Virgin Australia has renewed its focus on attracting business travellers and high-spending corporate flyers with the launch of a new loyalty program for businesses and a new invitation-only “Beyond” status tier.
Virgin Australia Business Flyer
The new Virgin Australia Business Flyer program launched last week, replacing the previous Accelerate loyalty program for small-to-medium businesses. Existing Accelerate members will automatically be transitioned to the new program.
Some of the benefits of Accelerate have been retained, such as two complimentary Velocity Pilot Gold memberships for Virgin Australia Business Flyer members that spend at least $2,000 on flights within 3 months of joining. The program also continues to offer various airfare discounts.
But the revamped loyalty program more closely mirrors the recently refreshed Qantas Business Rewards program, with three membership tiers and the ability for businesses to earn points when their employees fly. The former Accelerate program did not have points or membership levels.
It’s free to join Virgin Australia Business Flyer, and many of the benefits are already available immediately after your application is approved as a Tier 1 member. These include:
- Ability for the business to earn Velocity points whenever a staff member flies with Virgin Australia (in addition to any points earned by the passenger)
- Discounts of 4% off Economy Flex fares and 6% off Business fares
- $20 off Virgin Australia Lounge membership
- Two Pilot Gold memberships after spending $2,000 within the first 3 months of joining
With Velocity Pilot Gold membership, nominated Velocity members receive the benefits of Gold status for three months. They can renew this status for a further year by earning at least 80 status credits and taking at least one Virgin Australia flight within that 3-month trial period.
Velocity points earned by Virgin Australia Business Flyer members through employees’ travel can be transferred to anyone’s Velocity account and redeemed as normal. The earn rate is:
- 1 Velocity point per $1 spent for Tier 1 members,
- 1.5 points per $1 for Tier 2 members, or
- 2 points per $1 for Tier 3 members.
To upgrade to Tier 2 membership of Virgin Australia Business Flyer, businesses need to spend at least $10,000/year on flights. Tier 3 membership is for businesses spending $50,000-$300,000 annually.
Virgin Australia advertises “additional rewards” for businesses that reach Tiers 2 or 3, but it’s not exactly clear what these are.
“Great value and award-winning service is at the heart of Virgin Australia, and we’ve raised the value stakes even higher with the launch of the Virgin Australia Business Flyer rewards program,” Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said.
“We are continuing to provide exceptional service experiences and product offerings at great value prices, and we know that’s important for small to medium-sized businesses and corporates who are emerging from the pandemic more conscious of value provided by their partners than ever before.
“There is no other Australian airline that offers a free rewards program for businesses, lounges in every capital city, three types of domestic seating choices including Business Class, jet services to hundreds of destinations around the country, and all the bells and whistles at such an excellent value-for-money price point.”
This last paragraph appears to be a direct dig at Qantas Business Rewards, which Virgin Australia Business Flyer seems to be largely based on. Qantas Business Rewards charges an $89.50 joining fee, although this is easy to avoid.
Ms Hrdlicka’s claim that her airline offers lounges in every capital city is not accurate though, as Virgin doesn’t operate lounges in Hobart or Darwin. It’s also not accurate that Virgin offers jet services to “hundreds of destinations” in Australia, as it only flies to around 35 Australian airports in total.
New “Virgin Australia Beyond” tier for high flyers
Before COVID-19 and the airline’s voluntary administration, Virgin Australia also offered “The Club” membership on an invitation-only basis to VIPs such as politicians, celebrities, champions of business and high-spending corporate customers. This was Virgin’s equivalent of Qantas “Chairmans Lounge” status. One of the key benefits of membership to “The Club” was access to special lounges at major Australian airports.
The Club is now being replaced with a new status tier called “Virgin Australia Beyond”, which will remain invitation-only. Beyond members will have access to three exclusive airport lounges in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane when they reopen next week.
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