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 or Jetstar flights. All Qantas Frequent Flyer status credits also count towards lifetime Silver, Gold and Platinum status.
Velocity Frequent Flyer doesn’t offer a tier above Platinum status, nor does it have lifetime status. But both Qantas and Virgin Australia do 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 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. (As per the requirements for earning any Qantas Frequent Flyer status level, you’d also need to take at least 4 Qantas or Jetstar flight sectors during the year to be eligible for a Platinum Bonus Reward.)
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
- Nominate a friend or family member for complimentary Qantas Frequent Flyer Gold membership.
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 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 exit row seating and free lounge invitations to gift to family or friends.
According to section 20.5 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 or Platinum status
Virgin Australia Platinum members also have the option to gift a companion Gold or Platinum 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. You must also fly at least 8 eligible Virgin Australia sectors within any rolling 12-month period.
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 and flying at least 8 eligible segments.
But if you earn at least 1,300 status credits in the following year – in other words, 500 status credits more than you actually need to renew Platinum status – you’ll be able to nominate someone for a Velocity Gold membership. This is known as a “Companion Gold” membership.
If you earn a further 500 status credits – or 1,800 status credits in total for the year – your nominated Companion Gold member’s status will turn into a Companion Platinum membership.
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, 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 right.
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.
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