How to Use Velocity’s Complimentary Platinum Upgrades

Velocity Platinum members are entitled to four UpgradeMe Platinum credits per year
Virgin offers four free Business upgrades per year to Platinum Velocity frequent flyers. Photo: Matt Graham.

Virgin Australia offers three main ways to upgrade to Business Class on its flights.

One option is to redeem Velocity Frequent Flyer points for an “UpgradeMe Points” upgrade. A second option is to bid for an upgrade through Virgin’s “UpgradeMe Premium Bid” platform.

If you’re a Velocity Platinum frequent flyer, there’s another option – and it’s free. Up to four times per membership year, Velocity Platinum members can request complimentary upgrades from Economy Flex into Business Class. Virgin calls this “UpgradeMe Platinum”.

This is a unique perk of Velocity Platinum status that Qantas doesn’t offer. It can be good value, but there are a few catches.

This guide explains how Velocity Platinum members can use their complimentary upgrades…

Which Virgin Australia fares are eligible for UpgradeMe Platinum?

If you want to use one of your complimentary Velocity Platinum upgrades, the first thing you need to do is ensure you’re booking the right type of ticket.

Crucially, Virgin Australia only allows UpgradeMe Platinum upgrades from Economy Flex tickets. If you’ve booked an Economy Lite, Choice or Reward ticket, you won’t be able to use one of your Platinum upgrades.

This is not an issue if you’re travelling for work on a Flex fare anyway. However, if you’re paying for your own flights, this does likely mean you’ll need to pay more for your original ticket. (You can reduce this cost with a Virgin Australia discount code or, if you have an account, by booking through the Virgin Australia Business Flyer portal.)

In the past Velocity Frequent Flyer has allowed Platinum members to upgrade from Economy Choice fares, but only during limited-time promotions.

Booking an Economy Flex fare and upgrading to Business can still be worthwhile value on routes like Sydney-Perth:

Comparison of Virgin Australia fares from Sydney to Perth
Comparison of fares from Sydney to Perth on Virgin Australia’s website.

But on some routes, like Melbourne-Canberra, Economy Flex fares may actually be more expensive than Business Class!

Comparison of Virgin Australia fares from Melbourne to Canberra
Comparison of fares from Melbourne to Canberra on the Virgin Australia website.

As a Platinum member you can upgrade yourself, and any other guests travelling with you on the same booking. You cannot upgrade other passengers that are not travelling with you.

Make sure you’re on a Virgin Australia flight

You can use Platinum upgrades on Virgin Australia operated and marketed flights on domestic, trans-Tasman and short-haul international routes (except to/from Christmas and Cocos Islands). In practice, most of Virgin Australia’s current routes fall into these categories including Cairns-Tokyo (which will run until February 2025).

However, you can’t use UpgradeMe Platinum on codeshare flights marketed or operated by partner airlines.

How to check if an upgrade is available

Platinum upgrades are subject to Business Reward availability. So before booking your flight, it’s a good idea to check whether a Business Reward seat is available.

You can do this by checking for reward seats on the Virgin Australia website. If there are enough Business Reward seats available on your flight to cover the number of passengers you want to upgrade, you can instantly get your upgrade confirmed.

For example, a Platinum member could instantly upgrade from Economy Flex to Business on this flight from Brisbane to Apia as a Business Reward seat is available:

This BNE-APW flight on the Virgin Australia website has a Business Reward seat, so you could use your UpgradeMe Platinum benefit
This Virgin Australia flight from Brisbane to Apia has Business Reward availability, so you could immediately get a Platinum upgrade confirmed.

If you have Platinum Velocity status, you can check how many upgrades you have available by logging into your Velocity account. You don’t necessarily have to apply your upgrades to flights that you’ll take during your current membership year.

Upgrading on the day of travel

If there are no Business Reward seats available, it’s unfortunately not possible to waitlist for a Platinum member upgrade. But you still have a chance!

On the day of departure, you can use a Platinum upgrade if there are any empty seats left in Business on your flight. The requirement for Business Reward availability goes out the window on the day of travel. However, full on-board catering may not be assured for last-minute upgrades.

