Velocity Frequent Flyer will soon award status credits for Virgin Australia flights based on spend. The program will also reduce the amount of status credits earned on partner airlines.
At the same time, Velocity will soon require members to earn at least 50% of the status credits they need to earn or retain their status tier from Virgin Australia marketed flights. This is in lieu of the current eligible Velocity sector requirement, which will be removed.
There are no changes to the number of status credits needed to earn or retain status with Virgin Australia’s frequent flyer program. There are also no changes to the way review dates are calculated.
Overall, these changes are likely to make it harder to earn status with Virgin Australia. As a result, some members will be worse off. But the changes could benefit people who fly a lot on Virgin Australia and typically purchase more expensive tickets.
Velocity Frequent Flyer has given plenty of notice of these upcoming changes. Most of these changes won’t take effect until October 2025.
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Changes to Velocity status credit earn rates on Virgin Australia flights
Currently, Velocity members earn status credits based on the distance of the flight and the fare category.
Velocity publishes the number of status credits earned per flight sector on its website. For example, this is the current earning chart for Virgin Australia domestic flights:
From 2 April 2025, Velocity members flying Virgin Australia marketed flights operated by Virgin Australia or Link Airways will instead earn:
- 1 status credit per $12 spent on Economy Choice, Economy Flex and Business airfares, or
- 1 status credit per $24 spent on Economy Lite airfares
Velocity members will earn status credits based on the airfare, including taxes and any carrier charges. However, no status credits are earned on ancillary products such as seat selection or extra baggage charges.
In calculating the status credits earned, Velocity will round up to the nearest $12 or $24. On connecting itineraries, status credits will be earned based on the total airfare.
For example, if you bought an Economy Choice airfare from Melbourne to Hobart costing $169, you would earn 15 status credits under the new system. (As it happens, that’s exactly the same as what you’d earn today.)
You need to earn 500 status credits to reach Gold status, or 1,000 status credits to get to Platinum status with Virgin Australia. Based on the new model, this means you’d be spending around $6,000 on Virgin Australia flights to earn Gold status or $12,000 for Platinum – assuming all your flying was on Virgin Australia Choice, Flex or Business fares.
Reduced status credits on partner marketed flights
From 1 October 2025, Velocity Frequent Flyer will also reduce the number of status credits earned when flying on partner airlines. These reductions will also apply to Virgin Australia marketed codeshare flights operated by partner airlines.
The loyalty program insists that the earn rates will still be more generous than Qantas earn rates on partner marketed flights. That said, that’s not a particularly high bar – some of Qantas’ partner airline status credit earn rates, particularly on certain partners like Malaysia Airlines, are somewhat punitive.
Minimum 50% status credits must now be earned from VA flights
Another key change, taking effect on 1 October 2025, is that Velocity members will need to earn at least 50% of the status credits required to achieve their status tier from Virgin Australia marketed flights.
This is instead of the current requirement that Silver, Gold and Platinum members need to fly at least 2, 4 or 8 times on eligible Virgin Australia fares, respectively. For many flyers, the new rule will be significantly more onerous.
In market research, Velocity found that less than half of its frequent flyers understood the minimum eligible Velocity sector requirement.
Which status credits count towards the 50% requirement?
