Members of the Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer are now able to earn Velocity points and status credits when travelling aboard Capital Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Hong Kong Airlines and Tianjin Airlines.
These new Velocity partners are part of the Chinese HNA group, part owner of Virgin Australia. HNA and Virgin Australia have recently formed a commercial partnership. As part of the partnership, the two groups are working toward recipricol Frequent Flyer benefits. The ability to earn points on the four HNA group airlines is part of the commercial partnership.
At present, only the first three of the airlines serve Australia, although Tianjin is proposing a Melbourne service commencing later this year.
Earning on HNA Group airlines
While the points earning varies across the airlines, there are some common features to the eligibilty criteria. Firstly, the points can only be earned on within or between Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. This excludes flights that may exist to other regions such as North America or Europe.
Codeshare flights (except those operated by Virgin Australia) are also excluded from earning.
The following tables show the points earning structure when flying on one of the four airlines.
Members are able to earn Status Credits on any eligible flight. As of this writing, the status earning tables and calculators do not appear to have been fully updated.