Virgin Australia will reward its most frequent flyers with a new Platinum Plus tier as the airline aims to close the loyalty gap against Qantas.
This top tier on the loyalty ladder will deliver more perks, but will also take more flying to earn – a lot more, now that Velocity has moved to spend-based status earning.
To be launched on 1 October 2025, Velocity Platinum Plus will sit above today’s Velocity Platinum tier but below the invitation-only Virgin Australia Beyond program.
Velocity Platinum Plus perks
Platinum Plus members can expect a raft of better-than-Platinum benefits including:
- access to an exclusive Australian-based VIP Priority phone hotline
- four complimentary business class upgrades which can be used on economy Flex and economy Choice fares (compared to only Flex upgrades for Platinum members)
- the ability to gift Velocity Platinum membership to a companion (this perk is being removed from Platinum to become exclusive to Platinum Plus)
- free rebooking to a later flight on the same day (known as Fly Later, and essentially a reverse of Virgin’s popular Fly Ahead).
Velocity Platinum Plus members will of course enjoy the highest priority recognition for bookings and upgrades, and Velocity promises more benefits will be announced closer to the October launch.
Earning Velocity Platinum Plus status
Velocity Platinum Plus will require 2,000 status credits to earn and retain on a yearly basis, compared to 1,000 status credits to earn Platinum and a lower 800 status credits to stay at Platinum.
In addition, 1,500 of those 2,000 Platinum Plus status credits must come from Virgin Australia flights or codeshares carrying a VA flight number, as opposed to flights on partner airlines such as Singapore Airlines using the native SQ code.
There’s a similar caveat when it comes to Family Pooling.
Status credits earned by any member of your Family Pool will count towards the overall 2,000 status credit goal.
But only those earned by the actual travelling member – the one doing the flying – will count towards the mandatory 1,500 status credits ‘from VA flights’ threshold.
And before you ask: yes, double status promotions will contribute towards your Platinum Plus tally.
Fewer Velocity Platinum perks
1 October 2025 will also see some benefits removed from the Velocity Platinum tier.
As noted earlier, Velocity Platinums will lose the option to gift Companion Platinum status to another Velocity member.
Velocity Platinums will still be able to gift Companion Velocity Gold status – but the benefit will only be unlocked when “650 status credits of the current 1,300 status credit threshold” earned across their membership year are “earned on Virgin Australia marketed flights flown by the member”.
Under the current system, Companion Velocity Gold becomes available to Velocity Platinums simply by earning an additional 500 status credits above the required 800 status credits needed to retain Platinum.
This article was originally published by Executive Traveller on 10th April 2025. View original.
