One Year On: Is Velocity Platinum Plus Living Up to the Hype?

A year has now passed since October 2025 when Virgin Australia first launched Platinum Plus, its new top Velocity status tier that sits above Platinum.

To earn Velocity Platinum Plus, you’d need to earn double the amount of status credits compared to Platinum status. And crucially, at least 75% of those status credits need to come from Virgin Australia flights (instead of the usual 50% requirement).

In return for spending all that money with Virgin Australia, the airline promises extra perks and “the highest priority recognition when booking and flying”.

So, a year on, is Velocity’s new top status tier living up to the hype?

What AFF members have to say

As you might expect, there has been plenty of discussion about Platinum Plus on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum. Unfortunately, the overall consensus among the AFF community is that this tier isn’t worth it.

Here’s what a few AFF members have had to say in recent months:

So … I’m just about to conclude a year of Platinum Plus status and can unambiguously say that the benefits compared to Platinum are a joke.

ferntree on the AFF forum

As a relatively senior flyer, this tier makes no sense to me. If VA were serious, they would include the BEYOND lounge – they haven’t, which indicates they want high-cost entry for low-cost offerings. No cigar, or even consideration for a special section of the existing lounges with upgraded food and drinks like QF offers in its AKL lounges.

sprucegoose on the AFF forum

Compared to Qantas Platinum 1, the Platinum Plus program is really a joke. Platinum 1 release seats all time – Virgin, cant even ask. Platinum Upgrades are again useless as they have decreased flights and never have business seats for upgrade. Even trying to buy business with the reduced schedule is hard. sometimes with no seats even for sale a week out.

The only think I think they could do would be to allow Beyond lounge membership for platinum plus (maybe at 2,500 status credits or something – at present there is no incentive once you have lifetime gold and have qualified for platinum plus). I will still have Platinum Plus due to amount of flying but Virgin gets about 25% of my domestic flying and my strong preference is now Qantas – better lounges, better treatment, larger network, international flights, more seats released, more flights and fly forward / same day changes that actually available (which is never available with Virgin business as they grant all the $50 upgrades the night before so no seats are for sale on the day).

AUFlyer on the AFF forum

Earlier this week MEL-SYD. No recognition, no water bottle or chocolate. Flew Qatar in Qsuites MNL-DOH-LHR, bags were checked VIP, boarding pass said Velocity VP but the purser mentioned that they cannot see VA status at all on QR flights and I was showing as no status to him. Another wonderful partnership.

Luke B on the AFF forum

A limited array of benefits?

Platinum Plus comes with numerous published benefits over and above what Platinum members get. These include priority phone service, a higher checked baggage allowance, the ability to use complimentary upgrades on Economy Choice fares, Fly Later and companion Platinum membership.

But the reality is, these benefits aren’t at all in the same league as the benefits of Qantas Platinum One status.

Even some of the benefits that Virgin does promise have limitations.

Fly Later, for example, is nice in theory. But it’s not really that useful for customers booked in Business Class because Virgin tends to fill all its empty Business seats the day before the flight with cheap upgrade bids. This means, on the day of departure, that there are often no other earlier or later flights to change to with any available Business seats.

The promised “access to exclusive events and offers throughout the year” has primarily amounted to some free movie tickets and bonus Velocity Points.

And there has been lots of feedback on the AFF forum about inconsistent Platinum Plus recognition when flying on partner airlines such as Singapore Airlines or Air New Zealand.

What happened to the “Australian-based VIP phone service”?

When it first launched Platinum Plus, Virgin advertised access to an “Australian-based VIP phone service”. It no longer advertises this, instead promising access to a “Priority Phone Service team” which we understand includes around a dozen agents in the Philippines. Anecdotally, these agents primarily handle upgrade requests while an Australia-based team still handles other enquiries.

Australian Frequent Flyer asked Virgin Australia about this a few months ago, after numerous members commented on our forum that their calls to the VIP phone service line were no longer being answered in Australia. A Virgin Australia spokesperson provided this response:

Velocity’s Platinum Plus tier was introduced in 2025 to recognise Velocity’s most loyal members and offers a dedicated Australian-based Priority Phone Service, available seven days a week. Outside of the Priority Phone Service operating hours, or depending on the nature of the enquiry, Platinum Plus members may be supported by additional customer service teams, including some based overseas. This service model has remained unchanged since the tier was introduced.

Extra unpublished perks quietly removed

Although these were never officially advertised as ongoing Platinum Plus benefits, some members did notice a few extra, unpublished perks when the tier first launched. These included:

• The ability to use the 4 annual complimentary upgrades on flights with no Business Reward availability, at any time, as long as there were still at least 3 Business seats left for sale
• Waived Reward Seat change & cancellation fees

Virgin removed both of those benefits in June. The possibility to use complimentary upgrades on flights without Business Reward availability is still there, but only for flights leaving within the next 7 days.

One Platinum Plus member emailed Velocity to express their disappointment with the removal of these perks. The numerous responses they received from Virgin appeared to be largely AI-generated, which only annoyed this person even more.

After reading those forum posts, I asked Virgin if it was using AI to respond to customer complaints. The airline assured me that guest interactions continue to be handled by people. But recent customer service responses from Virgin such as this sloppy one advising a customer to contact their airline (um, that’s exactly what they just did?) make me wonder if those people might perhaps be overusing AI when writing their replies.

What benefits could Virgin realistically add to its Platinum Plus tier?

A month after it launched, I suggested 10 ways that Virgin could improve the benefits of its Platinum Plus tier.

Virgin has since empowered its cabin crew to better recognise Platinum Plus members flying Economy by offering them a free bottle of water and chocolate. Platinum Plus members report that this happens inconsistently, but at least it’s something.

The rest of my suggestions from last year still stand.

I think a key area for improvement is with airport lounges. Platinum Plus members do get access to a nicer Singapore Airlines lounge in Singapore, but they don’t get access to any lounge when flying Virgin overseas.

Many have suggested that Virgin could offer Beyond Lounge invitations to Platinum Plus members. That would be a welcomed perk. But if Virgin doesn’t want to do this, perhaps the airline could instead consider offering a differentiated level of service to its best customers within its regular lounges. For example, perhaps Platinum Plus members could get access to a better drink menu within the Virgin Australia Lounge.

Does Virgin actually want to improve its Platinum Plus offering?

So, what are the chances that Virgin will take the feedback from frequent flyers on board and actually improve things for Platinum Plus members?

This is pure speculation on my part, but based on the current trend we’re seeing, I don’t think there’s much chance of that in the short term. Anecdotally, I’ve heard that Velocity actually has a lot more Platinum Plus members now than they originally expected.

In some ways, that’s a good problem to have. But I suspect this also might be a key reason why the airline has been quietly trying to water down the benefits. Perhaps it feels the cost of servicing all those Platinum Plus members has become too high, especially when Virgin’s largest shareholder Bain Capital is so intensely focused on minimising costs.

With loyalty, though, sometimes you have to spend a little to get a lot back. Making your highest-spending customers feel genuinely valued can have an enormous revenue upside in the long term. But the potential for future revenue is harder to measure than costs incurred today, so it often gets overlooked by bean counters. I’ve noticed a similar trend in the hotel industry lately.

Join the discussion on the AFF forum

One year in, what do you make of Virgin’s Platinum Plus tier? You can join the lively discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: