Velocity Frequent Flyer is finally preparing to bring back reward seat redemptions on Virgin Australia international flights, as well as flights operated by partner airlines. These redemption options have been unavailable since April 2020.
While this is welcome news, it’s still unclear when exactly Velocity will reopen international redemption bookings and which partner airlines will be available for Velocity points bookings. There’s also still no word on the resumption of Velocity point transfers to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program.
According to a recent Virgin Australia media release:
Velocity Frequent Flyer is gearing up to re-open international redemption bookings on their partner airlines. It’s anticipated that Velocity members who have accumulated a healthy Points balance during the pandemic, will be able to make redemption bookings directly at the Velocity website on a host of international carriers to be announced soon^^.
But there is a caveat:
^^Plans to open Velocity redemption bookings on partner airlines are subject to Government-imposed international border restrictions lifting and future quarantine requirements.
This announcement implies that Velocity will reopen redemption bookings on partner airlines once the Australian government reopens the country’s international border. But it doesn’t give a specific commitment, nor an exact date when partner airline bookings may reopen.
Will there be changes to Velocity partner airlines?
The announcement also notes that redemption bookings will be available on a range of international airlines “to be announced soon”. Reading between the lines, this means we could expect to see some changes in Virgin’s international partner airline line-up in the near future.
Officially, Virgin Australia currently partners with the following airlines:
As of now, Velocity members can still earn points and status credits with all of these partner airlines. But there could be some changes before Velocity reinstates partner airline redemptions.
Several of these airlines were only originally Virgin Australia partners because those airlines’ owners were also Virgin Australia shareholders. But with Virgin now a privately-listed company owned by Bain Capital (with around a 93% stake), Richard Branson’s Virgin Group (around 5%) and the Queensland government (around 2%), it may no longer make sense for Virgin to retain some partnerships.
Meanwhile, Virgin Australia’s alliance agreements with Delta and Etihad expired last year and were not renewed. ACCC approval for Virgin’s alliance with Singapore Airlines also expires next month.
During the pandemic, Velocity has removed some status benefits for its members when travelling with Delta, Alitalia, Hong Kong Airlines and Hainan Airlines.
At this stage, the only airline that we know for sure will be available for Velocity members to redeem their points with, once borders reopen, is its new partner Air Canada. We know this because Velocity specifically said so earlier this year. But information about other airlines has been lacking so far.
One airline that definitely won’t remain a Velocity partner is Alitalia. That’s because Alitalia will cease to exist as an airline from 15 October 2021.
Why are Velocity partner airline redemptions still suspended?
When Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration on 21 April 2020, its Velocity Frequent Flyer loyalty program (which itself was never in administration) suspended all point redemptions.
Over the following months, it gradually reintroduced the following redemption options:
- Virgin Australia domestic flights (except to Christmas & Cocos/Keeling Islands)
- Virgin Australia domestic flight upgrades
- Hotels
- Car hire
- Velocity Rewards Store purchases, including gift cards
- Wine purchases
But international reward seats, partner airline redemptions and point transfers to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program remain unavailable.
It’s arguably reasonable that Velocity has been blocking redemptions on Virgin Australia international flights, since the airline hasn’t operated any since March 2020. Virgin currently plans to resume international flights initially just with services to Fiji from mid-December 2021. Plans to resume flights to other overseas destinations, such as Queenstown, have been delayed.
But Velocity is one of the only frequent flyer programs in the world to block all partner airline awards throughout the pandemic.
Singapore Airlines did temporarily remove partner airline access to its award inventory in 2020 due to the complexity of Singapore’s border closure and ever-changing transit rules. But this is different to a frequent flyer program preventing its members from redeeming points on all partner airlines indefinitely.
Velocity has blamed the removal of partner airline redemption bookings on “government-imposed international border restrictions”. But there are no government restrictions whatsoever preventing Velocity from selling reward tickets on partner airlines – as Qantas Frequent Flyer and every other frequent flyer program in the world has continued to do throughout the pandemic. This is really a commercial decision by Velocity which limits cash outflow.
Admittedly, most Australians can’t travel overseas at the moment anyway. But some Australians are already planning overseas travel for next year, and they can’t access any reward seats using Velocity points. Velocity also has members in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Samoa who can’t use their points right now for any flights since they can’t travel to Australia.
KrisFlyer conversions
It’s not yet clear whether KrisFlyer transfers will ever return, but at this stage it seems unlikely. A message on the Velocity website still says:
Velocity Frequent Flyer and Singapore KrisFlyer are temporarily suspending conversion of Points and Miles between the two programs.
We’re looking forward to providing you with this program feature once flight schedules return to normal.
This message has not changed since 6 April 2020 and Velocity Frequent Flyer has not given any further updates since then. It would be a real shame if the KrisFlyer partnership doesn’t return as this was a great, unique program feature.
You can still book international Virgin flights using other frequent flyer programs
We’re now in an absurd situation where you can redeem points from other airlines to book Virgin Australia international flights – but not Velocity points!
For example, you could easily redeem Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles now to book a Virgin Australia flight to Fiji…
But the Virgin Australia website won’t let you book this using Velocity points…
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: What is VA doing? (2021 strategy)
