Questions About Virgin Velocity Flyer [Master]Card

[Renato1]

I was wondering how anyone who has the Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer MasterCard has found how well the flight discount feature works. Basically, one gets 50% off flights of up to four segments a year for two travellers. But the PDF at the website makes it clear that one can't reference the normal website prices as the basis for the 50% discount, one has to instead ring the special contact centre to get the price.

The latter suggests that one may not get a real 50% discount - else why not just say they will use the website non-sale price as the basis of the discount? So, has anyone using this card found the discount to be really 50%, or a lesser amount?

The other odd thing about the card is that it says one earns points by buying goods from shops or by using BPAY for paying bills. Who uses BPAY with credit cards? One typically always uses the credit card number. If one wanted to use the card for regular payments of bills (e.g. health insurance, water rates etc) and one puts the Velocity Mastercard number down for the payments, I presume that one wouldn't get any Velocity points because BPAY isn't being used. Is this correct in your experience?

Thanks for any insights that you can offer.
Regards,
Renato

 

[jsmith88]

I have used the 50% off discount- it is before tax.
So i booked (through the phone service) a flight syd-hbr for myself at normal price (you cant use the cheapest fare however, which wasnt much of a difference in this case), and my partners flight was 50% (tax not included). So roughly 40-45% off.

 

[smit0847]

Dont look at it as 50% off. Its not.

Unless you are booking 3+ hour flights, think of it as 'I can purchase 2 sale fares 4 times a year whenever I want'. Thats a closer comparison.

 

[Renato1]

I have used the 50% off discount- it is before tax.
So i booked (through the phone service) a flight syd-hbr for myself at normal price (you cant use the cheapest fare however, which wasnt much of a difference in this case), and my partners flight was 50% (tax not included). So roughly 40-45% off.

Thanks for letting me know of your very relevant experience.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

Dont look at it as 50% off. Its not.

Unless you are booking 3+ hour flights, think of it as 'I can purchase 2 sale fares 4 times a year whenever I want'. Thats a closer comparison.

Thanks very much for your perspective.

It's tricky deciding whether or not to get this card - is the $129 annual fee worth it? On the one hand I'm accumulating lots of Velocity points through my Amex Edge Card. On the other hand one doesn't want to expend them on flights which could be had on sale, or be available effectively on sale through this card. On the other hand, how many vacation flights am I going to do in a year - I had been thinking of only doing two, or possibly three.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Colin 2905]

It's tricky deciding whether or not to get this card - is the $129 annual fee worth it?

At any given time, there's usually an offer available that waives the annual fee in the first year, and tosses in some bonus points, eg; Virgin Credit Cards | Virgin Money

Lots of reports on AFF of the annual fee being waived in subsequent years, if you 'phone up just before the annual fee is due with a view to cancelling. I've got until April before my first year is up. If they waive it I'll keep it, but if they don't, I'll be cancelling. The T&C's for the TWO41 offer are such that I don't think it's worth paying for.

On the other hand, how many vacation flights am I going to do in a year - I had been thinking of only doing two, or possibly three.

Keep in mind that it's (up to) four flight sectors. So a simple A to B direct, and return, would count as two sectors, and you could do two of those per year. But if you had a single transit in between, there's two sectors used just to get there, with two more on the return meaning that there's your four sectors gone already.

 

[Moopere]

Thanks very much for your perspective.

It's tricky deciding whether or not to get this card - is the $129 annual fee worth it? On the one hand I'm accumulating lots of Velocity points through my Amex Edge Card. On the other hand one doesn't want to expend them on flights which could be had on sale, or be available effectively on sale through this card. On the other hand, how many vacation flights am I going to do in a year - I had been thinking of only doing two, or possibly three.
Regards,
Renato

I find myself taking a look at this card and its big brother the 'high' flyer once or twice a year but can never bring myself to apply. If I remember correctly, the Flyer version has a full points earn cap of only about $1500 a month...is that right? The wordy explanation of the 50% flight thing just makes me laugh, its somewhat similar to the High Flyers explanation of partner J flights, it boils down to 'you might get the tickets a bit cheaper' (or a lot! but you can't know). I don't gamble as a general rule. So, for the fee asked, unless there are significant bonus points offered, and there usually are not enough to trump using the spend required on an existing Amex ... well, it just never matches up.

I don't do a lot of domestic leisure travel any more, 2-3 times a year over east from PER. This year, because I wasn't paying attention, I almost lost an Amex 'free' flight credit, plus 2015's free flight .. got em booked just in time, but now have the renewed Free flight (Amex Edge) + Amex Velocity free flight to use up - yikes! 4 Amex return flights in a year, its enough.

 

[Renato1]

At any given time, there's usually an offer available that waives the annual fee in the first year, and tosses in some bonus points, eg; Virgin Credit Cards | Virgin Money

Lots of reports on AFF of the annual fee being waived in subsequent years, if you 'phone up just before the annual fee is due with a view to cancelling. I've got until April before my first year is up. If they waive it I'll keep it, but if they don't, I'll be cancelling. The T&C's for the TWO41 offer are such that I don't think it's worth paying for.



