Big Velocity Status Changes Coming This Week
Velocity Frequent Flyer will officially launch its new Platinum Plus and Forever Gold status tiers this week. While that may be welcome news, Virgin Australia’s loyalty program is unfortunately also making other changes this week which will make it harder for many people to earn status.
These changes, which will all take effect on Wednesday, 1 October 2025, are the last of the major program changes that Velocity Frequent Flyer announced in October 2024.
The loyalty program already changed the way it awards status credits for Virgin Australia flights on 2 April 2025, shifting to a spend-based system. Now, the rest of the promised changes to Velocity status are coming into effect.
Here’s a summary of what’s changing this week…
New system for earning Velocity status
Until now, to earn or retain Velocity status, you would need to earn a minimum amount of status credits and a certain number of “eligible sectors” on Virgin Australia flights.
The amount of status credits you need to earn Velocity status isn’t changing, but Velocity is axing the “eligible sector” requirement. Instead, Velocity now requires members to earn at least 50% of their required status credits from Virgin Australia operated or marketed flights personally flown by the member.
For most people, this is unfortunately a more onerous requirement.
This means that only up to 50% of your required status credits can come from other activities, such as:
- Family pooling
- Flights on partner airlines (if not booked as a VA codeshare)
- Flybuys
- Eligible Velocity points-earning credit cards
If you currently hold Velocity status, and your next review date is on or after 1 October 2025, your next status renewal will be based on the new criteria. This is something that has been commonly misunderstood.
New Velocity status credit requirements
For clarity, this is the amount of status credits you’d need to earn in a 12-month period to earn or renew Virgin Australia status from 1 October 2025:
| Status tier | Status credits to earn | Status credits to renew |
|---|---|---|
| Silver | 250 (at least 125 on VA flights) | 200 (at least 100 on VA flights) |
| Gold | 500 (at least 250 on VA flights) | 400 (at least 200 on VA flights) |
| Platinum | 1,000 (at least 500 on VA flights) | 800 (at least 400 on VA flights) |
| Platinum Plus | 2,000 (at least 1,500 on VA flights) | 2,000 (at least 1,500 on VA flights) |
Reduced status credits on partner airlines
Having already made status credits earned from Virgin Australia flights spend-based, Velocity is now reducing the status credits you’ll earn when flying on partner airlines. The reductions are generally between around 20-50%, depending on the fare class and distance flown.
The lower earn rates apply to flights flown on or after 1 October 2025, regardless of when you book your flight.
New earn rates on partner marketed and operated flights
This chart shows the number of status credits you would earn when flying on a partner airline up to 30 September 2025:
| One-way Miles (Zone) | Discount Economy | Flexible Economy | Premium Economy | Business/First |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 – 750 (1) | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| 751 – 1,500 (2) | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 |
| 1,501 – 3,000 (3) | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 |
| 3,001 – 5,000 (4) | 30 | 60 | 90 | 120 |
| 5,001 – 8,000 (5) | 40 | 80 | 120 | 160 |
| 8,001+ (6) | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 |
For comparison, this is the new status credit earn table for partner marketed and operated flights from 1 October 2025:
| One-way Miles (Zone) | Discount Economy | Standard Economy | Flexible Economy | Premium Economy | Business /First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – 500 (1) | 5 | 7 | 15 | 20 | 30 |
| 501 – 1,500 (2) | 7 | 10 | 25 | 35 | 50 |
| 1,501 – 2,500 (3) | 10 | 15 | 35 | 50 | 70 |
| 2,501 – 3,500 (4) | 13 | 20 | 45 | 65 | 90 |
| 3,501 – 4,500 (5) | 15 | 22 | 50 | 75 | 100 |
| 4,501 – 6,000 (6) | 18 | 25 | 55 | 80 | 110 |
| 6,001 – 7,500 (7) | 20 | 30 | 65 | 95 | 130 |
| 7,501 – 8,500 (8) | 22 | 32 | 70 | 105 | 140 |
| 8,501+ (9) | 25 | 35 | 80 | 120 | 160 |
New earn rates on VA codeshare flights operated by partner airlines
The reductions are less severe for VA codeshare flights that are marketed by Virgin Australia but operated by a partner airline. And status credits earned from Virgin Australia codeshare flights will at least count towards the 50% VA flight requirement.
