAYS
• SINGAPORE AIRLINES
• DELTA
• AIR NEW ZEALAND
• SKY WEST
• VIRGIN ATLANTIC
• VIRGIN AMERICA
• HAWAIIAN AIRLINES
• MALAYSIAN AIRLINES

To over 600 destinations worldwide.
Rated the best for redemption of flights.
Rated Australia's best airline by Choice. (Oh yeah, two years in a row).
Rated higher on a "per star" basis than any other Australian airline by Skytrax.

What a dawg.

Yes....why don't you also quote the point cost per flight :idea:

Will not get my business till you are competitive.

It is not just the flight...but the earn to burn ratio.

Card is a step in the right direction. But FF program is uncompetitive.

 

[pshepvic]

(I'm actually pretty excited to see Amex issue some cards that are chipped!! Hopefully that means Chip'n'Pin for Amex cards is due shortly!)

You know what? I didn't even notice the chip today when we saw them! I guess I'm so used to seeing chips on cards now, that I didn't think about it!

Good to see though - the funny thing is Amex were the first to put a chip in a card back with the old Amex Blue (see-through) card years ago!

 

[StevePER]

This thread was ~30 minutes early! But it's been a very long day, I'm going to bed.

One thing I would like to know, in hindsight, is whether the 2-for-1 business class deal applies to domestic DJ flights. I only read through the info very quickly, but I think it only referred to VA and codeshares on DL.

 

[StevePER]

Yes....why don't you also quote the point cost per flight :idea:

Will not get my business till you are competitive.

It is not just the flight...but the earn to burn ratio.

Card is a step in the right direction. But FF program is uncompetitive.

I think you're being a bit unfair. But perhaps I'm biased now.

I did discuss the lack of transparency of the cost of award flights with Phil, particularly in relation to partners (Skywest specifically). There used to be a table of example costs for reward flights, but this disappeared a long time ago. Transparency of both cost and availability of award flights on partner airlines would be a big step in the right direction. I got the impression they are still working on tidying up this sort of thing.

 

[samh004]

This would be pretty cool news, if I met the eligibity criteria. It's not easy being able to afford things but not having an income

Still, I'll pass the offer onto my parents incase it appeals to them for a jaunt to the states.