Will you still earn/retain Velocity status beyond 2025?

[Flyingwombat]

The food in the VA lounges can be quite good at times, although the menu rarely changes.

Do you drink wine, though?

Give me a nice chilled cider; which Hobart has just stopped stocking :-(

 

[2APlease]

I never thought being United 1Mmiler status would free me from the VA status local game, but it has.

Annoyingly, even though my VA boarding pass shows "partner Gold", I still have to pull out my United app and show my MP status to enter the lounge.

Missed QF Gold this year as had the status points but hadn't flown the minimum 4 sectors on Qantas metal. I wasn't concerned, since as expected, I went OW Sapphire last month in six sectors on JAL in 4 weeks. Two more sectors, so 10 in all by 31Dec. may see me to Emerald this year.

 

[ToffeeDog]

One thing I have to disagree about is the food comment. The food in VA lounges is way better than Qantas Club. Recent trips to Hobart, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane have confirmed that.

I've currently got UA Gold so can get into VA lounges. My partner almost has VA Silver again after family pooling with me and a few trips by themself. But not worth worrying about. I hit VA Platinum ages ago after some SQ business travel but now back down all the way to red.

I just lost my QF Gold so back to LT Silver for me with 2 years of QC banked. I'm not going to renew QC due to the awful overcrowding and horrible food. In Melbourne and Hobart you are better off out in the terminal.

I was excited about VA LT Gold but then saw the requirement for all the flying on VA. Most of my status since 2013 has been in EY and SQ... oh well, I'd fallen out of love with VA a while ago anyway and this just reinforces my lack of affection!

Agree. I'm in Sydney, and the Sydney Qantas Club breakfast fare has never changed. Toasted sandwiches and/or muesli, with OJ. The barista coffee is good.
Melbourne QC is dire, any time of day or night, and no better since the renovation. I prefer VA lounges, but the wine criticism is not wrong.

 

[PERLHR]

As far as I am aware, but no doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong, should QR get what they desire with VA, we have no idea yet what sweeteners that QR may offer VA Platinum and Gold card holders...and maybe in the wider One World spectrum. It's all speculation..

Post automatically merged: Nov 4, 2024

Agree. I'm in Sydney, and the Sydney Qantas Club breakfast fare has never changed. Toasted sandwiches and/or muesli, with OJ. The barista coffee is good.
Melbourne QC is dire, any time of day or night, and no better since the renovation. I prefer VA lounges, but the wine criticism is not wrong.

Although I actually dislike the QF sparking on board and like the Virgin one. Although no doubt I'll.be told it's the same sparking....

 

[Mattg]

Although I actually dislike the QF sparking on board and like the Virgin one. Although no doubt I'll.be told it's the same sparking....

Oh, the wine that VA serves on board in J is fine. It's specifically the lounge wines that are terrible

 

[Sinking Seabourn]

The big difference for me is with Qantas every method possible to finally a few years ago achieve LG, with Virgin (temporarily Gold) it has been cash only. So if/when I use Virgin again as indicated in the article I won't have to wait for ever to be served in their limited lounges! It will also be easier to book the flights we want?

 

[Catweazle]

The issue for me, I fly internationally a lot more now, the new status earn rates mean that I will likely drop from Platinum to Gold, even though I personally spend ~15k PA between VA and its current international partners.
Then let's take into account the loss of Etihad and Singapore to Europe, the appeal and status earn rates drop even further.
Time to look around at other options after my next review date later in 2025 (the cheap wine, baked beans and pastry puffs aren't cutting it anymore).
I agree that they needed to review the ease of earning status, but this has pushed the needle so far in the other direction that it will likely push me to review my options, and perhaps that's not a bad thing.
As pointed out, they have built their new FF model as though they are a full-service airline in an alliance, like QF, that's going to be a very tough sell to a lot of pax.
Heck, they don't even offer a lounge on VA international metal flying in J, yet Jetstar does! Sorry, which one is the mid-market and which one is the budget airline again?

Did someone mention Virgin Blue?

Oh, sorry.

That said, I hate to say it but I'm not completely surprised because it was pretty easy to earn status what with credit cards and double status credit promotions. Like when Accor handed out free platinum status, you don't get all that much in return.

