How to Gift Qantas or Velocity Status to Someone Else

If you’ve already flown enough over the past year to earn or renew Platinum status with Qantas or Virgin Australia, you may be wondering if it’s worth continuing to earn status credits. The good news is that those extra status credits are not going to waste!

Above the Platinum level, Qantas offers Platinum One status for frequent flyers who manage to earn a whopping 3,600 status credits in a year – with at least three quarters of those from Qantas-marketed flights. All Qantas Frequent Flyer status credits also count towards lifetime Silver, Gold and Platinum status.

Velocity Frequent Flyer also recently introduced Platinum Plus, a tier above Platinum. It also now offers a lifetime status tier called Forever Gold.

Both Qantas and Virgin Australia also have an additional perk for frequent flyers who earn status credits well above the threshold required for Platinum status. If you earn enough status credits, you can gift an elite status membership card to a friend or family member!

That’s a great gift for someone who enjoys travel – and it’s a present that money can’t (easily) buy.

Gifting Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold status

You can achieve Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum status by earning 1,400 status credits during your membership year. To renew Platinum status in subsequent years, you’d need to earn at least 1,200 status credits each year.

In addition, Qantas offers a Platinum Bonus Reward for Platinum members who earn 2,400 status credits during a single membership year.

After achieving a Platinum Bonus Reward, you’ll have 90 days to choose between the following benefits:

• 50,000 bonus Qantas Frequent Flyer points, or
• Gift complimentary Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold status to a friend or family member.

Most AFF members would value Qantas Gold status higher than 50,000 points. So, it would usually make sense to choose the complimentary Gold membership as the Platinum Bonus Reward.

In general, the person you nominate for complimentary Qantas Gold membership will get to enjoy their benefits until the end of their following membership year. You can only give away one Gold membership during each membership year that you earn at least 2,400 status credits.

Gifting Qantas Frequent Flyer Platinum status

If you manage to achieve Qantas Platinum One, one of the benefits of this status tier is the ability to gift a Qantas Platinum membership to a friend or family member. This is in addition to the other benefits of Platinum One status, including access to the VIP Service Team, complimentary extra legroom seating and free lounge invitations to gift to family or friends.

According to section 21.5 of the Qantas Frequent Flyer terms & conditions, the complimentary Platinum membership year will be aligned with that of the Platinum One member.

The nominated Platinum member’s status will be extended if you renew your Platinum One status, unless you have your nominated person removed. You can remove your nominated person’s Platinum membership at any time. But you would need to wait until two months prior to the end of your existing membership year. Also, you must have earned enough status credits to renew Platinum One for another year to nominate a different person.

Gifting Virgin Australia Gold status

Virgin Australia Velocity Platinum members also have the option to gift a companion Gold membership after earning enough surplus status credits.

To earn Velocity Platinum status, you would need to earn at least 1,000 Virgin Australia status credits within a rolling 12-month period. At least 500 of those status credits must be from Virgin Australia marketed or operated flights.

On the date you become a Velocity Platinum member, your membership year will reset and you’ll have 12 months before your next “review date” to renew your Platinum status. This can be done by earning at least 800 status credits, with at least 400 of those from VA flights.

But if you earn at least 1,300 status credits in the following year, with at least 650 from VA flights, you’ll be able to nominate someone for a Velocity “Companion Gold” membership. That’s 500 status credits more than you would need to renew Platinum status in a given year.

Gifting Virgin Australia Platinum status

Since Virgin Australia introduced Platinum Plus status, the ability to gift a Velocity Companion Platinum membership is now a benefit reserved for Platinum Plus flyers.

You can nominate somebody for Companion Gold or Companion Platinum membership any time within 12 months of becoming eligible for this benefit. After doing this, you can’t change the nominated person. Your companion could be any friend or family member, and their status will be valid for 12 months from the date of the upgrade.

If you achieve enough extra status credits in your next Velocity Frequent Flyer membership year as well, you’ll be able to nominate either the same or a different person for another 12 months of Companion Gold or Platinum membership.

As an alternative to nominating your partner for a Companion membership, you may wish to consider using family pooling so that you both earn Gold or Platinum status in your own rights.

Pilot Gold memberships via Virgin Australia Business Flyer

If you own or manage a small-to-medium business, you could also give away two Velocity Pilot Gold memberships through the Virgin Australia Business Flyer program.

This benefit is available when your business spends at least $2,000 on flights within three months of joining Virgin Australia Business Flyer. This entitles you to nominate two Pilot Gold members who’ll get to enjoy the benefits of Velocity Gold status for three months. They’ll also be able to extend their Gold status for another year by completing a small amount of flying on Virgin Australia.