When joining Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program, everyone starts out as a “Red” member. But by earning status credits and eligible sectors, you can upgrade to Silver, Gold or Platinum membership – and enjoy all the extra benefits that come with the higher status tiers.
Velocity Silver status is the next tier above Red membership. It comes with various extra perks when you fly with Virgin Australia and its partner airlines.
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Velocity Silver status benefits
So, what exactly do you get after upgrading to Silver membership with Virgin Australia’s frequent flyer program?
Velocity Silver tier benefits on Virgin Australia
Here’s an overview of the main benefits that Velocity Silver members can use when flying with Virgin Australia:
- One additional checked bag (excluding on Economy Lite tickets)
- Two single-entry Virgin Australia Lounge passes per year
- Earn 50% bonus Velocity points
- Priority check-in for international flights
- Access to seats closer to the front of the plane
- Personalised bag tag
The two complimentary single-entry lounge passes can be used prior to flying on the same day with Virgin Australia and are not transferrable. You can use them for yourself and/or for a guest who is with you and also travelling on the same day.
Velocity Silver members also receive higher priority than Red members at the call centre, and when waitlisting for an upgrade or a seat on a full flight. In addition, Silver members can earn 50% more Velocity points with selected travel partners including Europcar, Hertz, Thrifty, Cover-More and Flexicar.
Full details are available on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website.
Perks for Velocity Silver members on partner airlines
Velocity Silver members can also access a limited range of extra benefits when flying with some of Virgin Australia’s partner airlines including Etihad and Qatar Airways. Here’s a full list:
- Air Canada: 50% bonus points
- Capital Airlines: Priority check-in and 20kg extra baggage allowance
- Etihad Airways: 10% bonus points, priority boarding and 10kg extra baggage allowance
- Hainan Airlines: Priority check-in and 20kg extra baggage allowance
- Hawaiian Airlines: No benefits provided
- Hong Kong Airlines: Priority check-in and 20kg extra baggage allowance
- Qatar Airways: 50% bonus points and priority check-in
- Singapore Airlines: 50% bonus points
- South African Airways: Priority check-in and 23kg extra baggage allowance
- Tianjin Airlines: Priority check-in and 20kg extra baggage allowance
- United Airlines: 50% bonus points
- Virgin Atlantic: Priority check-in (Premium Economy counter)
Beyond the bonus points earned, no additional tier benefits are offered to Velocity Silver members when flying with Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines – although Velocity members can earn points & status credits with these partner airlines.
See the Velocity Frequent Flyer website for more details about partner airline status benefits.
How to earn Silver status with Virgin Australia
To achieve Velocity Silver status, you would need to earn at least 250 status credits and fly at least two eligible Virgin Australia flight sectors within any 12-month period.
Once earned, you’ll get to keep your Silver benefits for at least a year.
Earning status credits
You can earn status credits by flying with Virgin Australia and any of its partner airlines. The number of status credits earned per flight depends on the route length and your ticket type. In general, you can earn more status credits on longer flights and by booking a ticket in a higher cabin class.
For example, the table below shows the number of status credits you can earn for a domestic Virgin Australia flight. As you can see, a Business Class ticket from Sydney to Melbourne earns 11x more status credits than an Economy Lite ticket:
You can also earn status credits if you have a linked Flybuys account by shopping at Coles. Plus, American Express Velocity Platinum cardholders can earn up to 100 status credits per year by spending on the card.
If you have Family Pooling set up on your Velocity Frequent Flyer account, you can also collect the status credits earned by family members.
You can find lots of tips on the easiest ways to accumulate Velocity status credits in our guide to Virgin Australia status runs.
Earning eligible sectors
In addition to earning status credits, you would need to fly at least two eligible sectors on Virgin Australia flights each year in order to attain or maintain your Silver status.
An eligible flight is any Virgin Australia marketed flight (i.e. with a “VA” flight number) that you pay for using money, excluding Economy Lite tickets. In other words, any Economy Choice, Economy Flex or Business Class ticket on Virgin Australia counts. Reward Seat bookings do not qualify as eligible sectors.
Renewing Velocity Silver status
When you earn Velocity Silver status for the first time, Virgin Australia will assign you with a status “review date” 12 months in the future. To renew your Silver status for a further year, you would need to earn at least 200 status credits and fly two eligible flight sectors by your personal review date.
You can read more about the requirements in our guide to earning Velocity Frequent Flyer status.
Is Velocity Silver status worth it?
The answer to this question is subjective and will depend on your personal travel plans and needs.
If you’re already flying enough to achieve Silver status anyway, then of course it makes sense to go for it. You’ll get a couple of lounge passes, extra baggage allowance and various other perks that you may find useful when you fly.
But should you go out of your way to reach Velocity Silver status?
If you’re only a small number of status credits short, or you just need to fly one more eligible sector, then it probably does make sense to reach for Silver status. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to book an unnecessary trip – simply choosing to book a Business Class or Economy Flex fare rather than a cheaper Economy ticket on your next trip could be enough to get you over the line.
But if you’re more than 50 status credits short of Silver, you should think about whether the benefits are really worth chasing. Most of the particularly useful benefits, like unlimited lounge access, only come with Gold or Platinum status. So, it’s probably best to think of Silver as “nice to have” but not worth spending hundreds of extra dollars that you didn’t otherwise need to spend.
If you’re flying enough on Virgin Australia domestic flights to reach Velocity Silver status, but Velocity Gold is still a fair way off, it could definitely make sense to purchase a Virgin Australia Lounge membership for $399 per year.
Upgrading to Velocity Gold status
You can upgrade to Velocity Gold status by earning at least 500 status credits and flying at least four eligible “VA” sectors within any consecutive 12-month period.
Unlike Silver status, it is probably worth going a little bit out of your way to achieve Gold status as that tier comes with substantially more benefits.
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