Velocity Frequent Flyer Program Update

[nlagalle]

changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

just saw this about some "tweaks" to the VA earning tables.. and a drop in inactive accounts to 24 months..

bit of a mixed bag of changes..

Virgin Australia tweaks Velocity Frequent Flyer points scheme - Australian Business Traveller

 

[Velocity Frequent Flyer]

We would like to give you a heads up about some adjustments we are making to the Velocity Frequent Flyer program before we email members later today. The adjustments will come into effect on 1 June 2016.

Points Expiry

We are making some changes to the expiry of Velocity Points.

Firstly, from 1 June 2016 your Velocity Points will not expire provided you earn or redeem Points at least once every 24 months. Previously, the expiry period was 36 months. Any Points earned from eligible activity prior to 1 June 2016 are not affected by this change and will not expire for 36 months.

Secondly, transferring Points between family members or receiving Points from a Family Pooling relationship will no longer be considered eligible activity to prevent your Points expiring. This change will be applied retrospectively. This means, if on 1 June 2016 your only activity within the previous 36 months is Family Pooling or Points transfer between family members, you will be notified that you need to earn or redeem Points before 30 June 2016 in order to prevent your Points expiring.

Despite these changes:

• It is now easier than ever to remain active by earning Points across a broad range of partners including airlines, credit cards, fuel and online shopping. In the past year alone we have welcomed some major partners including BP, HSBC and Le Club AccorHotels.
• We continue to provide members with more time than any other Australian frequent flyer program to keep Points active.

Members can take comfort knowing they will be notified via email at least 30 days prior to their Points expiring, giving them ample time to earn or use their Points and keep their account active.

Reward Seat Pricing

New Reward Seat bookings flying Virgin Australia or our partner airlines, made on or after 1 June 2016, will be subject to revised Points pricing. As part of these revisions some destinations are increasing in price and others are decreasing.

It is important to note that this is the first time in over five years that we have made adjustments to Reward Seat pricing. During this time Virgin Australia has undergone significant changes to become a full service airline, providing all guests with complimentary checked baggage allowance, in-flight entertainment, food and beverages.

We remain committed to continue offering members all of the benefits that make us a world-class program, including our award-winning Reward Seat availability. In addition, the taxes and fees payable when booking a Reward Seat will not be affected by these changes.

For more information on all these changes please refer to our Program Updates. Alternatively, we will be available on here until 5.30pm (AEDT) today to answer any questions you may have.

 

[bullerdude]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Haven't looked through this in detail yet.... but already unhappy given that Etihad is moving to Table 2.

Etihad being in Table 1 was one good reason to hold Velocity points as you could get to Europe for equiv point to Qantas but with less fuel taxes.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Definitely a mixed bag, but pretty happy with SYD-SIN going from 63,112 VFF points (converted to KF miles) to 53,000 VFF points.

With the low taxes, that makes getting to Asia much better.

The VA LAX routes in J only go up by 1000 points so that's not a big deal.

I personally don't love EY, so not too sad about the points rising on those routes. SQ is probably my one true love and there's some improvements there.

Need to run the numbers of the rest of the changes.

What is everyone else thinking?

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

I noticed that a VA award booking for many domestic short haul sectors are increasing, and will be in many instances, just 200 points less than the equivalent QF award booking in terms of the number of points required for redemption.

For example 7800 Velocity points will be required for a MEL > SYD economy sector, whereas Qantas is 8000 Qantas points for the same sector.

I would argue on domestic short haul sector award bookings, Qantas has the edge with a superior product offering.

 

[drewbles]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

I would argue on domestic short haul sector award bookings, Qantas has the edge with a superior product offering.

Still have to disagree when comparing A330 trans-con services at least.

The VA flight has a far superior meal and service for me. I prefer the VA suite to the QF suite (that said, I have a heap of QF suite travel coming up for several reasons).

But back on-topic. I'm glad I burned my VA miles recently for an EY F award. Mind you, availability was always good ex-MEL to AUH in F on the A380 service, so this won't be a bad thing in that regard. The increase of 17,500 does suck.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Still have to disagree when comparing A330 trans-con services at least.

The VA flight has a far superior meal and service for me. I prefer the VA suite to the QF suite (that said, I have a heap of QF suite travel coming up for several reasons).

But back on-topic. I'm glad I burned my VA miles recently for an EY F award. Mind you, availability was always good ex-MEL to AUH in F on the A380 service, so this won't be a bad thing in that regard. The increase of 17,500 does suck.

In this instance I'm talking for an economy award fare though, not business class.

 

[anat0l]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

What is everyone else thinking?

Pretty much summed it all up:

• VA domestic - now only a fraction behind QF
• VA everything else - almost no difference
• EY - going up due to table move
• SQ (and everything else that used the more exxy table) - going down

I noticed that a VA award booking for many domestic short haul sectors are increasing, and will be in many instances, just 200 points less than the equivalent QF award booking in terms of the number of points required for redemption.

For example 7800 Velocity points will be required for a MEL > SYD economy sector, whereas Qantas is 8000 Qantas points for the same sector.

I would argue on domestic short haul sector award bookings, Qantas has the edge with a superior product offering.