Keep in mind that it's (up to) four flight sectors. So a simple A to B direct, and return, would count as two sectors, and you could do two of those per year. But if you had a single transit in between, there's two sectors used just to get there, with two more on the return meaning that there's your four sectors gone already.

Thanks for that. I recollect Woolworths waiving my annual fee for a year on their card when I rang up to cancel (it wasn't any good to me as I could no longer quickly buy petrol from their bowser, and I wound up cancelling it the next year).

I don't mind paying the fee if I think the card is worth it - and as you say, the T&Cs seem somewhat problematic - which makes evaluating the card difficult.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

I find myself taking a look at this card and its big brother the 'high' flyer once or twice a year but can never bring myself to apply. If I remember correctly, the Flyer version has a full points earn cap of only about $1500 a month...is that right? The wordy explanation of the 50% flight thing just makes me laugh, its somewhat similar to the High Flyers explanation of partner J flights, it boils down to 'you might get the tickets a bit cheaper' (or a lot! but you can't know). I don't gamble as a general rule. So, for the fee asked, unless there are significant bonus points offered, and there usually are not enough to trump using the spend required on an existing Amex ... well, it just never matches up.

I don't do a lot of domestic leisure travel any more, 2-3 times a year over east from PER. This year, because I wasn't paying attention, I almost lost an Amex 'free' flight credit, plus 2015's free flight .. got em booked just in time, but now have the renewed Free flight (Amex Edge) + Amex Velocity free flight to use up - yikes! 4 Amex return flights in a year, its enough.

Thanks. Yes, though over a shorter time I've looked like you at this card trying to do the sums.

The 1500 point monthly cap to earning a dollar a point (reverting to half a point a dollar thereafter) isn't that big an issue for me, as I mainly wanted the card for use where they currently don't take my Amex Edge card and I use my ANZ FF Visa and only earning half a point a dollar, or where they do take Edge but it only earns half a point a dollar.So I thought it could be a good card for earning 1000 or 1500 points a month on utilities, health insurance, house insurance, land tax, rates etc. But then I read the part about having to use BPAY to earn those points, which left me scratching my head. I don't mind doing BPAY a few times a year, but I don't want to be mucking around over a dozen times a year - when with most credit cards it is hassle free. I just give utility companies the card number and they take the money without any mucking around.

Unlike you, I'm in the strange situation where I have only done two trips of domestic leisure travel in the last 35 years, and my wife and I have decided that we want to do lots more domestic or close-by overseas leisure travel in between our two yearly European travels. So we don't really know how many trips we want to take yet, but there are plenty of places that one or the other of us haven't visited (e.g. my wife has never been to Perth and I've never been to Queensland, and neither have been to New Zealand). If we get the bug, I might run out of points more quickly than I thought - which is why I was looking at this card.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[Moopere]

Thanks. Yes, though over a shorter time I've looked like you at this card trying to do the sums.

The 1500 point monthly cap to earning a dollar a point (reverting to half a point a dollar thereafter) isn't that big an issue for me, as I mainly wanted the card for use where they currently don't take my Amex Edge card and I use my ANZ FF Visa and only earning half a point a dollar, or where they do take Edge but it only earns half a point a dollar.So I thought it could be a good card for earning 1000 or 1500 points a month on utilities, health insurance, house insurance, land tax, rates etc.

Ahh, so chasing the elusive 1p/1$ for utilities/government/insurance, yes, I feel your pain. I've been really feeling this since the WoW card got taken over by Macquarie and created a cap of 2500$ a month. Before that I used to push tax and everything else through it. Its getting harder and harder to find a decent VISA/MC ... and added to that I've sort of gone off QFF points for now - haven't used any for ages.

The problem with the 1500$ cap card is that a lot of the things you'd want to use it for will break the cap in a single transaction - council rates for example.

Unlike you, I'm in the strange situation where I have only done two trips of domestic leisure travel in the last 35 years, and my wife and I have decided that we want to do lots more domestic or close-by overseas leisure travel in between our two yearly European travels. So we don't really know how many trips we want to take yet, but there are plenty of places that one or the other of us haven't visited (e.g. my wife has never been to Perth and I've never been to Queensland, and neither have been to New Zealand). If we get the bug, I might run out of points more quickly than I thought - which is why I was looking at this card.

You can never have too many points I always try to maximise earn even if there is no immediately apparent goal. The hoarding mentality can really work when an opportunity arises and you already have a big stash.

 

[Renato1]

Ahh, so chasing the elusive 1p/1$ for utilities/government/insurance, yes, I feel your pain. I've been really feeling this since the WoW card got taken over by Macquarie and created a cap of 2500$ a month. Before that I used to push tax and everything else through it. Its getting harder and harder to find a decent VISA/MC ... and added to that I've sort of gone off QFF points for now - haven't used any for ages.

The problem with the 1500$ cap card is that a lot of the things you'd want to use it for will break the cap in a single transaction - council rates for example.




