Flight upgrades change for Platinum Velocity members
Travel the world in comfort with complimentary upgrades for Platinum Velocity frequent flyers.
If you’re a Platinum member of Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program, you’ll now be able to get more from your membership status. Each year, Platinum Velocity members are awarded four complimentary credits to upgrade their seats on domestic flights. As of today, these upgrade rewards have been extended to international flights.
Excluding Los Angeles and Abu Dhabi, this means you can now use your Platinum perks to bump up to business class on four international flights each year. Some terms and conditions have remained the same, though, with frequent flyers still required to purchase an economy Flexi fare rather than a low-cost Saver ticket if they want to upgrade to business. Also, the existing rules regarding how many upgrade credits you need per trip are also unchanged. As per usual, you’ll need to use one upgrade credit per person and per one-way flight. So, for example, if you’re taking a connecting flight from Perth to Sydney and then to your international destination, you’ll need to use two of your upgrade credits to fly business on both flights.
Of course, whether you can use your upgrades for flights is still dependent on availability. So if business class is fully booked, you’re out of luck. While you can use your credits to upgrade your flights in the weeks and days before your flight, you can now also request same-day upgrades when you’re visiting the Virgin Lounge. So if you arrive at the lounge early and haven’t had a chance to upgrade your seat beforehand, you might get a chance to do so while you’re waiting in for your flight. Meanwhile, Gold, Silver or Red frequent flyers can only request same-day upgrades from up to two hours prior to departure.
