Howdy all. As the year comes to a close, I wanted to share some thoughts on Australia’s OTHER (than Qantas) Frequent Flyer Program, and that is Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer. In 2023 I used my Velocity points to great effect taking a number of redemption flights in Economy and in Business Class. I am planning and booking at the moment for a 2025 adventure (ssshhhh!) and am slowly discovering the limitations of the alternative to Qantas’s programs.

So here’s what I’ve discovered.

It depends on where you want to fly to and from as to how good you will find Velocity. 2023 saw me fly Singapore Airlines, Etihad and Qatar Airways using Velocity, and if you are sticking to these airlines you are very well catered for indeed. Where Velocity really offers you opportunities to use your points is to and from Europe (from Australia) on these three excellent airlines. There is really good availability too – trying to get to Europe using Qantas points is a much more limited experience and it can be nearly impossible to find flights to Europe depending on the time of the year. Also, it can depend on whether you’re prepared to take a really round-about way to get there. Which because you travel further costs more points.

With Velocity you can find flights Melbourne (or most other capital cities) – Doha/Abu Dhabi – to a LARGE number of European cities from London to Budapest to Istanbul. I have noticed they are not offering a plethora of Business Class options in 2024, in contrast to when I preparing for 2023 in 2022 – but then we were just coming out of Covid and people weren’t yet flying as much as they are today.

Velocity do not have the extensive network that Qantas do, although it’s not so bad either. Qantas boasts a number of European Airlines – British Airways, KLM, Air France, FinnAir and Iberia and that’s just off the top of my head. You can’t really get flights on some of them – I found it quite hard to find flights on KLM for example, but still it’s not bad. Pacific and USA you have American Airlines and Fiji Airlines. Also, Latam which I think is the biggest airline in South America.

Velocity on the other hand I see as only having Virgin Atlantic in Europe, and to find flights using them has been tricky. So you want to fly internally in Europe? You are going to most likely need to go via Doha or Abu Dhabi again. Which uses a lot of points and has you in the air for a long time.

Then as far as the Americas are concerned it’s United and Air Canada. And there are precious few flights offering seats with Velocity points. To search for flights to Los Angeles from Australia Velocity prefers to offer flights with Singapore Airlines, again taking you a fair way out of your way to get there. And using substantially more points. And they even suggesting routing through… Doha! You better really like flying!

Even routes from the Americas to Europe and the UK take you way out of your way. For example, Kingston Jamaica or Miami to Europe, they route me only through Toronto OR a multi-stop tour of the USA. United Airlines flights in particular appear to be scarce if they are international.

Air New Zealand are apparently coming on board with Velocity, which is good because you at present can’t get a flight on points Australia to Auckland, as Virgin don’t fly there. This was announced a few months ago still yet to see them appear as an option. South African Airways is SOME sort of partner too. But no flights appear to be able to be booked.

All in all, Velocity is easier to earn points, in a year and a half I’ve earned 190,000 points, and are great especially for using Qatar Airways who are buying a big stake in Virgin Australia and there will be some great benefits that come along with that. But there are holes in the network that need to be plugged – more flights on Virgin and Atlantic and United would be a good start, and doing a deal to partner with another European Airline would significantly improve the value of the program. Personally, for a big trip I use BOTH Velocity and Qantas.

Thanks for joining me today. Take care wherever you are in the world right now – May the Journey Never End!