Still, they have a long way to go before they hit what folks here are comparing to a "Jetstar Plus" product. At least I can order pies and toasties down the back on JQ!

 

[Flyingwombat]

Oh, the wine that VA serves on board in J is fine. It's specifically the lounge wines that are terrible

I haven't flown VA J for a while but we did like the Yarra Burn sparkle they had. So much so that I even buy it now for a good everyday bottle of bubbles. Not sure if they still serve that?

 

[Mickeyc747]

As a person who go from earning 80sc to 33.33 per sector I will just let my platinum status die a slow death from 2026. I only ever buy J on VA so status is no loss, the only other value I see is the EY F lounge. Even if I was to buy Y the Platinum Amex charge card gets me into the domestic lounges. As a QFWP1 I can qualify by spending less than $24000 (VA Plat plus) and I get looked after a lot better than VA have ever done.

 

[Dee#]

I'm Gold at the moment and have enough to qualify again for 2025. ( get Flybuys SC's, signed up for a Virgin credit card status credits this year but will cancel it soon, and got those triple credits too). Partner and I family pool to make sure we are both gold.

I fly Perth to Darwin about 6 times a year.( I used to fly more and internationally but the appeal has gone).
This route is even worse than for the rest of you. There is no lounge in Darwin. After covid there have been very few planes with business class on them, and it is more like Jetstar.
Priority check-in at a counter has disappeared, its all machines and label and haul your own luggage.

The only advantage I seem to get now is an extra bag free, get on the plane first and the Perth lounge. So not losing much if I lose gold.
If I were to fly international I would pay business and could shop around airlines and get the perks, lounge etc

Priority check in at a counter has disappeared, its all machines and label your own bags.

No idea how close I am to lifetime gold but would attempt it if close as I have been platinum and gold but only maintained platinum during the covid years with no flying.

So really bad move from Virgin. But may make it even easier to get Velocity seats as the turmoil dies down, provided I use all my points before they disappear.

At least they could have made it 1 status credit for every $10 you spend. Just easier to keep tabs on.

 

[clifford]

Do you drink wine, though?

I must admit I haven't found much difference between the VA lounges and Qantas Clubs in that regard. What am I missing?

 

[RooFlyer]

My wife and I are retired and travel a lot, nearly all international and on lots of different airlines to some out of the way places. We hadn't realised that my wife was getting close to Velocity Gold until they sent her an email that said she was on 394 status credits, just 6 short of gold. However, she only had two eligible sectors and we'd already booked our next couple of flights with points so no more eligible sectors coming. No problem, I thought - a quick trip to Sydney and back. However, the credits are now rapidly disappearing as a lot were from a trip to Egypt and back in October/November last year. So close and yet so far.

Not certain that I am understanding what you have written (especially 'so close and yet so far), but if your wife takes that return trip to Sydney, obtaining the qualifications for gold, nothing that will come into play next year will affect that. And if you weren't consciously aiming to get gold, and it gets more difficult next year, what will change?

 

[Justinf]

I earned gold last year purely on a J Singapore Airlines flight to Tokyo and return via Singapore along with a couple of short domestic hops to make up the sectors.
Doing the same again in January so I doubt I’ll bother.

 

[scottoz99]

I'm sure most people reading this are already familiar with the recent changes announced to Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer program. In particular, from next year:

• You'll earn status credits for Virgin Australia flights based on the amount you spend,
• You'll earn fewer status credits on partner airlines, and
• To earn or retain any status level, you'll need to earn at least half of the required status credits from VA marketed flights you personally fly (i.e. not from family pooling, partner airlines, etc.)

Put simply, this will make Velocity status harder for most people to earn.

I've shared my thoughts about this, and how this has affected my decision on whether to continue renewing my own Velocity status, in this opinion piece:

Opinion: Is Velocity Status Still Worth It After 2025?

Virgin Australia Velocity status will be harder and more expensive to earn from 2025. For some flyers, it might not be worth keeping.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts as well on how these changes will affect you. Feel free to vote in the poll at the top of this thread, and let us know in this thread what you think of the changes to Velocity status.

