Virgin Australia "Milestone Announcement" June 1, 2023

[aus_flyer]

For those wondering, here's a little bit more information about yesterday's event. It was mainly put on for Velocity's partners and was a celebration of some of Virgin and Velocity's recent successes, as well as the launch of a new Velocity Frequent Flyer logo and brand campaign.

Velocity did tease that there are more announcements to come. This could potentially include some tweaks to Velocity status at the higher end. But we don't yet know exactly when or what they will be.

Changes Coming as Velocity Frequent Flyer Rebrands

Virgin Australia's loyalty program Velocity Frequent Flyer is rebranding with a new logo and a new slogan - and there are more changes on the way.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Thanks AFF Editor (and Matt). It seems odd they didn’t announce the major improvements at the same time. I wonder if they just didn’t get all their ducks in a row in time…

 

[justinbrett]

So let me get this straight - ET spilled the beans about a future media event which turned out to be an announcement about possible future announcements that at present time are still unknown?

And said embargo of June 5th was just nonsense?

 

[kurtislee09]

I still think the announcement might be about lifetime status ...

I really wish that lifetime status AND *A would be the milestone... but I might be just too greedy.

 

[odysseus]

So let me get this straight - ET spilled the beans about a future media event which turned out to be an announcement about possible future announcements that at present time are still unknown?

And said embargo of June 5th was just nonsense?

...Or it was just meant to be a celebration as Matt said, and teased that more announcements are to come... but ET just got overexcited and made out that it was more than that.

Then when corrected, tried to cover everything up ASAP and not say a word to not look more foolish.

 

[HS-TQE]

I really wish that lifetime status AND *A would be the milestone... but I might be just too greedy.

As pointed out Alliance membership would be a VA announcement, not a VFF one.
Plus there is a cost issue (expensive and the long application process), thus likely to be a post-IPO issue for (whoever) joins the ownership register after the IPO.

 

[aus_flyer]

So I’ve been pondering what could Virgin do to really lift their game against Qantas.

Here's an idea... create a Virgin equivalent of Qantas P1... and it comes with Qatar Platinum status.

That way, you get the full benefits of an alliance (via Oneworld Emerald status) and boy oh boy it would drive Qantas crazy because you'd have VA members now with full access to Qantas lounges (when flying QF or a Oneworld airline).

 

[justinbrett]

So I’ve been pondering what could Virgin do to really lift their game against Qantas.

Here's an idea... create a Virgin equivalent of Qantas P1... and it comes with Qatar Platinum status.

That way, you get the full benefits of an alliance (via Oneworld Emerald status) and boy oh boy it would drive Qantas crazy because you'd have VA members now with full access to Qantas lounges (when flying QF or a Oneworld airline).

So your idea of VA “lifting their game against Qantas” is to encourage elite pax to fly with Qantas? Not sure you thought that through.

You could do this now of course. Sign up with Qatar and ditch VA altogether.

 

[pauly7]

So I’ve been pondering what could Virgin do to really lift their game against Qantas.

Assuming they want to.

Virgin mark 2 is a different business to Virgin mark 1.

Different customer target and has a different set of competitors to deal with (+Rex, +Bonza) and the business lost their LCC as well.

So net has to do things very differently.

 

[CaptJCool]

from VAs perspective, they're probably thankful they still exist.

Lazarus with a triple bypass.....

i'm not persuaded that IPO is their best strategy for long term survival, but in terms of founders share-holders, there'd be some driving hope they can waltz away with a handsome capital gain to match their reason for buying the Phoenix from the ashes.

BTW QF shares IPO'd at $2.15 so all these 27 years later $6.68

 

[muppet]

…

BTW QF shares IPO'd at $2.15 so all these 27 years later $6.68

Yep, would have been better off putting it into a high interest bank account. Well… for the investors.

Of course, the returns for QF executives over those 27 years have been phenomenal.

