Velocity Frequent Flyer points will expire if there is no activity in your account for 24 months. This means your Velocity points will be safe as long as you earn or redeem at least one point every two years.
But if your Velocity points do happen to expire, is there anything you can do to get them back?
Getting expired Velocity points back
When Qantas Frequent Flyer points expire, Qantas may offer a formal points reinstatement challenge. Unfortunately, Virgin Australia does not have any such policy.
However, Velocity Frequent Flyer may reinstate your points on compassionate grounds if you have a good “excuse” for letting your Velocity points expire due to inactivity.
In their recent submission to the ACCC draft report onto loyalty schemes, Velocity Frequent Flyer stated:
When considering requests to reinstate expired points, Velocity also takes into consideration a member’s personal circumstances (for example, hardship, illness, family responsibilities or other extenuating circumstances that have impacted their travel and other earn patterns).
This means that Virgin Australia may offer to reinstate members’ points on a case-by-case basis. If you believe that your personal circumstances inhibited your ability to earn and redeem points for more than 24 months, and you can prove this, it could be worth contacting Velocity Frequent Flyer and asking if they are willing to make an exception for you and reinstate your points. The worst they can say is “no”.
On the other hand, it seems unlikely that you’ll get your Velocity points back if you simply forgot about them or were unaware that they would expire.
How to prevent your Velocity points from expiring
If your points are due to expire within 60 days, Virgin Australia will send a dedicated email to the address listed on your account. You can also use a service such as Award Wallet to track your frequent flyer accounts and inform you if points are due to expire soon.
With no formal process to reinstate lost Velocity points, the best practice is clearly to ensure they do not expire in the first place. To do this, you just need to make sure you earn or spend at least one Velocity point every 24 months.
You can earn Velocity points by flying with Virgin Australia, transferring points from Flybuys, shopping on the Velocity eStore or spending with any of Velocity’s many other program partners. Purchasing 1,000 Velocity points from the Virgin Australia website, or redeeming points for the cheapest item on the Velocity rewards store, will also keep your balance alive for another two years.
There is a discussion on this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Does Virgin offer a way to reinstate expired Velocity points?
