How to earn Velocity Points on hotel stays and accommodation

If you’re a Velocity Frequent Flyer member, you can earn points when you stay at over 600,000 hotels in more than 37,000 cities around the world. Depending on how you book, you can earn up to 3 points per dollar spent on your booking plus bonus points from promotional offers.

Use this guide to find out how you can earn points for bookings through Virgin Australia Holidays, directly through hotel partners, by transferring points from a hotel rewards program or with hotel dining options. We also look at how you can make points-plus-pay bookings, so you can maximise your Velocity Frequent Flyer benefits wherever you stay.

Virgin Australia Holidays hotel bookings

This online travel booking service offers comprehensive travel packages for flights, hotels and other extras as well as separate bookings for each of these services. It earns 3 points per dollar spent and boasts savings of up to 40% on hotels worldwide.

Velocity hotel partners

You can earn points for direct bookings with a range of hotel partners in Australia and overseas. This includes well-known brands such as Hilton, Travelodge, InterContinental, Holiday Inn and Medina.

In most cases, you simply need to book directly with the hotel partner and present your Velocity Frequent Flyer membership card at check-in. However, there are exceptions:

• Hilton Hotels. To earn Velocity Points with the Hilton Worldwide portfolio of hotels and resorts, you must become a member of the Hilton Honors loyalty program and select Velocity as your preferred partner.
• InterContinental Hotels. You can earn Velocity Points with the Intercontinental Hotel Group portfolio of hotels (including InterContinental, Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza) by joining the IHG Rewards Club and selecting Virgin Australia as your preferred partner for earning points.
• Choice Hotels. Join the Choice Privileges rewards program and select Velocity as your preferred partner to earn points with the Choice Privileges portfolio of hotels.

How many points can I earn with Velocity hotel partners?

The amount of points you earn is based on the hotel partner, location and qualifying rate. The following options are available:

Hotel bookings in Australia

• 3 points per AUD$1 spent at most domestic hotel partners
• 2 points per AUD$1 spent at Travelodge
• 1 point per AUD$1 spent at qualia

For conferences and events, you can also earn the following:

• Up to 20,000 points for conferences and events at Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts
• Up to 65,000 points at The Langham Hotels and Resorts

Hotel bookings overseas

• 1,000 points per stay at most international hotel partners
• 600 points per stay at selected international hotel partners
• 1 point per US$1 spent at Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts
• Up to 35,000 points per stay at Virgin Limited Edition properties

For conferences and events, you can also earn the following:

• Up to 20,000 points for conferences and events at Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts
• Up to 65,000 points at The Langham Hotels and Resorts, Langham Place Hotels and Resorts and Eaton Hotels

Note that Hilton portfolio hotels offer points per US$1 spent for bookings both in Australia and overseas. For overseas bookings, Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts also offers points per US$1 spent.

Transferring points from a hotel loyalty program to Velocity

Velocity has a number of partner hotel loyalty programs that allow you to transfer your existing hotel reward points to your Velocity account. The transfer rates and other key details for participating programs are outlined in the table below.

Earning and redeeming Velocity Points with hotel bookings via Ascenda

The Velocity Hotels booking service gives you access to over 550,000 hotels around the world. This service lets you use your Velocity Points, or a combination of points and cash, to make hotel bookings. The following conditions apply:

• Minimum points. A minimum of 4,000 Velocity Points is required to make a redemption booking via this service.
• Points per dollar spent. You earn 3 points per dollar spent on the cash component of your booking.
• Additional costs. Fees for services such as in-room charges, early check-in, late checkout and upgrades are not included. You must pay for these when you check-out.

Here’s how to make a booking:

Earning points for hotel dining experiences and membership programs

Some Velocity hotel partners also have dining and membership programs that allow you to earn points and gain access to additional perks. The current offers include the following:

• Accor Plus. Earn 5,000 Velocity Points when you sign up for an Accor Plus primary membership. This provides you with benefits including up to 50% off the food bill in participating hotels such as Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Quay West, The Sebel, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure and ibis. Membership costs $385 per year, with another 5,000 bonus points offered if you renew your membership annually.
• Star Privilege Pacific. Earn 5,000 Velocity points when you purchase a Star Privilege Pacific membership for $339 and upon subsequent annual renewal. Membership entitles you to benefits at Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia and Samoa, including up to 50% off food bills, 10% off the best available room rates, complimentary room upgrades and birthday benefits.

What else do I need to know?

Keep the following details in mind to maximise your Velocity Points for hotel and accommodation bookings.

• Missing points. Depending on the hotel booking option you use, it could take up to eight weeks for you to receive your points. But if you are missing Velocity Points for a hotel partner, you can make a claim within three months of the activity via your Velocity account or a partner hotel rewards program account.
• Retroactive point claims. Generally, you must have a valid Velocity Frequent Flyer membership number at the time of your hotel activity to be eligible to earn points. However, you can submit a claim for missing points for an activity completed within the 30 days prior to joining Velocity Frequent Flyer and, if successful, you will receive your points within 1-6 weeks.
• Hotel reward program points. If you want to earn Velocity Points through a hotel rewards program such as Hilton Honors, IHG Rewards Club or Starwood Preferred Guest, make sure you become a member of both programs and link your accounts before your stay. Alternatively, you can transfer hotel reward points to your Velocity account, but may end up with fewer points than if you link your accounts beforehand.
• Direct bookings. You can only make hotel bookings via the Velocity hotels service (powered by Ascenda) when you have at least 4,000 points. If you don’t want to use points for a booking, you can make it through the Virgin Australia Holidays service instead.
• Qualifying stay. For partner hotels, a qualifying stay is one or more nights at a partner hotel. Other terms and conditions may apply depending on the hotel partner.
• Earn rates. In general, points are calculated based on room rates and exclude other expenses. You can check with individual program partners or hotels to find out if there are other costs that are eligible for earning Velocity points.
• Booking name. The name on your Velocity account must match the name on the hotel booking.

Credit cards that offer Velocity Points

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Name	Bonus points	Points per $ spent	Purchase rate p.a.	Annual fee
American Express Velocity Platinum Card Velocity Frequent Flyer	Bonus points 60,000	Points per $ spent 1.25	Purchase rate p.a. 23.99%	Annual fee $375	Go to siteMore Info Compare	Get 60,000 bonus Velocity Points when you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months. Plus a return domestic flight each year.
Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer Card - Balance Transfer Offer Velocity Frequent Flyer	Bonus points N/A	Points per $ spent 0.66	Purchase rate p.a. 20.74%	Annual fee $0 first year ($129 after)	Go to siteMore Info Compare	Get 0% p.a. on balance transfers for 24 months (with no BT fee) and a $0 annual fee in the first year.
American Express Velocity Escape Card Velocity Frequent Flyer	Bonus points N/A	Points per $ spent 0.75	Purchase rate p.a. 23.99%	Annual fee $0	Go to siteMore Info Compare	Save with an ongoing $0 annual fee and earn 0.75 Velocity Points per $1 on everyday purchases.
American Express Velocity Business Card Velocity Frequent Flyer	Bonus points 100,000	Points per $ spent 1	Purchase rate p.a. 0%	Annual fee $249	Go to siteMore Info Compare	ABN holders w/ $75,000 revenue. Get 100,000 bonus Velocity Points when you spend $3,000 in the first 2 months.

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The Velocity Frequent Flyer program offers a variety of ways for you to earn more points for your hotel and accommodation bookings. In addition to these options, remember that you can also earn Velocity points on your accommodation with a frequent flyer credit card.

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