Fly Ahead is a fantastic benefit afforded to Gold and Platinum members of Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program. If you’ve booked an eligible ticket type, you’ll have the option to change to an earlier flight for free if there is one with spare seats.

This benefit is only available when travelling on certain types of Virgin Australia tickets. Here’s what you need to know…

Who can Fly Ahead on Virgin Australia?

Fly Ahead is available to Gold and Platinum Velocity members travelling on Virgin Australia domestic flights.

When the benefit was first introduced more than a decade ago, Fly Ahead was available to Gold and Platinum frequent flyers booked on any type of fare. This changed in 2016, when Virgin removed access to Fly Ahead for travellers on cheap “Getaway” tickets. The Getaway fare category was renamed to “Economy Lite” in 2021, and at the same time, Virgin stopped allowing Gold members to fly forward on mid-level Economy Choice tickets.

Since 2021, Velocity Gold members need to be booked on one of the following fare types to request a free change to an earlier flight:

• Economy Flex
• Business
• Economy Reward
• Business Reward

In addition to those fare categories, Velocity Platinum members still enjoy the added benefit of using Fly Ahead when booked on an Economy Choice fare. However, even Platinum members don’t get access to this benefit on an Economy Lite or group booking.

If you’re eligible to use Fly Ahead, you can also request an earlier flight for up to three other passengers travelling with you on the same booking.

How to Fly Ahead

If you arrive at the airport early and wish to take an earlier flight, you can request Fly Ahead either at check-in or in the lounge. You’ll need to change flights at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time of the earlier service. If you request to Fly Ahead in the lounge, you cannot have any checked baggage.

When flying ahead, catering is not guaranteed and you’ll only have access to seats that are not yet occupied. If the earlier flight is almost full, this could mean you end up with a middle seat at the back of the plane. But the good news for Platinum frequent flyers is that the extra-legroom Economy X seats are reserved for Platinum members (or those willing to pay extra) and are often the last to be filled.

You won’t need to pay any fare difference or change fees to use Fly Ahead. But this benefit is only available if there are vacant seats available – Virgin won’t bump a paying customer off an earlier flight. You also can’t change your routing or destination.

If you booked Business Class and the only available seats on an earlier departure are in Economy, you can optionally choose to downgrade but won’t be entitled to a refund.

Phone ahead to Fly Ahead

As an additional benefit, Platinum frequent flyers can confirm an earlier flight before arriving at the airport. You can do this by calling Virgin Australia’s Guest Contact Centre at least an hour before the earlier flight departs.

It’s possible to change to the flight immediately prior to the one booked over the phone. An exception applies to flights on the “golden triangle” between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. For golden triangle flights, you can change to any flight up to two hours earlier than booked.

Virgin’s Fly Ahead is a key benefit over Qantas

Fly Ahead is a key benefit of Velocity Frequent Flyer status. It’s a useful perk for Gold and Platinum members and is available even on Reward Seat bookings.

By comparison, Qantas charges a fee for all flight changes on Red e-Deal and Classic Reward tickets. Even on flexible fares, Qantas still charges the fare difference if no seats are available in the original booking fare class at the time of requesting the change.

Qantas’ policy appears to be aimed at encouraging business travellers to pay for more expensive flexible airfares. But Qantas’ lack of flexibility has been a source of frustration for some frequent flyers whose employers mandate a “best fare of the day” policy.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.