Great article and sums up my and my partners thoughts. I don't have far to go for QANTAS Gold for life so will focus on that and ditch our Velocity Gold Memberships (earned through 8-10 domestic flights and heaps of SQ fights each year). Going forward we will move more to QANTAS domestic (for the benefits) but continue to use an assortment of carriers internationally where we fly Business Class + with a range of carriers.

 

[Notyourbag]

Oh, the wine that VA serves on board in J is fine. It's specifically the lounge wines that are terrible

The sparkling tatachilla that Virgin serves is $9 a bottle - https://www.winecow.com.au/products/tatachilla-sparkling

Qantas serves The Lois as their house which I believe is around $25.

 

[Trekky1]

I'll be Silver next month finally but staying that will not be good for me. I usually go with the lowest flight cost and that is usually Virgin, I find. That won't change.

 

[QF WP]

My flying with VA has been a significant part of my travel since I first joined in the second wave of status transfers from QF in 2013. Never been below Gold and been comfortably Platinum with Family Pooling from wife and 2 kids.

We have one family trip left (January 2025) with all of us booked in Flexi Y, BNE/CNS/HND/CNE/BNE. Will be great SC's for me (I'm family pooling the 2 kids SC's and points), whilst my wife is collecting her own SC's (and points) so she can maintain Gold.

However, with my daughter turning 18 in March, I'll lose her status credits (and likely she won't fly much with her family on holidays as she's off to University).

A big factor is the $12 per status credit - my business spends $12 to $15K with VA currently (buying Choice fares or higher), so should still make it to Platinum again in 2026. Would love to think I'd achieve PlatPlus one day in the future. Just over half way to Forever Gold.

I'm 130 SC's away from QF LTG and sitting on DSC's for the next 12 months. Will probably make it this year, but I'm finding VA's choice pricing is significantly cheaper than QF (only flown 6 sectors with QF in the past 24 months and I check QF v VA pricing for every trip I do).

 

[Jusrus]

I ticked the same status tier box, but this would rely on Etihad remaining a partner.

The majority of my SC come from AU -> EU return flights in Economy - 4 per year for me, plus 2 family pooled. I then make up the rest via 1-2 EU->USA flights on United or Air Canada, and the required but actually a bit annoying for me 8 Virgin domestic sectors. For this first time ever this year I flew 2 x unnecessary sectors to re-qualify for Plat.

The plus on the changes for me is the loss of 8 sector requirement. The negative is the 50% Virgin marketed flights. The cost of booking via Virgin vs Etihad or Qatar on my next 3 trips is about 50 (or $6k) more. Etihad flights now seem to be pretty much unavailable, and Qatar are more limited than what you can book direct.

Hopefully they'll sort the Virgin marketed flights out and have full availability and closer costing to direct with QR - suspect as many say that Etihad will disappear if QR partnership goes through....

 

[clifford]

Well, as I've said before, in the future I won't be spending any money with VA to earn/retain status. I have 4 domestic flights booked for later this month to secure Platinum until June 2026, and will then be Gold until June 2027 (anything further out is pure guesswork at this stage - the world may end or VA may go the way of Ansett!).

From December this year, the only flying I will be doing with VA will be to use up the 30,0000 remaining Velocity points, and BFOD fares in Lite when required. I don't see any downsite to using Lite fares in the future, and it will likely save me hundreds of $$$.

And I also have my lifetime UA MP Platinum and United Club status (as does my wife), so lounge entry won't be an issue after 2027 (if we're all still here).

The only constant thing is change, so we just have to adapt as we go.

 

[GrahamBRI]

I would suggest answering the question as "what will happen to your status once you can no longer renew it based on the current status earn system?", so in your case beyond February 2027.

I had a similar plan, Virgin Plat, maintain now, soft landing 2026…… 2027 beyond, target Virgin LTG….. got my Virgin statement, crunched the numbers….. cross checked with a Qantas LTG plan….. plan has now changed….. immediate drop of Virgin, full focus on Qantas. These changes have made me abandon a two domestic airline strategy. When I compare the net value, a one airline strategy, is now definitely better. I will still get a Virgin soft landing to gold now, but that is only going too be used for my profile