The following status credits will count towards the 50% requirement from 1 October 2025:
- Status credits earned for Virgin Australia marketed and operated flights
- Status credits earned for codeshare flights with a VA flight number and operated by partner airlines (including Qatar Airways, United, ANA, Singapore Airlines and Link Airways)
- Bonus status credits earned through offers such as Double Status Credits, as long as the promotion is for Virgin Australia marketed flyers flown by the member
Status credits earned through the following methods will still count towards a member’s overall status credit count, but not towards the 50% VA marketed flight requirement:
- Partner airline marketed flights
- Family pooling
- Flybuys
- Eligible Velocity points-earning credit cards
Examples of old vs new status credit earn rates
We crunched the numbers of the status credits you’d earn on various different Virgin Australia tickets under the current system, compared to the new system starting from 2 April 2025:
| Route (one-way) | Fare type | Ticket price | Current status credit earn | New status credit earn | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne-Adelaide | Economy Lite | $99 | 5 | 4 | -20% |
| Sydney-Melbourne | Economy Choice | $139 | 15 | 12 | -20% |
| Brisbane-Queenstown | Economy Lite | $302 | 15 | 13 | -13% |
| Brisbane-Melbourne | Economy Choice | $149 | 20 | 13 | -35% |
| Sydney-Canberra | Economy Flex | $399 | 25 | 34 | +36% |
| Brisbane-Darwin | Economy Choice | $295 | 30 | 25 | -17% |
| Adelaide-Alice Springs | Economy Choice | $255 | 20 | 22 | +10% |
| Brisbane-Apia | Economy Choice | $544 | 45 | 46 | +2% |
| Sydney-Brisbane | Business | $384 | 55 | 32 | -42% |
| Melbourne-Perth | Business | $949 | 105 | 80 | -24% |
| Canberra-Melbourne-Adelaide | Business | $461 | 110 | 39 | -64% |
| Gold Coast-Bali | Business | $1,328 | 140 | 111 | -21% |
There are some rumours that Virgin Australia will also soon make changes to Economy Flex pricing, significantly reducing the price difference between Economy Choice and Flex. If this does indeed happen, there is an argument that the current status credit earn rates for Economy Flex fares would become too generous.
That said, most of the Virgin Australia Business Class fares we’ve looked at would earn fewer status credits under the new system. This being the case, I find it a bit surprising that Velocity wouldn’t perhaps add some sort of status credit bonus for booking Business over Economy.
What about partner marketed flights?
Velocity has not yet revealed the full extent of the changes to status credit earn rates on partner airline marketed flights from 1 October 2025.
However, we do already have a few examples of some of the changes:
| Partner airline | Route | Fare type | Current status credit earn | New status credit earn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | Sydney-Los Angeles | Economy Flex | 80 | 65 |
| Qatar Airways | Melbourne-Doha-London | Business | 280 | 220 |
| Singapore Airlines | Sydney-Singapore | Economy Choice | 35 | 27 |
| All Nippon Airways | Sydney-Tokyo | Economy Flex | 60 | 55 |
Are Velocity members better off with these changes?
Velocity Frequent Flyer says that 80% of published Virgin Australia airfares will earn more status credits under the new system. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that 80% of tickets purchased by customers will earn more.
Clearly, the change to spend-based status credit earning will benefit flyers who regularly book more expensive tickets on Virgin Australia. (Or, perhaps more to the point, those whose employers pay for expensive tickets.)
Travellers will also earn more on shorter but more expensive flights.
That said, these changes effectively kill off the concept of “status running” your way to Velocity status. Of course, you can still earn up to half of your status credits from things other than Virgin Australia flights. And you can still book flights on Virgin Australia to make up any shortfall in status credits that you may have. But these changes remove most of the sweet spots and loopholes that make it fairly easy to earn Velocity status under the current system.
For example, it will be much harder to earn status through partner airlines and family pooling from next year. In fact, family pooling will soon be significantly less useful for earning status if you often travel with multiple family members who pool status credits to you.
These status credit changes will particularly affect Velocity members travelling on connecting itineraries. There’s an old saying on AFF of “why fly direct, when you can connect” – in order to earn more status credits. But with status credits no longer based on the sectors you fly, booking a connecting flight will no longer come with any particular benefit in terms of status credits (unless the airfare is more expensive).
Overall, these changes will make it harder and more expensive to earn and retain Velocity status. Some people may lose their status as a result, and others may choose to switch to a competing loyalty program.
Although, I find it unlikely that Virgin will stop offering promotions like double or even triple status credits any time soon. These offers could sweeten the deal.
There’s a large cohort of Velocity members who believe that Velocity status is currently too easy to earn, due to family pooling and the large amounts of status credits given for relatively cheap Business Class and partner airline flights. Those who are still able to maintain Velocity status under the new system may actually benefit from things like less crowded airport lounges.
Velocity says that it is “simplifying the way members earn or maintain status”.
Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO Nick Rohrlach further describes the program changes announced today as ensuring the program remains sustainable and competitive.
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