Following a four-week ban placed on Velocity members redeeming points with Virgin Australia, the airline is now allowing frequent flyers to use the virtual currency to book domestic flights.
Of course, this is all contingent on the troubled airline being sold soon, but things do at least look promising with several potential buyers on the cards.
Reward seats are now available on some of the airline’s most popular domestic routes, with bookings open for travel on and from September 1st 2020. This includes plenty of return routes between Australia’s biggest cities, as well as regional destinations across Western Australia and Queensland. As expected, Northern Territory and Tasmania flights remain off the booking platform, at least for now until travel restrictions are lifted by respective state governments.
Fortunately for passengers, the number of Velocity Points required to book a reward seat remains the same as before the airline went into voluntary administration. This means one-way reward flights are set from 7,800 points in Economy Class, and 15,500 points in Business Class, plus all the usual taxes, fees and charges.
The unfreeze on Velocity will happen in stages, so there remains many redemptions yet to be made available. This includes updates to Business Class on Virgin Australia flights, the ability to convert your Velocity Points into KrisFlyer miles with Singapore Airlines, and exchanges on the Velocity Store.
It has also been reported that Velocity Frequent Flyer will waive all change and cancellation fees on Virgin Australia reward bookings made before September 1st 2020, which should bring any prospective passengers peace of mind given how dynamic the pandemic (and Virgin) situation remains. That means you’ll get all your points back should you need to make a voluntary change to your booking, as well as a refund for any taxes, fees and charges paid for the ticket (excluding booking and credit card fees of course).
This generous allowance will apply even if borders are still open, as long as the change or cancellation is processed prior to September 1st 2020.
For a full list of reward seats available head on over to the Velocity website.
