How to Earn Virgin Australia Velocity Status

Virgin Australia Velocity status comes with some great perks when you fly with Virgin and some of its partner airlines.

With Velocity Gold status, for example, you’ll enjoy access to Virgin Australia Lounges (including on arrival), extra baggage allowance, priority check-in, priority boarding, and bonus Velocity points on flights (except on Economy Lite tickets).

In addition, Velocity Platinum members receive complimentary Economy X seating, four complimentary Business Class upgrades each year and the ability to Fly Ahead on most fare types (except Economy Lite).

Virgin Australia also offers guaranteed Economy reward seats to Gold and Platinum Velocity members for an annual family holiday. Plus, you can leverage your Gold or Platinum Virgin status for a one-off complimentary hotel status match with Hilton Honors or IHG One Rewards. That’s in addition to a complimentary status match with the Hertz or Europcar loyalty programs.

All Velocity Frequent Flyer members start out with Red membership. But by earning Velocity status credits and flying eligible sectors you can upgrade to Silver, Gold or Platinum membership. This guide explains how to earn Virgin Australia status…

Earn Velocity status credits by flying

To upgrade to a higher Velocity status tier, you’ll need to earn a minimum number of status credits and fly a minimum number of Virgin Australia flight sectors within any 12-month period:

You can earn status credits when flying with Virgin Australia and most Velocity partner airlines.

However, the minimum 2, 4 or 8 Virgin flight segments you’ll need to qualify for Silver, Gold or Platinum status must be earned on flights marketed by Virgin Australia (i.e. with a “VA” flight number). Note that Virgin Australia Economy Lite fares do not qualify as eligible Velocity sectors.

Status credit earn rates on Virgin Australia flights

The number of status credits you’ll earn for each flight depends on its distance and your fare class. On purely domestic itineraries within Australia, the following earn rates apply, as per the Velocity Frequent Flyer website:

For domestic flights, the status credit earn rate for Economy Lite fares is very low. But by upgrading to an Economy Choice fare, which also includes checked baggage and seat selection, you can earn triple the amount of status credits. The price difference between Economy Lite and Choice is typically only $20, so this is a no-brainer if you’re chasing Virgin Australia status!

Business Class airfares, as you would expect, earn status credits at a significantly higher rate than Economy Class.

The earning tables look slightly different for Virgin Australia international short-haul flights, including trans-Tasman routes and services to Bali or the Pacific Islands:

The following earn rates used to apply to Virgin Australia domestic flights taken as part of an international and/or partner airline itinerary:

Status credit earn rates on partner airlines

Different earn rates apply when travelling on partner airlines. To check which specific fare classes earn at each rate on flights with Virgin Australia’s partner airlines, you can check the charts for each airline on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website.

You can earn status credits when flying on the following Velocity partner airlines:

Ways to earn Velocity status credits without flying

There are also a couple of ways to supplement your Velocity status credits on the ground…

Earning status credits at Coles via Flybuys

Velocity Frequent Flyer partners with Coles’ Flybuys program to offer Velocity status credits on your supermarket shopping. You can earn one Velocity status credit per $100 spent at Coles, Coles Online, Liquorland or First Choice Liquor, up to a maximum 10 status credits per month.

With a maximum of 120 status credits per year available, you won’t earn any meaningful status by shopping at Coles. But this is a handy way to top up your balance.

Earn status credits from credit card offers

From time to time, you can earn bonus Velocity status credits as part of limited-time credit card sign-up promotions. See our list of this month’s best Velocity credit card sign-up offers for current promotions.

For example, until 31 March 2024, you could earn 200 bonus status credits when signing up for a new Velocity points-earning credit card!

You can also earn an extra 100 Velocity status credits by spending at least $50,000 with an Amex Velocity Platinum credit card each year. Plus, you can earn 20% bonus status credits when paying for Virgin Australia flights using a Virgin Money Velocity High Flyer card, up to 100 bonus status credits each year.

How to earn more Velocity status credits

Taking more flights and booking more expensive fares are obvious ways to earn more status credits. Here are a few more specific strategies…

Status runs

If you’re falling short of the status credits needed to reach the next tier, you could consider a status run. This is where you book a trip that maximises the number of status credits earned for the amount spent. Our guide to the best Velocity Frequent Flyer status runs has some specific suggestions.

AFF members also often post great status runs they find on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Family pooling

Family pooling is an extremely handy benefit that makes it easier to earn Virgin Australia status if you have family members that travel. You can use this to pool all of the Velocity points and status credits earned by up to two adults and four children living in the same household into one account.

For example, if you’re a family of five, you could potentially earn 5x status credits into your personal account when you go on a holiday together.

Double status credit offers

Keep an eye out for double status credit offers which come around from time to time. Some are targeted, while others are open to all Velocity members.

The most recent Velocity double status credits offer was in October 2023. There’s also a bonus status credits offer running until the end of March 2024.

Velocity Gold status fast-tracks

It is possible to obtain Gold Velocity status without earning 500 status credits via the Pilot Gold or Discover Gold programs.

If you run a business, you can give away two Pilot Gold memberships by joining Virgin Australia Business Flyer and spending at least $2,000 on flights within the first three months.

Pilot Gold members automatically receive all the benefits of Velocity Gold status for a three-month trial period. This status can be extended for a further 12 months by earning just 80 Velocity status credits and taking at least one Virgin Australia flight during those three months.

From time to time, Velocity Frequent Flyer also runs “Discover Gold” status match promotions targeting Qantas flyers.

As a special promotion until 15 May 2024, you could also get instant Tier 2 membership of Virgin Australia Business Flyer (plus 200,000 bonus Velocity points!) by applying for an American Express Velocity Business card. This comes with a complimentary Velocity Gold membership for one person for 12 months. Conditions apply.

Matt Graham

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 aviation, economics & 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.