Virgin Australia: Velocity status extended

This is no surprise, but very welcome.

Status Extension

Velocity Platinum, Gold and Silver members will get an extension to 28 February 2023 of their current status, regardless of their current number of credits. There is a qualification – your extension will be automatic if you booked a flight under the 2020 Status Reward Program.

If your review date is between 30 September 2021 and 30 April 2022 then you’ll get an 8-month extension on your review date, until at least 1 June 2022.

Bonus Status Credits

Added to that, if you do fly with Virgin Australia in the 6 months commencing 1 October 2021, then you will get double status credits (for Economy) and up to an additional 45% on Business. Those bonuses will be automatic – no need to register or apply.

Even better, you will earn status credits on reward bookings.

These bonuses apply retrospectively to any flights you have already booked for travel after 1 October 2021 – which is fantastic!

International Flights

And wait, there’s more! Virgin is opening redemption bookings for international airline partners soon.

“We’ve already given Velocity members more than 18 months of Status extensions during the course of the pandemic and our announcement today will give members even more certainty that they’ll continue to enjoy the tier benefits they value when flying with Virgin Australia or our international partner airlines well into the future.

Acting Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO, David Marr

This is good news since international redemptions have been unavailable since March 2020 when Virgin Australia went into Administration.

I’d expect the partners to be the same or similar to those before the administration. It will be interesting to see what the redemption rates will be.

More Information

Head over here: https://experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com/member-support/velocity-update/status-extension to get all the fine print in the terms and conditions.

2PAXfly Takeout

This is another timely reminder to wear your seatbelt when seated. Holding you close to your seat will protect you from the sort of injuries sustained on this flight, when unsecured passengers flew to the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came crashing down once the ‘drop’ ceased.

The hope will be that this is an anomaly – a ‘freak accident’ in casual parlance. If it is a systemic error either mechanical or electronic, then this is a larger concern for the airlines that fly Boeing Dreamliner 787 aircraft. Let’s hope it isn’t. If it is, it will pile on the woes to Boeing’s existing stack.

Great news, and a reason to commit, or re-commit your loyalty to Virgin Australia. Of course, everyone would like Virgin to roll out their new benefits sooner, but given the new ownership has been going for less than a year CEO Jayne Hrdlicka is not doing too bad. Pity my review date is outside the parameters since it’s in May 2022.