Making sense of all the million-point Velocity and flybuys offers
Millions of points don't go so far when millions of members are involved.
Velocity frequent flyers are spoiled for choice right now, with several bonus offers promising to share millions of points. Let's review what's available and decide which ones are worth it.
Firstly, as part of the current Velocity sale which has up to 30% off flights, Virgin is giving away a "share" of 25 million Velocity Points to each member who books a sale flight during that period. Once the sale is over, those points will be split equally between all eligible members.
There's no way of telling just how many points that would be for each individual, but we can make an educated guess. Velocity has around 9.1 million members. Let's assume that 5% of them (455,000 people) take advantage of the sale. That would amount to 54 bonus Velocity Points for each member. Even if just 1% take it up, that's only 270 points for each winning member.
Any bonus points are handy, but I wouldn't be taking up that deal purely for the points, simply because of the unpredictability and the likelihood you'll only get a handful of extras on your total. That said, 30% off is a good deal to start with, so if you do need to book flights, it's a handy little boost. The sale runs until 25 January 2019, though the terms note it may take up to 45 days to receive your bonus points.
There's a similar deal running with flybuys, with Virgin offering to share 10 million points amongst members who transfer points from flybuys to Velocity between 17 January and 15 February 2019. "The more times you transfer, the bigger your share of 10 million Velocity Points" the promotion notes.
As our full guide explains, you can only transfer flybuys points to Velocity in 2,000 points increments. So if you had 6,000 points to transfer, it would make sense to do that in three individual transactions, to maximise your number of entries.
Again, we're not talking masses of points here. In this case, if 5% of eligible Velocity customers take up the offer (possibly a lowball estimate), you'd end up with just 22 bonus Velocity Points as a result of one transfer.
Under the circumstances, you'd do much better to wait until the next time there's a 15% bonus offer before moving your flybuys points. The last one was in November 2018, and I'd predict we'll see another one around May this year.
Finally, I'll note that Liquorland is running a promotion where customers who scan their flybuys cards with a purchase until 30 January go into a draw to win 1 of 5 1 million bonus flybuys points packages. An additional 20 will each receive 100,000 flybuys points.
The major prize converts into 435,000 Velocity Points, which would score you business class seats to pretty much any global location Virgin Australia lets you redeem for. So it would be a lovely prize to win. Again, I wouldn't make a purchase purely for the sake of entering, but if you're shopping there anyway, it's a handy extra incentive. Just don't forget to scan your flybuys card.
The fundamental rule of points is evident here: it's not always worth taking up an offer just to score access to extra points. You need to assess each deal on its merits. Happy flying!
Angus Kidman's Findings column looks at new developments and research that help you save money, make wise decisions and enjoy your life more. It appears regularly on finder.com.au.
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