If only QF didn't charge fuel (or whatever carrier surcharges) they have on domestic bookings.

(that said, I have a heap of QF suite travel coming up for several reasons)

Only reasons that come to mind:

• The boss/client paid for it
• There was no availability on VA left (unlikely)
• You're burning down a QF balance to try and get rid of it
• You have an onward international connection so you need interline
• VA just recently p***ed you off for some reason

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Pretty much summed it all up:

• VA domestic - now only a fraction behind QF
• VA everything else - almost no difference
• EY - going up due to table move
• SQ (and everything else that used the more exxy table) - going down

If only QF didn't charge fuel (or whatever carrier surcharges) they have on domestic bookings.

It would be nice to see the surcharges reduced further especially considering lower fuel prices, although with the equivalent cash fares on short domestic sectors not so cheap these days ( ie SYD > MEL regularly priced $150 +) since the end of the "capacity war", I'm doubtful surcharges on either airline will be reduced.

 

[rtyuiop]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

For my purposes, that's basically good for SQ and bad for EY, with everything else being a bit random.

Will be interesting to see if the fees/charges for reward seats on SQ go up...

 

[kpc]

Need to look at the award sear adjustment but they are usually never in the passengers' favour!!

 

[Virgin Bart]

Secondly, transferring Points between family members or receiving Points from a Family Pooling relationship will no longer be considered eligible activity to prevent your Points expiring. This change will be applied retrospectively. This means, if on 1 June 2016 your only activity within the previous 36 months is Family Pooling or Points transfer between family members, you will be notified that you need to earn or redeem Points before 30 June 2016 in order to prevent your Points expiring.

Retrospective change to bring forward expiry of points...?! That's an astounding decision.

 

[Virgin Bart]

...It is important to note that this is the first time in over five years that we have made adjustments to Reward Seat pricing. During this time Virgin Australia has undergone significant changes to become a full service airline...

lol.........

 

[get me outta here]

Luckily, I have various VA credit cards to keep them alive. Eg, the AMEX Velocity Red card if fee free and comes with a few points sign on (which I can help with).

 

[tania73]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Is their a sticky on how to do VA-KF conversion, and how good the availability on J/F routes is. As seriously thinking about my next credit card bonuses being VA

 

[RAM]

Changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer? Enhanced...

Not happy JAN!

Perhaps this coincidentally is why there was such a dearth of international award seats available since VFF went BIG into selling the points to the various CC companies such as the 110,000 AMEX VFF offer etc.
View attachment 66315

I wonder how many award seats will come into existence after 1 June?

Now this complicates the moving points out of Citibank before Citi devalues them on March 13th(?). As for the routes that we want - VFF has effectively devalued the points by roughly 20%.

Hope Kris Flyer does not follow suit.

 

[get me outta here]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

OR, burning AA miles due to their impending deval too?

Pretty much summed it all up:

• VA domestic - now only a fraction behind QF
• VA everything else - almost no difference
• EY - going up due to table move
• SQ (and everything else that used the more exxy table) - going down

If only QF didn't charge fuel (or whatever carrier surcharges) they have on domestic bookings.



Only reasons that come to mind:

• The boss/client paid for it
• There was no availability on VA left (unlikely)
• You're burning down a QF balance to try and get rid of it
• You have an onward international connection so you need interline
• VA just recently p***ed you off for some reason

 

[psi999]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Will be interesting to see if the fees/charges for reward seats on SQ go up...

Apparently not..

We remain committed to continue offering members all of the benefits that make us a world-class program, including our award-winning Reward Seat availability*. In addition, the taxes and fees payable when you book a Reward Seat will not be affected by these changes.

Holding a 7 digit VFF balance my heart skipped a beat upon opening AFF this morning. Quick scan of the points table for my intended redemptions I'll be both spending more (EY) and less (SQ). I wont be losing any sleep over a few percentage points on VA international business - all in all about neutral for me.

 

[rtyuiop]

Re: changes to Virgin points redemptions. Simpler and fairer?

Apparently not..

Interesting - well spotted psi999! I guess that reduces the need to transfer points to KF unless you are doing a *A redemption (depending on availability between the two).

 

[eastwest101]

Reads to me like they are after some "points spoilage" - for those whom use family pooling and have children with Velocity points watch out.

Going through the 10 Zones and 3 different classes of Table 1 (Mostly VA domestic and DL flights) there is a theme of short haul economy reward redemptions becoming more expensive and definately all Premium Economy and Business class redemptions all becoming more expensive to redeem. In Table 2 (SQ EY NZ longhaul HA and SA plus others) the theme seems to be some economy class and a lot of business class and first class redemptions will be "cheaper" in point cost. Taxes and fuel surcharges not going up. I think the most relevant number is the only VA domestic redemption totally worthwhile (PER-SYD and PER-MEL J class on a proper A330) is actually going down in points cost so may be good news there.

Seems to be a typical adjustment where QF enhance their own FF program and VA responds by enhancing their own FF program by a similar percentage. I think this combined with the end of capacity expansion and the war over the 65% Line in the sand is confirmation that VA have been instructed that they shouldn't be after QF's market share anymore - VA have been told to make themselves profitable.

Welcome back to the authenticated comapny representative.