I thought Velocity were ‘done’ with their latest round of award chart changes that went into effect on June 1st – but no, this latest change is very stealthy and a bit more lethal to your wallet.
For bookings made from 18th June, a new “Etihad Airways Reward Seat Carrier Charge” is being added for Etihad redemptions using Velocity points, set at $50 USD in Economy, $205 USD in Business and $300 USD in First Class.
This latest change from Velocity is essentially a stealth devaluation of Velocity Points for anyone who might have wanted to redeem them for Etihad flights, and is poor form from a frequent flyer program that otherwise has a lot of respect around these parts.
What are the changes?
They are fairly simple – the charges of:
- $50 USD in Economy
- $205 USD in Business
- $300 USD in First Class
are being added to any booking using your Velocity points for travel with Etihad
(except for itineraries departing from Manila).
Etihad were one of the casualties of the recent award chart changes, with all of their redempton pricing increasing.
The killer piece to this change is that the charge applies per flight sector, not per booking.
This means that return flight to Europe in Business Class, with a transit in Abu Dhabi, now costs an extra $410 USD each way. It would be worse in First Class too.
That’s an insane change from the current level were you’ll pay a relatively low amount of taxes and surcharges.
Velocity are reknowned for their excellent award pricing, both in points and additional fees imposed on award bookings. This charge really adds a nice layer of confusion to that perception, where some partner carriers continue have low pricing while Etihad doesn’t.
The page on the changes on the Velocity website is here. H/T to Australian Travel Points for the heads up.
I managed to squeeze in an Etihad A380 redemption using Velocity points from London to Sydney back in March (pictured above) and it was excellent – possibly the best two Business Class flights I’ve ever taken.
We’ll do a deeper comparison battle of the new Velocity pricing (for points and taxes) versus using Qantas Points to travel with Emirates on a range of routes to Europe and the US.
I would also like information from someone about the 15% that Virgn often offers when exchanging points, this is a very cunning move as when you have your points added directly from your bank to your velocity frequent flyer points they never give you the 15%. Now want to stop the, doing this so I can save the points and only transfer when the 15% is offered.
Virgin Is getting less and less attractive especially as I have lost my silver status. Think I may have to revert to Qantas and Emirates again.
I am not a business traveller, but an almost 80 year old traveller counting every penny to see my children in the UK.
WTF is this in US$ too, when Velocity is an Australian program?
Etihad added a carrier fee of US100 per sector for their business redemption. Velocity has more than doubled this fee.
25.1 General
From time to time, We may charge fees to Members for all or any of the services which are the subject of our commitments to the Member. We will give at least 30 days written notice of the introduction of, or change to, any fees, and also post details on the Fee Schedule on the Velocity Website
“….Velocity are reknowned for their excellent award pricing…”
How the hell do you work that out?! Surely you don’t think that applies now (even if it ever did)?
Their award pricing in terms of points required is broadly similar to that of QF (= BAD!).
That on top of the fact that:
you can’t always access the award inventory visible on Etihad’s website for EK flights
you have limited access to SQ inventory, and no access to first class inventory (unless you transfer points over to SQ at a loss)
you can’t access Hawaiian business class inventory (which is easy to get via AAdvantage)
partner Air NZ rarely offers award peace (and who knows how long the Air NZ hook up is gonna last!)
Velocity is just simply not nearly as generous as it used to be for VA international premium reward space
Raking in excess “carrier charges” (where is the ACCC when airlines do this?) diminishes Velocity to the point where it is no longer a serious contender for loyalty.
At least on QF you can access extensive EK award inventory (often released a few days before the flight), if at peril of absurd “carrier charges”.
Some folk take the smart option and bypass Velocity and QF FF altogether and assign flights directly to alternate FF schemes such as AAdvantage.
I lost my faith in Velocity some time ago and was delighted to transfer a substantial points balance over to SQ the moment that became available.
The old table 1 (including Etihad) used to be pretty appealing, given how easy it is to pick up Velocity points from non-airline partners in Australia. But not so much now.
We do not have to give Members any other notice of changes, even if the changes affect or remove features of Velocity Frequent Flyer, Member Benefits and or Program Partners. However, We will try to give Members reasonable notice of changes which are materially detrimental to the membership as a whole, or if We introduce or change any fees in accordance with clause 25.1.
FEES AND CHARGES
25.1 General
From time to time, We may charge fees to Members for all or any of the services which are the subject of our commitments to the Member. We will give at least 30 days written notice of the introduction of, or change to, any fees, and also post details on the Fee Schedule on the Velocity Website.
As you can see the terms and conditions in 25.1 state that they will provide at least 30 days notice if there is a change to any fees and charges which had not been done in this case. Consumers will loose faith in the transparency of this Frequent Flyer Program if they make unannounced fee changes like this in the future without adhering to their published T and C’s. Someone should bring this up with mangement Keith!
This change doesn’t make it any better, but it wasn’t any good previously anyway.
Velocity points are for either transfering to Krisflyer or redeeming on VA services – anything else is pretty poor value.
Virgin points were also very easy to amass recently without having to buy them, 110k amex 60k nab 75k anz black etc
I got Frankfurt to Perth for 110,000 velocity points a couple of moths ago, and about $75 in fees. Was amazing and availability was wide open; I booked it only a couple of weeks before the flight.
Transferring into Krisflyer is the waste because you lose 35% and the fees are massive for Singapore Airlines flights. Though with this change it will make it feasible to do that.
Velocity economy is the same price but business /first is double Etihad guest charge could that be an error?
Also it’s not known yet if bookings made before 18-Jun that you date charge after will incur the extra fee.
My research so far indicates that bookings made before the cut off date, but changed after, will incur the additional fee.
I think I’ll probably be focussing on Qantas rewards in the future.
Krisflyer are the real winners from this choice. It’s practically impossible to book a reward seat in business on virgin unless you’re a points millionaire.