You can never have too many points I always try to maximise earn even if there is no immediately apparent goal. The hoarding mentality can really work when an opportunity arises and you already have a big stash.

Thanks - I was wondering if my hoarding mentality wasn't overkill, since it isn't immediately obvious what I'd do with the lots of points I'd be saving were I to use the discounts on this card in lieu of using the accumulated points instead.

As you say, a single transaction on say rates or land tax goes way past the monthly cap. I usually ignore the option of quarterly payments and pay the bills in one hit, thus getting them out the way. But one can pay say $1500 in the first quarterly payment, then pay $1500 the next month and so on until the bill is extinguished. And in months where there are no big bills due, prepay the lesser bills which come in - like paying $1500 towards health insurance or water rates - it's not like one is losing heaps of interest doing this nowadays.

That said, I've just tried seeing what happens if I use Bpay from my ANZ Frequent Flyer Visa card - and it warns me that I'll be subject to cash advance charges and interest. So if this Virgin card does the same thing, using Bpay to get the point per dollar on utility bills isn't worthwhile as they'd be very expensive points.
Regards,
Renato

 

[scwappy]

I call up every year to get the fee waived without issue.
The discounted flights can save a lot or a little depending on how you use them. They are not 50% off but quite close and good when sales are not on.
Overall I would not keep the card if the annual fee was not waived, but very happy to have it when it is.

 

[Renato1]

I call up every year to get the fee waived without issue.
The discounted flights can save a lot or a little depending on how you use them. They are not 50% off but quite close and good when sales are not on.
Overall I would not keep the card if the annual fee was not waived, but very happy to have it when it is.

Thanks for your perspective.
Interesting that they don't eventually balk at waiving the fee for you all the time.
Regards,
Renato

 

[kezzakawasaki]

I call up every year to get the fee waived without issue.
The discounted flights can save a lot or a little depending on how you use them. They are not 50% off but quite close and good when sales are not on.
Overall I would not keep the card if the annual fee was not waived, but very happy to have it when it is.

Signed up for this VISA card in Jan 2015 for 20K points and no annual fee, so rang call centre last week to discuss renewal and insisted that I would only renew if they waived the $129 annual fee. Two calls and they would not budge - I had the scissors out but then they threw in 5K Velocity points and a 0% BT offer for 6 months. I always pay my cards in full each month - but we have just made a $5K purchase on another card so I am going to BT it and not use the card until second half of 2016 - putting the $5K in our mortgage offset instead. We'll come out ahead despite paying the $129 fee and when I need to start booking flights for 2017 we can spend again on the card using 2 for 1. We got great use out of this benefit this year booking flights to Hamilton Island and Hobart.

 

[pangwen]

I had mine waived for about 3 years straight. Tried again for the fourth time last month, and they called my bluff and only offered me a 0% 6 month BT. Said something about how the benefits do cost them money and that's what the annual fee is for. Went through and cancelled the card.

 

[Renato1]

Signed up for this VISA card in Jan 2015 for 20K points and no annual fee, so rang call centre last week to discuss renewal and insisted that I would only renew if they waived the $129 annual fee. Two calls and they would not budge - I had the scissors out but then they threw in 5K Velocity points and a 0% BT offer for 6 months. I always pay my cards in full each month - but we have just made a $5K purchase on another card so I am going to BT it and not use the card until second half of 2016 - putting the $5K in our mortgage offset instead. We'll come out ahead despite paying the $129 fee and when I need to start booking flights for 2017 we can spend again on the card using 2 for 1. We got great use out of this benefit this year booking flights to Hamilton Island and Hobart.

Good to see someone with some enthusiasm for this card.
I'll have to ring them up and see what transactions exactly will earn points on this card before making a decision.
Regards,
Renato

 

[Renato1]

I had mine waived for about 3 years straight. Tried again for the fourth time last month, and they called my bluff and only offered me a 0% 6 month BT. Said something about how the benefits do cost them money and that's what the annual fee is for. Went through and cancelled the card.

Yes, the 0% interest balance transfer isn't of much use to people who don't have any balance to transfer.
Cheers,
Renato

 

[Moopere]

I had mine waived for about 3 years straight. Tried again for the fourth time last month, and they called my bluff and only offered me a 0% 6 month BT. Said something about how the benefits do cost them money and that's what the annual fee is for. Went through and cancelled the card.

Yeah .... I don't buy it - I reckon the cards 'benefits' are paid for by the skimming of transaction fees when you actually use it, you know, the 0.5%-3% every time you use it (paid for by merchant). I reckon the annual fees are more generally a physiological trick to get you to commit internally to 'ownership' and to actually use it. If you've paid for something then you'll want to use it - this sort of thing.

 

[Moopere]

Yes, the 0% interest balance transfer isn't of much use to people who don't have any balance to transfer.

Ha!

I can always create a balance worthy of transferring Last time I did this I bought a car....and there is always a roundabout way to use a BT to pay off chunks of your home loan at 0%