Virgin Australia is giving its Platinum frequent flyers more time to use their complimentary Business Class upgrades when booked on an Economy Choice ticket, with this offer now extended until June 2022.

Velocity Frequent Flyer Platinum members receive four annual complimentary upgrades. These can be used on any Virgin Australia domestic or short-haul international flight, subject to availability, and can be used by the member or anyone travelling with them on the same flight. But they are normally only available when booking an Economy Flex airfare.

Why is Virgin allowing Platinum members to use complimentary upgrades on Choice fares?

Of course, this is a nice thing for Velocity Platinum members. But that’s likely not the only reason Virgin is allowing its frequent flyers to use their upgrades on cheaper tickets…

Virgin Australia offers three types of Economy fares – Lite, Choice and Flex – with Flex obviously being the most expensive.

Normally, there is a significant price difference between Economy and Business Class. But over recent months, Virgin Australia’s Business Class airfares have been very low – especially on routes like Melbourne-Adelaide, Melbourne-Sydney or Sydney-Brisbane where Virgin is competing directly with Rex. In fact, in some cases, Virgin’s Economy Flex fares are currently the same price or even cheaper than a Business Class ticket.

Where this is the case, there is clearly no value in buying an Economy Flex ticket in order to redeem a free upgrade using Velocity’s UpgradeMe Platinum Member Offer. (Instead you could just book Business for the same price, enjoy the greater flexibility & higher status credit haul that comes with that, and save the upgrade voucher for another time.)

The ability for Velocity Platinum members to upgrade on the cheaper Economy Choice tickets is an acknowledgement of this.

Offer extended

This offer for Velocity Platinum members was previously due to expire at the end of this month. But Velocity Frequent Flyer has now extended it for a further five months until 30 June 2022. To use your free upgrades on an Economy Choice ticket, you would just need to book and travel by the end of June 2022.

Customers who booked before 18 August 2021 can also upgrade from Economy Getaway or Freedom fares during this promotion if travelling by June 2022.

At this stage, Velocity will revert to only allowing Platinum members to claim their four free upgrades on Economy Flex tickets from July 2022. But if there continues to be minimal difference in the cost of Economy Flex & Business airfares, the airline may need to reconsider again.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Platinum upgrades on Choice and Elevate Fares – now to June 2022

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 economics, aviation & 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.