Velocity have announced some significant changes to the program. While a range of changes were outlined in separate articles, including new Status Levels and other tweaks, I though the changes to the way status is earned deserved its own article.
The big changes being made in determining your status:
- A change to Status Credits on Domestic flights being calculated on your fare
- Replacing Eligible Sectors with a new minimum number of Status Credits from Virgin Australia flights
- Changing Partner Earning charts
These changes affect the number of Status Credits you will earn per flight. However, the number of Status Credits you need to earn or maintain your status will remain the same. In addition, there are no changes to the way your benefit year is determined.
Revenue Based Status Credits
Starting from 2 April 2025 the number of Status Credits that you earn on domestic and short-haul international flights will be tied directly to your fare. This will replace the current tables that determine status credits based on fare type and flight length.
Under the new calculation, you will earn Velocity Status Credits as follows:
- One status credit for every $12 spent on Economy Choice, Economy Flex, and Business fares
- One status credit for every $24 spend on Economy Lite fares
These changes will remove some of the opportunities to earn SC at low prices that sometimes pop-up. That said, you can now work out the minimum you need to spend to earn each tier:
- Silver – The 250 SC will require at least $3,000 spend.
- Gold – The 500 SC will require at least $6,000 spend.
- Platinum – The 1,000 SC will require at least $12,000 spend.
- Platinum Plus – The 2,000 SC will require at least $24,000 spend.
- Forever Gold – The 12,000 SC will require at least $144,000 spend.
The calculations are slightly different for renewals:
- Silver – The 200 SC will require at least $2,400 spend.
- Gold – The 400 SC will require at least $4,800 spend.
- Platinum – The 8000 SC will require at least $9,600 spend.
- Platinum Plus – The 2,000 SC will require at least $24,000 spend (no change)
These calculations assume you fly on Choice, Flex or Business fares. If you fly on Lite fares, you will need to double the spend. Of course, things like family pooling, FlyBuys will change this a bit, but it gives a good idea of the value of each level.
Eligible Sector Requirements
Another significant change revolves around the current eligible sector requirement. At present you need to fly a certain number of sectors in Virgin Australia each year. For Silver it requires 2 eligible sectors. In the case of Gold and Platinum, you need to fly 4 and 8 sectors respectively.
From 1 October 2025 this will change to a requirement to earn at least 50% of the required Status Credits on Virgin Australia flights. As with the current eligible sector requirements, you will need to get these Status Credits on your flying.
For example, at present, to maintain Platinum you need 800 Status Credits and fly 8 eligible sectors. This will change to needing 800 Status Credits, of which 400 Status Credits needs to come from your own flying on Virgin Australia marketed flights.
Status credits on partner marketed flights
From 1 October 2025, Velocity will reduce the number of status credits you earn when flying on one of their partner airlines. Oddly, there are also reductions if you book onto a Virgin Australia marketed codeshare flights operated by a partner.
Velocity will still use your fare class and mileage flown to determine the number of Status Credits you earn. There is a complication in the comparison between the new and the old as Velocity are also changing the mileage bands. You can view the new charts here.
FInal Words
That’s quite a shake-up of the way you earn status. Overall, it seems that it will become harder to achieve status. Or perhaps, to look at it another way, it will become more expensive to earn or maintain status. However, this seems to be largely the way the industry is heading.
The bad news is that it removes some of the good value anomalies that sometimes pup up. Who hasn’t looked for flights with a good SC/$ ratio.
I guess the plus side is that it may thin the numbers out in the lounges.
