How will Velocity’s Status Credit changes affect you?

ANALYSIS | On any typical weekday morning across Australia’s biggest cities, you might see domestic lounges filled to the brim, or some priority boarding lines longer than the standard lines. It’s a tough act to ensure status isn’t too easy to achieve – diluting the benefits for all – or so out-of-reach that members are demotivated.

With Velocity’s latest upcoming changes, it seems the program is firmly looking at pruning its elite membership base, keeping on the most profitable travellers. Status Credits will shift to a spending-based model, while partner airline earn will also be trimmed. Here’s what it could mean for you.

1. Virgin Australia flights will earn status on spend

The days of status runs and ‘gamification’ of Status Credits are numbered, at least on Virgin Australia flights. Starting from 2 April 2025, new bookings on Virgin Australia will earn Status Credits at the following rates:

• 1 Status Credit per A$24 spent on Lite fares
• 1 Status Credit per A$12 spent on Choice, Flex and Business fares

Extrapolating this, here’s how much you would need to spend on Choice, Flex or Business to achieve or maintain status if you only flew on Virgin Australia:

From 1 October 2025, there’s also a new requirement – replacing Eligible Sectors. At least 50% of the Status Credits needed for earning or maintaining a tier (75% for Platinum Plus) must be from VA-marketed flights flown by the member. Family Pooling, Flybuys and credit card status bonuses will only count towards 25-50% of the goal.

Who might be better off?

Regular VA domestic and short-haul international flyers who already have a large self-funded budget (or travel for work) will likely be okay. People who need to travel last minute (at any cost) might also pick up more Status Credits than before, as the fares are usually much higher.

Who might not be better off?

But for everyone else, it’ll probably get harder to maintain Velocity elite status.

Domestic Business Class has traditionally been a big earner of SCs. Sydney to Melbourne currently fetches 55 SCs, while Melbourne to Brisbane is 80 SCs. Under the new system, Business Sale fares could earn much less than that. A $499 MEL-BNE fare would earn 42 SCs – far less than the original 80 SCs.

Passengers who connect from regional centres might also be impacted. Currently, connecting flights earn a decent number of Status Credits as the two legs are added together. After the change, it’s entirely possible for a passenger flying two sectors (e.g. Launceston-Melbourne-Brisbane) to earn fewer SCs than someone just flying Melbourne-Brisbane, if the connection is cheaper than the single leg.

Family Pooling, one of the best perks of Velocity Frequent Flyer, will eventually only count towards half of a status goal or renewal (25% for Platinum Plus). Those who travel as a family will find it harder to earn status. The main traveller will need to take more VA-marketed flights to bridge the gap.

2. Partner airline flights will be penalised

As Virgin Australia doesn’t have a huge international presence, many of us might earn Status Credits from flying international partner airlines. Unfortunately, this is set to become less rewarding.

Booking a codeshare is one option

Firstly, there’s the 50% VA-marketed flight requirement (75% for Platinum Plus) mentioned above, starting from 1 October 2025. This reduces the usefulness of partner airline flights considerably.

One solution is to book VA codeshare flights through the Virgin Australia website. From 1 October 2025, these flights will still earn lower Status Credits, but they will count towards the ‘50% VA-marketed flights’ goal.

However, VA codeshare flights are often much more expensive than the non-codeshare equivalents. There are also IT issues that make it difficult (or impossible) to select seats or manage other extras on a codeshare booking, reducing its appeal.

Partner Status Credit earn will drop

Secondly, from the same date, Velocity will reduce the number of Status Credits that you can earn on a partner airline. You should consult each airline page on Velocity for the full details, but in general, the earning table will become:

For example, let’s take Sydney-London return in Discount Economy and Business with a partner airline.

• Discount Economy: Currently 140 SCs return. After 1 Oct 2025, it’ll earn 70 SCs return.
• Business: Currently 560 SCs return. After 1 Oct 2025, it’ll earn 520 SCs return.

It’s not a huge cut for Business, but it is a massive decrease for cheaper Economy fares. Take that into account when planning your Velocity status goals.

Summing up

There’s still time to plan. In fairness, Velocity has provided far more notice than it needs to for these changes. Overall, it seems Velocity mainly wants to reward domestic travellers who stick with Virgin Australia rather than those who engage with the program more broadly via airline partners.

The first of the Velocity status credit shifts doesn’t kick in until 2 April 2025, and even then, it only applies to new bookings. So until then, all bookings you make remain under the old system. The 50% VA earn requirement and decrease in partner Status Credit earn doesn’t come into play until 1 October 2025.

Some travellers will be better off with a spend-based system, but we think that the majority of members will likely need to spend a lot more with Virgin Australia to earn or maintain status which, understandably, is exactly what any airline wants. But it comes at the cost of eliminating any way to get ‘sizeable value’ with Virgin Australia flights.

Once again, it boils down to a question of balance. Members still need to feel they have a fair shot at earning new benefits, or they’ll disengage. Time will tell whether this status move is calibrated right or whether Velocity will feel the impact and reconsider some of these changes.