Nonetheless, you’ll soon be earning around 10-25% fewer status credits for most flights in this category.
This was the old status credit earning table for Virgin Australia marketed codeshare flights up to 30 September 2025:
| One-way Miles (Zone) | Choice | Flex | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 – 750 (1) | 15 | 20 | 40 |
| 751 – 1,500 (2) | 20 | 30 | 60 |
| 1,501 – 3,000 (3) | 25 | 50 | 80 |
| 3,001 – 5,000 (4) | 35 | 60 | 120 |
| 5,001 – 8,000 (5) | 45 | 80 | 160 |
| 8,001+ (6) | 55 | 100 | 200 |
And this is the new chart for codeshare flights taken from 1 October 2025:
| One-way Miles (Zone) | Choice | Flex | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – 500 (1) | 10 | 15 | 30 |
| 501 – 1,500 (2) | 12 | 25 | 50 |
| 1,501 – 2,500 (3) | 20 | 35 | 70 |
| 2,501 – 3,500 (4) | 25 | 45 | 90 |
| 3,501 – 4,500 (5) | 27 | 50 | 100 |
| 4,501 – 6,000 (6) | 30 | 55 | 110 |
| 6,001 – 7,500 (7) | 35 | 65 | 130 |
| 7,501 – 8,500 (8) | 37 | 70 | 140 |
| 8,501+ (9) | 40 | 80 | 160 |
Introduction of Forever Gold
1 October 2025 marks the launch of Velocity Frequent Flyer’s first ever lifetime status tier, Forever Gold.
To earn Forever Gold, you would need to have at least 12,000 lifetime status credits in your Velocity account. But there’s a catch: at least 9,000 of them must have been earned on Virgin Australia flights you’ve personally flown (i.e. not from family pooling).
If you already meet this criteria, you’ll become a newly minted Forever Gold member as soon as the tier launches! You can check your current progress on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website.
Introduction of Platinum Plus
Virgin Australia’s other new status tier is Platinum Plus – its answer to Qantas’ ultra-exclusive Platinum One tier. This “VIP” tier sits above Platinum, and comes with some new benefits including Fly Later and an enormous checked luggage allowance.
You can read more about the benefits and how to earn it in our guide to Virgin Australia Platinum Plus status.
Several AFF members have already been taking part in a trial of Platinum Plus membership over the past two months. You can read about their experiences on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.
Changes to some status benefits
There are also a few other minor changes to Velocity status that take effect from 1 October 2025:
- The Guaranteed Reward Seat benefit for Velocity Gold members is being removed
- Platinum members will now need to earn at least 650 of the 1,300 status credits required to gift Companion Gold membership from Virgin Australia flights
- Platinum status gifting will be exclusively for Platinum Plus members, and no longer offered to Platinum members who earn 1,800 status credits in a year.
Did Velocity go too far with its program changes?
Many frequent flyers are unhappy with these changes as they make it significantly harder to earn or maintain status with Virgin Australia overall. An overwhelming majority of AFF members who currently hold Velocity status say they won’t retain it, and some have even stopped flying Virgin Australia altogether.
This article by Stephanie Logan sums up the sentiment among the frequent flyer community well.
Admittedly, it was previously too easy to earn status with Virgin Australia. But now, Virgin has swung the needle so far in the other direction that Qantas status has become more attractive to a lot of people. Not only is Qantas status no longer significantly harder to earn, but it comes with better benefits (especially for regular international travellers, due to Qantas’ membership in the Oneworld alliance).
When it launched more than a decade ago, Velocity Frequent Flyer made its status deliberately easier to earn than Qantas status in order to attract rusted-on Qantas flyers with a more competitive loyalty program. Velocity always intended to make changes to its program at some point, so that status wasn’t quite so easy to earn in the longer term. But for many frequent flyers, these changes went too far in the other direction.
On one hand, Virgin probably felt it had too many status members who contributed too little to the airline’s bottom line. Fair enough. The airline’s lounges have often felt crowded lately, so they had to do something about that. But one wonders if offering triple status credits (as Virgin did in May 2024) and giving lounge access through more credit cards might have also played a role in that.
If you’re one of those frequent flyers who doesn’t like these changes, the good news is that there are still ways to enjoy many of the benefits of your Velocity status without actually keeping your Velocity status. This article has a few good suggestions!
