ANZ Rewards members should be able to transfer their points to Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program again “in the not-too-distant future”. But ANZ hasn’t yet committed to an exact date for Velocity point redemptions to resume.
ANZ, alongside all other Australian banks, suspended point transfers from its credit card loyalty program to Velocity Frequent Flyer after Velocity’s parent company, Virgin Australia, entered voluntary administration on 21 April 2020.
At the time, that was perfectly understandable as Velocity Frequent Flyer had paused all redemptions of points after entering administration. But over the following months, as Velocity gradually brought back most redemption options, all of Australia’s credit card reward programs resumed allowing their members to transfer points to Velocity.
American Express Membership Rewards was the first credit card loyalty program to do so in May 2020, alongside Flybuys, after Velocity reinstated some domestic flight redemptions. Most other banks had reinstated transfers to Velocity by around October, and Virgin Australia exited voluntary administration in November 2020.
But as of March 2021, ANZ Rewards is still pausing Velocity Frequent Flyer redemptions. ANZ and HSBC are the only banks in Australia that haven’t yet reinstated this option for their credit card members.
Normally, ANZ Rewards points can be converted at a 2:1 rate to Velocity points, with a minimum of 2,000 ANZ Rewards points per transfer.
Most (but not all) Velocity Frequent Flyer redemptions have resumed
The outlook for Velocity Frequent Flyer is now a lot different to April 2020. Velocity Frequent Flyer members can once again redeem points on all Virgin Australia domestic routes (except flights from Perth to Christmas Island & Cocos Keeling Islands). Velocity points can also now be redeemed for Virgin Australia domestic flight upgrades, hotel & car hire bookings, wine, merchandise and gift cards from the Velocity Rewards Store.
Unfortunately, some key Velocity Frequent Flyer redemptions do remain unavailable. It’s still not yet possible to redeem Velocity points for international Virgin Australia flights, nor flights on any of Virgin Australia’s partner airlines. That’s disappointing.
Virgin has also not yet reinstated the ability to convert Velocity points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. This was a very popular option for frequent flyers in the past, so it would be great to see it return. But ANZ Rewards members can still transfer their points directly to KrisFlyer if they wish.
Nonetheless, as long as ANZ Rewards members (or HSBC Rewards Plus members, for that matter) are aware of these limitations before transferring their points to Velocity, there’s no reason they still shouldn’t be allowed to do so in March 2021. Velocity points are still useful for some people.
What does ANZ Bank say?
An ANZ spokesman told Australian Frequent Flyer that ANZ is “currently in negotiations with Virgin to reinstate the ability of members to transfer points to Velocity Frequent Flyer.”
“While it would be inappropriate to comment further, we hope to reach a successful outcome in the not-too-distant future,” the ANZ spokesman said.
“We will update our customers as soon as there are any changes,” the spokesman added.
After almost 11 months already, hopefully ANZ Rewards members won’t have to wait too much longer.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Any news on if/when ANZ will reinstate Velocity transfers?
