Velocity has announced the end of the Velocity Global Wallet. It has published a timeline of a phased withdrawal of the travel card from the market. Launching in 2013, it was a combined Velocity membership card and multi-currency travel card. In doing so, it offered Velocity members valuable benefits. Firstly, it allowed you to earn Velocity Points on transactions. While this started out with a reasonable earn rate, over the years, the number of points you could earn slowly eroded. Timeline for Withdrawal That’s all about to come to an end. Velocity has published details of a staged withdrawal of…
Author: Mark
Choice Privileges has just launched a new hotel promotion for stays through to the end of 2020. It is a bonus that pays up when you stay 2 or 3 nights at a participating hotel. If you have a stay of 2 nights, Choice Privileges will give you a bonus of 2,000 points. On the other hand, if you stay 3 (or more) nights, then you will receive a bonus of 3,000 points. This is a different structure to some of their recent promotions. For example, the last promotion offered a top-up to 8,000 points after 2 stays. Details Offer:…
Qantas has rolled out further support for frequent flyers – offering a chance to extend their status a further year. Eligible Frequent Flyers will be able to extend their status for a second year simply by booking an eligible flight. In addition to the one-year extension, there is also an opportunity to have some of your status credits roll over into your next year. So all up, members will be able to keep their Qantas Frequent Flyer status through to 2022. and members may be able to get a bit of a head start on their subsequent membership year. It’s…
Marriott International has announced that it will start construction of a new hotel development in Auckland from January 2021. When it opens in January 2023, Moxy Auckland is expected to be Marriott International’s second hotel in Auckland. It will be joining the Four Points by Sheraton Auckland. The new hotel will also increase the presence of the Moxy brand in Australia and New Zealand. Over the last year, Marriott has announced Moxy developments in Melbourne, Perth, and Queenstown. Moxy Auckland The new hotel will be located in the “Learning Quarter” in central Auckland. As such, it will be within a…
Qantas will be opening additional lounges across Australia from December 2. There is also good news for those that have access to the Chairman’s Lounge. Qantas is looking to open these lounges on December 9. This follows the additional round of opening lounges that started back in July. At that time, it was thought they’d be all open. But as we know, things didn’t quite follow that plan. While there are more lounges opening, there is still a group of lounges that will remain closed until further notice. Lounges Opening 2 December The following lounges are currently scheduled to open…
Qantas and hotel chain Accor have announced that they will enter into a deeper partnership in mid-2021. Under the partnership members of Qantas Frequent Flyer and Accor Live Limitless (ALL) will have extra points-earning opportunities. Basically, you will be able to earn in both programs simultaneously. So, if you take a flight you could earn Accor ALL points in addition to Qantas Points. The reverse works as well. If you book an eligible room, you can earn Qantas Points in addition to the Accor ALL points. It all sounds good, although there is very little detail on the specifics of…
Fresh out of administration, Virgin Australia has revealed its future direction under new management. As expected, under new CEO Jayne Hrdlicka, the airline will be targetting the mid-market. While that had previously been flagged, we now have a much better sense of what that means. At a high level, we can expect: Remaining lounges to re-open from today On-board, passengers will be able to choose from Business, Economy and Economy-X No change to Velocity Frequent Flyer with substantial airline and non-airline earn and redemption opportunities for its 10 million members Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (VARA) retained and restructured Significant technology…
IHG Rewards members have a new option in Adelaide following the opening of the Crowne Plaza Adelaide. The opening also sees the return of the Crowne Plaza brand to Adelaide. It is also the third new-build Crowne Plaza to open in Australia during 2020. The two previous openings were the Crowne Plaza Sydney Darling Harbour on 1 September and Crowne Plaza Hobart on 1 July. About Crowne Plaza Adelaide Crowne Plaza Adelaide is housed in Adelaide’s tallest building. Frome Central Tower One is located at 27 Frome St and stands at 138 meters tall. Guest Rooms The hotel’s 329 guest…
November 17 will see the end of he Voluntary Administration of Virgin Australia. On that day, the shares in Virgin Australia will be transferred to Bain Capital, and the company delisted from the Stock Exchange. While some refer to the renewed airline as Virgin 2.0, it may be worth viewing it as the third incarnation of the airline. Certainly, we will see the third business model for the airline. Starting out life in 2000 as Virgin Blue, it was a no frills low cost carrier. Over time it added bits and pieces, but it wasn;t until 2011 that it switched…
Velocity has extended its offer of a 30% discount on Business Seats. Originally, the discount was available for bookings made by 24 October. This was extended until 22 November and has now been further extended through to 11 January 2021. The travel dates have also been extended, and you can now travel through to the end of January 2021. So, in summary, you need to book by11 January 2021, for travel through to 31 January 2021. Reward Seats One challenge with this promotion is that interstate travel is a minefield of its own at the moment. However, there are opportunities…