Good news for Velocity members. Velocity has expanded the routes on which you can claim award flights. In addition, you can now use your points to redeem nights at selected hotels. Finally, you will soon be able to use your points to book cars through Europcar.
Point redemptions in Velocity were initially suspended back in April. At this point, you were unable to redeem points for anything.
Later, Velocity reinstated limited award redemptions. While these were welcome, they were restricted to a limited number of routes.
Expanded Award Redemptions
As from 21 July, flight redemptions are available on most of the Virgin Australia network. To be fair, this is a somewhat smaller network than there was before. Even so, awards have, until now, only been available on about half the network.
In order to help you plan, Velocity has published an updated list on this page.
On top of the award redemptions, you can also upgrade from economy to business using your points.
Redeem Velocity points for hotels
It is not only flights. Velocity has also reinstated the ability to redeem for hotels nights. Starting today, you will be able to book nights with your points at a wide range of hotels. Hotel redemptions start from 4,000 Velocity Points when using the ‘Points + Pay’ option.
Redeem Velocity points for car hire
This one is not immediately available. However, Velocity are promising that you will be able to redeem your points at Europcar from the end of the month.
Thoughts
These are all promising signs. While the ability to redeem for merchandise stays off the table, it does show things heading back toward a more normal operation.