Virgin Australia business class breakfast - fritters with a pastry served on a tray with water
Breakfast in Virgin Australia Business Class. Photo: Matt Graham.

Don’t forget that you can also use Fly Ahead as a Platinum member! If there aren’t any spare Business seats on your booked flight, you might be able to change to an earlier flight that does have a seat – and then use your upgrade on that. 😉

How to request your upgrade

To upgrade your flight, call the Velocity Membership Contact Centre. You can do this any time from when you book, up to two hours prior to departure.

If you’re requesting an upgrade on the day of travel, you can do this at the airport up to 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Simply ask at the Virgin Australia Lounge reception, or at check-in if there’s no Virgin Australia Lounge at the airport you’re flying from.

Virgin Lounge service counter Adelaide
Service desk in the Virgin Australia Lounge in Adelaide. Photo: Matt Graham.

Changing or cancelling your flight

If you need to change your flight or cancel your upgrade request, you can do this without penalty up to 24 hours before departure. However, if you cancel your flight within 24 hours of departure you’ll forfeit your UpgradeMe Platinum credit.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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You have to redeem it before the expiry but you can fly on it at a later time. So you could redeem them on the last day before expiry for a flight booked 12 months later. However you are unable to change/ cancel your flight after the expiry date, if you do you will lose the upgrade.

Reply 1 Like

Yes I used some for future flights one year, an hour before midnight of review date cut-off, as I recall. :D

Reply 2 Likes

They seem quite flexible with them. On a side note, I had already requalified for WP and was upgrading flights with points a few months out and the call centre staff offered to let me book the upgrade as the comp J upgrade in lieu of points as I had already requalifed and my fights were after my anniversary date.

Reply 1 Like

Thanks for the feedback, great to know. Will achieve enough for partner platinum this year so 8 upgrade certificates to use next year (or almost two years) will be very handy.

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When I crunch the numbers on this perk, I have always found that it is cheaper to buy a discount fare then bid for an upgrade to J. Other times, the difference between Freedom and J has been so small that it is worth buying the J to get the SC.
My wife and I are both WP and we have never used this perk.
Thoughts?

Reply 1 Like

When I crunch the numbers on this perk, I have always found that it is cheaper to buy a discount fare then bid for an upgrade to J. Other times, the difference between Freedom and J has been so small that it is worth buying the J to get the SC.
My wife and I are both WP and we have never used this perk.
Thoughts?

I used my 4 this year on MEL-PER flights that were booked relatively last minute and cost around $1k return for freedom fares. They would’ve been around $800 on the ‘cheapest’ fare or $3-4K return for J fares

Reply 2 Likes

The Maximum value a Platinum Upgrade can have domestically is 9900 points.

That's the points cost for the upgrade from 'freedom' for the longest domestic flight.

My 'year' ends in mid May and I recently applied the last of my current ones to a flight in July.

Reply 1 Like

I try to use on BNE-PER or vv. $600 or so for flexi, around $3k for J - so definitely value.
My work travel tends to need a flexible return leg anyway, so the perk is great in this instance.

Reply 2 Likes

G #9

The Maximum value a Platinum Upgrade can have domestically is 9900 points. That's the points cost for the upgrade from 'freedom' for the longest domestic flight.

Don't forget that platinum upgrades can now also be used for short haul international. I will shortly use one on a company booked Freedom fare from POM to BNE. Unfortunately, they booked a Go Plus BNE to POM, but I upgraded that with an UpgradeMe bid of $130.

There are certainly still some very sweet, sweet spots with VA.

Reply Like

However you are unable to change/ cancel your flight after the expiry date, if you do you will lose the upgrade.

Are you sure about changes (as opposed to cancelling)?

I remember asking VA about that once, and they said as long as I was moving the upgrade to another flight (i.e. date change) when I made the change, they could honour the upgrade even if it was after the expiry date. I never had to go through with it though, as I ended up keeping my original dates.

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