There’s just one week to go until Velocity Frequent Flyer will increase the minimum amount of points you’ll need to upgrade on Virgin Australia flights.
This was one of the program changes that Velocity announced last month. Most of those changes will take effect from next year, but the amended upgrade pricing applies to UpgradeMe Points upgrades requested from 18 November 2024.
From this date, Virgin will no longer charge a reduced amount of points if you upgrade to Business Class from Economy Flex fares, compared to Choice fares. Instead, the amount of points needed to upgrade will be the same, regardless of whether you’ve booked an Economy Choice or Flex fare. Virgin’s Economy Lite fares remain ineligible for upgrades.
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Old vs new Velocity UpgradeMe Points pricing
Here are the current UpgradeMe Points costs, as shown on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website:
And these are the new charts that come into effect on 18 November 2024:
As you can see, the only change is that Velocity UpgradeMe Points upgrades from all eligible fare types (i.e. Flex and Choice) will soon cost the higher of the two previous rates.
Virgin just dropped its Economy Flex pricing
This change is actually quite understandable, when you consider that Virgin Australia just lowered its Economy Flex pricing last week. Whereas Economy Flex fares previously cost much more than Economy Choice tickets on many routes, the price difference is now more reasonable.
If you’ve been paying close attention, you may have already noticed that this presents an interesting opportunity!
The lower Economy Flex pricing is already available, but the higher Velocity points upgrade rates only apply if you request your upgrade on or after 18 November 2024. This means you have a limited window to book relatively inexpensive Economy Flex tickets now, and request your upgrade by next Sunday for the lower amount of points.
You don’t necessarily have to fly before 18 November 2024.
Velocity UpgradeMe Points requests can be confirmed instantly, as long as there is Business Reward availability on the flight you wish to upgrade.
An example of an arbitrage opportunity
For example, at the time of writing, you could buy an Economy Flex ticket on the below flight from Brisbane to Apia, Samoa, for travel in March 2025, for $578.43. That’s only $40 more than the Choice fare:
Currently, there’s a Business Reward seat available on this flight…
The distance from Brisbane to Apia is just over 2,400 miles, making this a “Zone 4” route on the Velocity UpgradeMe charts.
If you booked the Economy Flex fare and requested a points upgrade by 17 November, it should be confirmed immediately at a cost of 14,900 Velocity points. But if you requested the upgrade after 18 November, the cost would be 24,000 Velocity points.
No changes to other types of upgrades
Virgin Australia passengers can continue to bid for upgrades as well. There are no changes to the Virgin Australia UpgradeMe Premium Bid system.
Velocity Platinum members can still only use their complimentary upgrades on Economy Flex fares. However, members of Virgin’s new Platinum Plus tier will be able to use them on both Choice and Flex tickets from October 2025.
