Last year, I reached Platinum status with Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program for the first time. I’d previously held Velocity Gold status for a while, but I was excited to find out how Platinum status would level-up my flying experience.
Overall, I don’t think there’s a huge difference between Velocity Gold and Platinum status. With Gold status, you already get access to Virgin Australia Lounges and the priority queues at airports. And the benefits of Velocity Platinum status over Gold are especially marginal when flying with partner airlines.
But there are several valuable benefits of Velocity Platinum status that aren’t offered to Gold members, which I do highly value. Although these benefits haven’t been life-changing, they are certainly nice to have.
These are the Velocity Platinum status benefits that I appreciate the most…
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1. Complimentary Economy X seating
Virgin Australia offers five rows of extra legroom seats on most of its Boeing 737-800 aircraft which it sells as “Economy X”. Virgin normally charges between $33 and $90 to choose an Economy X seat, but it’s free for Platinum members.
When flying Economy, I love that I can reserve my favourite seat in row 3, from the time of booking, at no extra cost. (Row 3 probably has more legroom than any other seats on the plane – including Business Class.)
2. Three lounge guests
As a Qantas Platinum member, you can bring up to two guests with you into Qantas domestic Business Lounges who must be flying with Qantas or Jetstar that day.
Virgin Australia doesn’t have dedicated Business Lounges, and in fact, they only have lounges at seven Australian airports. But I do appreciate that you can bring up to three guests with you whenever you visit the lounge – and they don’t necessarily need to be flying that day. This isn’t a benefit I use regularly, but on rare occasions when I do have three guests, I’ve found this very useful.
3. Free Wi-Fi on Virgin Australia flights
Virgin Australia is currently in the process of installing high-speed Wi-Fi across its fleet. This is a paid service, but Business Class passengers and Velocity Platinum members can connect for free.
This will be an even more useful benefit once Virgin completes its Wi-Fi rollout, neutralising one of Qantas’ competitive advantages.
4. Fly Ahead on Economy Choice fares
As a Velocity Gold member, you can already switch to an earlier flight on the day of travel if you’ve booked an Economy Flex ticket. But the majority of the time when I fly with Virgin Australia in Economy, it’s on a Choice ticket.
As a Platinum member, you can access Fly Ahead when travelling on an Economy Choice ticket – in addition to Economy Flex or Reward Seat bookings.
Platinum members can also request to Fly Ahead on the day of travel by calling Virgin Australia. This means they can get a confirmed seat on an earlier flight before travelling to the airport.
5. Etihad First Class Lounge access
The benefits of Velocity Platinum status over Velocity Gold are fairly marginal when flying on partner airlines. But there is an excellent extra perk available for Platinum members when flying with Etihad Airways.
When departing Abu Dhabi, Velocity Platinum members can access Etihad’s superb dedicated First Class Lounge.
Other useful benefits of Velocity Platinum status
One of the other key benefits of Velocity Platinum status is the four annual complimentary Business Class upgrade vouchers.
To be honest, I don’t value this benefit as highly as some of the other Platinum perks because you can normally only use these upgrades on Economy Flex bookings. On the routes I fly the most, such as Canberra-Melbourne, Economy Flex fares are often the same price as Business fares anyway. So, I’d rather just book Business in the first place (and earn more status credits by doing so).
Now that Virgin is allowing Platinum members to use their upgrades on Economy Choice fares – albeit by redeeming two or four upgrade credits, depending on the length of the flight – I might actually be able to get some value from these.
Unfortunately, this is currently only a limited-time offer that expires on 31 March 2024. I hope Virgin Australia will make this a permanent benefit.
Other useful Velocity Platinum perks include:
- Choose between IHG One Rewards Platinum or Hilton Hilton Honors Diamond status
- Access to the Virgin Atlantic Revivals arrival lounge when flying Virgin Atlantic into London Heathrow Airport
- Earn a higher rate of bonus points when flying Virgin Australia, Air Canada, ANA, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines or United
- Free seat selection on Economy Lite fares
- The “guaranteed Economy Reward Seats for a family holiday” benefit can also be used on international flights (Gold members can only use this for domestic bookings)
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Is Velocity Platinum status worth it?
If you fly a lot around Australia on Virgin Australia, then Velocity Platinum status is probably worthwhile. You can get some very useful benefits when flying with Virgin, and you generally get treated pretty well.
If most of your travel is international, then the benefits of Velocity Platinum status become more marginal. You can get most of the same benefits when flying partner airlines as a Gold member. And, to be honest, I find Qantas Platinum status much more valuable for international travel than Velocity Platinum due to Qantas’ Oneworld membership and its dedicated international First Class lounges.
But Velocity Platinum status is also much easier to earn than Qantas Platinum. You only need 1,000 status credits and 8 eligible Virgin Australia sectors to reach Velocity’s Platinum tier. In subsequent years, you only need 800 status credits to renew Platinum status. You can also generally earn Velocity status credits a bit more cheaply than Qantas status credits.
So, over to you… do you see value in Virgin Australia Platinum status? What benefits do you value the most, and would you like Virgin to make any changes to Platinum status? Let us know on the AFF forum!
