When you hold status with Velocity Frequent Flyer, you can enjoy lots of benefits when you fly with Virgin Australia. You’ll also receive selected benefits with many of Virgin’s international partner airlines. But since Virgin Australia is not part of any alliance, the benefits you actually receive vary a lot by partner airline.

If you fly overseas a fair bit, Velocity status can be useful. But you can enjoy reciprocal benefits on a lot more airlines if you have status with an airline in a global alliance. Alliance-based status benefits are also much more consistent.

As it happens, Virgin Australia has five partner airlines that are also part of Star Alliance: Singapore Airlines, United, Air Canada, South African Airways and All Nippon Airways (ANA). If you have status with one of those airlines, you’ll get to enjoy a selection of benefits with both Virgin Australia and across the whole of Star Alliance.

The HSBC Star Alliance credit card trick

There’s also a bit of a hack here, since four of those Star Alliance airlines also participate in the Star Alliance Rewards program. (All Nippon Airways is not one of the participating airlines.)

As an Australian, you can obtain Star Alliance Gold status with any of those four carriers without even leaving the ground. By simply applying for the HSBC Star Alliance credit card and spending at least $4,000 on the card within 90 days, you’ll receive status with your chosen Star Alliance airline until the end of next year. This card even has no annual fee in the first year (usually $450).

To maintain your Star Alliance Gold status in subsequent years, you’d just need to spend at least $60,000 per year on your credit card. No flying required!

Using this method, you don’t just receive all the usual Star Alliance Gold benefits. You can also enjoy many reciprocal benefits when flying Virgin Australia, without needing to earn Velocity status.

Which Star Alliance program should you choose for Virgin Australia perks?

So, which Star Alliance airline should you choose to earn status with? We’ve listed below the benefits you’ll get flying Virgin Australia when you have Star Alliance Gold status with the following airlines…

United MileagePlus

United MileagePlus Premier Gold members are eligible for the following benefits on Virgin Australia operated flights:

• Access to Virgin Australia Lounges
• One additional checked bag (except on Economy Lite tickets)
• Priority check-in
• Priority boarding
• Priority security clearance, where available

If applying for a HSBC Star Alliance credit card by 31 August 2024, there is another rather compelling reason to claim status with United Airlines. For a limited time, if you apply and then choose United as your status airline, you can also earn 20,000 bonus United MileagePlus miles!

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

As a Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Elite Gold member, you can receive the following benefits when flying on Virgin Australia:

• Access to Virgin Australia Lounges (plus one guest who must also be flying Virgin Australia that day)
• Additional checked baggage allowance (one extra bag)
• Priority check-in
• Priority boarding
• Priority baggage

Separately, Velocity Frequent Flyer and KrisFlyer have a unique partnership that allows you to transfer points or miles between both programs.

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada Aeroplan 50K members (equivalent to Star Alliance Gold) can access Virgin Australia lounges when flying with Virgin or Air Canada. They can also bring an additional guest into the lounge.

Unfortunately, there are currently no further status benefits for Aeroplan 50K members travelling on Virgin Australia. This may change in the future.

South African Airways Voyager

South African Airways is the final Star Alliance member airline to both partner with Virgin Australia and the HSBC Star Alliance credit card.

As a SAA Voyager Gold member, you should theoretically receive the same benefits that Velocity Gold members get on South African Airways. But we couldn’t find any specific information about this on the South African Airways website.

We’ve reached out to South African Airways and will update this article if they get back to us.

All Nippon Airways (ANA)

As an ANA Mileage Club Platinum (Star Alliance Gold) member flying Virgin Australia, you would be entitled to:

• Priority check-in
• Additional baggage allowance
• Priority baggage

Unfortunately, ANA Mileage Club members don’t receive access to Virgin Australia lounges. This program also doesn’t participate in Star Alliance Rewards.

Benefits you only get with Velocity status

Virgin Australia does reserve some status benefits exclusively for its Velocity members. For example, only Velocity Gold and Platinum members can take advantage of benefits like:

• Fly Ahead (on selected fare types)
• Complimentary additional carry-on bag
• Guaranteed Economy Reward Seats for an annual family trip on Virgin Australia
• Complimentary Economy X seating (Velocity Platinum only)
• Free Wi-Fi on Virgin Australia flights (Velocity Platinum only)
• Allowance of three guests at Virgin Australia Lounges, who don’t necessarily have to be flying that day (Velocity Platinum only)
• Four annual complimentary upgrades (Velocity Platinum only)
• One-off complimentary status matches with Hilton or IHG, and Hertz or Europcar

Because of this, it might still make sense to focus on the Velocity Frequent Flyer program if most of your flying is domestic. Nonetheless, the Star Alliance status hack is worth considering!

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.