Hi all. Today it’s another post on the Velocity Frequent Program, a program that should be providing me with a few flights this year – announcement pending! Sorry I’m playing this one REALLY close to my chest. But today is a follow up from my post from late last year on Velocity and their pending agreement with Qatar Airways. For the blog in question click below:

Learning the Limitations of the Velocity Frequent Flyer Program

So pending in November last year when the blog dropped, not long after and the deal was approved by regulatory bodies for Qatar Airways to partner more with Virgin Australia and to run more flights in and out of Australia to Doha. Many will share a Virgin Australia code as they will be code share flights, and Virgin Australia are saying this will help them return to international travel at something more like pre-pandemic levels as right now they appear to be limited to Nadi, Denpasar and Tokyo, at least that’s what the Interweb tells me although I was surprised to hear they fly to Tokyo, this may only be a codeshare with ANA.

Qatar has been trying to increase services to and from Australia for a number of years. They were one of the only airlines flying to Australia during the pandemic when the borders were closed, providing a vital service for people otherwise stranded. As it was it took months for individuals to be repatriated and many gave up trying and decided to wait it out. Virgin Australia filed for bankruptcy or insolvency almost immediately the borders shut, and required intervention to not disappear all together. Meanwhile Qanats took money from the government ad nauseum and illegal sacked thousands of workers so they could outsource from overseas. Qantas were taken to court for unfair dismissal and LOST. Pending appeals.

The Velocity Frequent Flyer is great for certain things but otherwise has severe limitations on where you can go with it and especially its partner airlines. Whilst United and Air Canada are part of the program, it’s super tricky to get a useful flight on either of them using Velocity points. Air New Zealand have recently become full members of the program and Velocity boasts you can earn and redeem on Air New Zealand. We’ll see how this eventuates and if there are significant amounts of flights you can book. Air New Zealand has a much wider international network in terms of its destinations which is great, and might provide greater availability to the Americas.

On the flipside Etihad is leaving Velocity as of mid-year. This is a pity as they are a decent airline I enjoyed flying with in 2023. But I guess Velocity has Qatar Airways in the region so Etihad did not provide a lot of value to the program. Instead we are told there will be more availability on Qatar Airways. Who themselves have had their share of issues over the last few years with aircraft availability, not refunding people and a great Business Class, but not a consistent Business Class. Promised upgrades to a lot of aircraft have not eventuated.

As it stands there appears to be excellent availability on Qatar Airways through the Velocity Program. Compared to Emirates’ partnership with Qantas this is a definite win for those looking for return points flights to Europe from Australia, and with taxes around $300AUD that’s also a lot less than you fork out for Emirates flights via the Qantas FF Program. However, you do need more points, so return Europe in Economy Class you can expect to need 150,000 points on Qatar Airways via Velocity, compared to maybe 120,000 points on the Qantas Program using either Emirates, Qantas of British Airways. If available. Often not. And BA or Qantas will probably have you flying all the way to London and back tracking if you were, say, heading to Rome or Paris or Barcelona.

How do I feel about Qatar Airways being the airline getting more routes into Australia? Mixed to be honest. It’s not been the most ethically run airline with the baby scandal at Doha Airport, banning vloggers and sacking workers. But the product again won Skytrax best airline of 2024, for whatever you may think that’s worth.

Velocity still lacks a second European Airline too, and has very very limited availability with Virgin Atlantic, which surprises me as it’s sort of the parent airline, right? Qantas FF boasts KLM, Air France, Iberia and BA, not to mention FinnAir as well so it’s well covered, albeit with often limited availability. Air New Zealand though is a step in the right direction and I hope we see Velocity further expand in 2025. Fingers Crossed!

Thanks for joining me today! Take care wherever you are and… May the Journey Never End!