In December 2020, Velocity Frequent Flyer launched a great promotion offering a status extension until 31 March 2022 to existing Gold or Platinum members who booked a Virgin Australia flight by 28 March 2021.
Virgin Australia has now extended the status extension for all Velocity members who were eligible for this offer until 30 September 2022. In other words, eligible Velocity members are now being given an extra six months of complimentary status – or up to 18 months in total. That’s in addition to the previous 12-month status extension announced in March 2020.
Eligible Velocity Gold and Platinum members should have received an email on 1 April 2021 with details about this offer, which said:
We are pleased to let you know that your Gold/Platinum membership has been extended.
Because you booked your first flight back with us, we wanted to show our gratitude by providing you with an extended Platinum membership of 18 months from today, 1 April 2021. That’s a further 6 months than we promised.
Your extension will be provided in two parts. Initially, your extension will be until 31 March 2022 and you can see this now in your My Velocity account and Velocity App. Later this year, we’ll apply the remaining six month extension to your account so that your new review date will be 30 September 2022. We’ll let you know once this has been done.
This gift has been welcomed by most Velocity Gold and Platinum members who booked an eligible Virgin flight…
Extremely welcome news, it will certainly force me to reconsider my resignation to losing Platinum status. Appreciative of this further gesture.
– Must…Fly!, 1 April 2021
But there has also been some confusion among AFF members.
The whole thing is getting confusing. I’ve sent them an email. It’s one thing to keep extending, but if you book flights in advance that means they aren’t going to assist maintaining status as status credits and number of flights are only good for 1 year.
– Bagpuss, 1 April 2021
Velocity members who were eligible for the complimentary status extension now have a new “review date” of 31 March 2022. But at the end of September 2021, this will be reset to 30 September 2022.
Under the Velocity Frequent Flyer program, only status credits earned within the previous 12 months count towards status renewal. This means that ultimately, any Velocity status credits earned by a member who took advantage of this offer between now and September 2021 will not count towards status re-qualification beyond September 2022.
So with 18month extension from now, there’s not much point in taking a VA flight next 6 months in terms of retaining / upgrading tier, as it doesn’t count. Of course unless you manage to get the upgradable amount of SC’s in a12month window (unlikely in this climate) unless of course if you have to fly.
I understand the SC last 12 months, see little silly in this 18month scenario with next to no incentive to fly before Sept 2021.
– MooTime, 1 April 2021
Velocity Gold members still have an opportunity to upgrade to Platinum status if they earn enough status credits during the next year. But, as Velocity Frequent Flyer does not have lifetime status tiers or rewards, there is now very little incentive for current Platinum members to earn more Velocity status credits during the next six months.
Velocity Frequent Flyer has confirmed that status credits earned during the next six months won’t be rolled over, but Gold & Platinum members who fly with Virgin Australia until 30 May 2021 will continue to be eligible for other status rewards including 5,000 bonus points, Economy X upgrades for Gold members and the opportunity for Platinum members use their complimentary Business class upgrades when booked on any fare type. Now that Virgin has relaunched its Business Class menu and service, this could now be quite worthwhile.
Another AFF member said that, because they qualified for the Virgin status extension offer, their review date has now been changed to March 2022. But they had already qualified to extend their status until the end of 2022.
Yes, I had already had status extended with an expiry date of late 2022… then I received this email with “special privilege” of having my expiry date moved forward to March 2022.
My Velocity app shows the new earlier expiry of Mar 2022. Luckily my Apple Wallet velocity card still shows the late 2022 expiry. Time to email them I think.
– SheikYerbouti, 8 April 2021
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: VA to Extend status for Some until 30th September 2022
Qantas status extensions & status credit rollovers
Qantas is similarly offering many of its existing frequent flyers a 12-month status extension. This is available to Qantas Silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One members with membership years ending between March & December 2021 who book at least one new Qantas flight by the end of their membership year, for travel by the end of 2021.
Under the Qantas Frequent Flyer offer, those with membership years ending in January or February will miss out on this second 12-month status extension. But unlike Virgin Australia, Qantas has also extended this offer to Silver members.
Qantas is also offering to roll over a limited number of status credits earned in the current membership year by members who receive the automatic 12-month status extension into their next membership year. That way, there is still an incentive for Qantas Frequent Flyer members to continue earning status credits even if their status will be automatically extended at the end of their current membership year.
Eligible Qantas Frequent Flyers with membership years ending in March 2021 have already received their status extensions and rollovers. However, there have been some issues with the implementation of these offers.
Qantas appears to have initially rolled over too many status credits into some accounts in early April, although this error has since been reversed.
And other members who should have qualified for a status extension, for example, because they had flown an eligible Jetstar flight within New Zealand, have not had this automatically come through.
FYI there seems to a problem with status extensions for some people. I booked a JQ NZ fare that is points earning in Feb (i.e. before 31 March). My Plat status was not extended and dropped to Gold. Been a nightmare to get hold of QF FF but they told me there’s a problem with JQ bookings not working properly with the algorithm and lots of people who used a JQ booking for status extension are in a similar boat. It’s an IT issue and we won’t be put back to Plat till late April or early May. They won’t confirm in writing but they verbally assured status will still be extended.
– NZ_Flyer, 8 April 2021
Presumably, these are all just teething problems which will be resolved before the next round of Qantas status extensions & rollovers at the end of this month.
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Book a flight and Extend Current status to 2022