 

[justinbrett]

i'm not persuaded that IPO is their best strategy for long term survival, but in terms of founders share-holders, there'd be some driving hope they can waltz away with a handsome capital gain to match their reason for buying the Phoenix from the ashes.

BTW QF shares IPO'd at $2.15 so all these 27 years later $6.68

Has anyone floated the idea of UA buying VA outright? Rebrand and all? (ie - fly as United domestically in Australia)

They'd have to surrender the international routes (or setup an Australian owned subsidiary) - they could fly trans Tasman and some other routes as 5th Freedom.

There's nothing against foreign ownership of domestic airlines - only Australian based international ones.

Current valuation of VA would be chicken feed for UA.

 

[HS-TQE]

Has anyone floated the idea of UA buying VA outright? Rebrand and all? (ie - fly as United domestically in Australia)

They'd have to surrender the international routes (or setup an Australian owned subsidiary) - they could fly trans Tasman and some other routes as 5th Freedom.

There's nothing against foreign ownership of domestic airlines - only Australian based international ones.

Current valuation of VA would be chicken feed for UA.

I believe the current setup is that VAi is a 'subsidiary' of VAH, which that subsidiary is 51% owned by "Australian Institutional Investors" to access the international rights.

VA 1.0 under the ownership of Singapore Airlines/Etihad/HNA group and Ansett International (a 'subsidiary' of Ansett Australia) under Air New Zealand ownership also used that setup.

In other words it's just 'paperwork' to meet the 51% Australian owned requirement for international rights.

UA (or QR) for that matter can buy VAH, but they would only be able to acquire the 49% of VAi.

 

[aus_flyer]

So your idea of VA “lifting their game against Qantas” is to encourage elite pax to fly with Qantas? Not sure you thought that through.

No, it's about giving people access to an international alliance. I'd take it up. Get Oneworld Emerald status and fly OW airlines internationally (enjoy lounges, etc) and fly VA domestically.

 

[HS-TQE]

No, it's about giving people access to an international alliance. I'd take it up. Get Oneworld Emerald status and fly OW airlines internationally (enjoy lounges, etc) and fly VA domestically.

There is already indirect access to Star Alliance for VA/VFF members via the Velocity to Singapore Krisflyer transfer program. Sure it's not 1:1 but it does gain indirect access to Star via transfer.

 

[aus_flyer]

There is already indirect access to Star Alliance for VA/VFF members via the Velocity to Singapore Krisflyer transfer program. Sure it's not 1:1 but it does gain indirect access to Star via transfer.

Doesn't come with status

 

[justinbrett]

No, it's about giving people access to an international alliance. I'd take it up. Get Oneworld Emerald status and fly OW airlines internationally (enjoy lounges, etc) and fly VA domestically.

Of course you'd take it up, you get the best of both worlds. But it's not good for VA, as they'd lose pax to QF (and others). With the exception of QR oneworld are competitors to most of VA's partners, particularly AA/AS vs UA (and a lesser extent AC/HA), JL vs NH, BA vs VS, CX vs HX - I could go on.

Never going to happen.

 

[Saab34]

United get enough out of Virgin in the current deal, they don’t need to buy them.

Qatar is the one generally out buying everyone else.

 

[jase05]

United get enough out of Virgin in the current deal, they don’t need to buy them.

Qatar is the one generally out buying everyone else.

i could live with that

 

[oz_mark]

So I’ve been pondering what could Virgin do to really lift their game against Qantas.

Here's an idea... create a Virgin equivalent of Qantas P1... and it comes with Qatar Platinum status.

That way, you get the full benefits of an alliance (via Oneworld Emerald status) and boy oh boy it would drive Qantas crazy because you'd have VA members now with full access to Qantas lounges (when flying QF or a Oneworld airline).

I wonder what QR would think of that idea.

 

[justinbrett]

United get enough out of Virgin in the current deal, they don’t need to buy them.

That’s what Delta said!