Virgin Australia will regain full ownership of its Velocity Frequent Flyer loyalty program after selling a 35% stake to Affinity Equity Partners in 2014. Virgin will pay $700 million to buy back the stake in its profitable Velocity loyalty program – around double what Affinity paid for it five years ago. Virgin Australia yesterday confirmed … Continued
The Virgin Australia Group has posted a $315.4 million loss for the 2018-19 financial year. It’s the airline’s seventh consecutive full-year loss. Virgin Australia’s international operations and low-cost subsidiary Tigerair are particularly struggling. Virgin Australia lost $75 million on its international operations last financial year, following the end of its trans-Tasman alliance with Air New … Continued
There are three main aircraft types in the Virgin Australia fleet; the Boeing 737-800, Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777-300ER. The Economy and Business class seats on each of these plane types are quite different. For example, Virgin Australia’s Business class seats range from recliners to lie-flat beds. On the Boeing 777-300ER, which is used for … Continued
Virgin Australia will bring back its seasonal flights from Newcastle to Auckland, despite filling just 54% of seats on the route last summer. In fact, Virgin Australia has announced a three-year deal with Newcastle Airport that will see the seasonal route running each summer until at least 2022. Virgin ran direct flights between Newcastle and … Continued
Velocity Frequent Flyer has launched a new points-earning partnership with ride-sharing service Ola. To celebrate, they’re giving away 1,000 free Ola rides to Australian airports tomorrow! Velocity members can earn 1 point per dollar on any Ola ride. This earn rate increases to 2 Velocity points per dollar when travelling to or from airports in … Continued
Delta has re-jigged the fare classes used for its Comfort+ and Premium Select cabins, resulting in changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer earning. Delta is now using both “W” and “S” fare classes for its domestic Comfort+ product. The “S” class was previously used for Discount Economy tickets, causing some concern that the change would result in … Continued
IN BRIEF | Velocity Frequent Flyer will ends its restaurant booking partnership with OpenTable from 20 July 2019. Currently, it is possible to earn 300 Velocity points for every restaurant table booked on the OpenTable platform. These points are earned for each honoured restaurant booking with any of the hundreds of participating restaurants in Australia. … Continued
Virgin Australia passengers will notice something new in their seat pockets from this month. The airline has relaunched its in-flight magazine, with the old Voyeur magazine becoming the “Virgin Australia Magazine”. The airline’s new in-flight magazine has fewer pages and is lighter than its predecessor, allowing the airline to reduce its fuel consumption. This allows … Continued
Virgin Australia’s long-haul network is in disarray after one of the airline’s Boeing 777s was taken out of service nearly two weeks ago. As a result, multiple Virgin Australia flights between Australia and Los Angeles have been cancelled or rescheduled over the past weeks. The affected aircraft is still undergoing maintenance. Virgin Australia has just … Continued
Velocity Frequent Flyer could launch lifetime Velocity status, following the announcement that Qantas will introduce a lifetime Platinum status tier. Qantas announced last Thursday some significant changes to its frequent flyer program, including changes to frequent flyer redemptions and the introduction of a Points Club. As Qantas Frequent Flyer’s main competitor in Australia, Virgin’s Velocity … Continued
Virgin Australia and UK-based Virgin Atlantic have applied for regulatory approval to coordinate services between Australia and the UK. The expanded Virgin Atlantic partnership would allow the two airlines to offer a more seamless experience to passengers flying to London through better schedules, easier connections and enhanced frequent flyer benefits. Virgin Australia does not fly … Continued
Westpac has launched a new Altitude Velocity rewards program which comes with direct earning of Velocity points and complimentary Economy X upgrades on Virgin Australia flights. Westpac customers can now choose to opt-in to earning either Qantas points, Velocity points or Altitude Rewards points with their credit card. As part of the changes, Westpac is … Continued
