Back in December, Velocity launched a status extension offer for its Gold and Platinum members. Basically, members could extend their Gold or Platinum membership by booking and travelling on one qualifying flight by the end of March.
Unfortunately, December saw a number of states introduce new border restrictions. These restrictions have largely been lifted over the past weeks, and things once again look like they are returning to normal.
As a result of this delay in domestic travel returning to normal, Velocity has made some updates to their offer. Under the revised offer, you still need to book your qualifying flight by 28 March, however, you can now travel at any time through to February 2022. All that matters now is booking the flight.
In addition, the bonus offers for the second and third flights have been extended to 31 May 2021.
Extend your status to March 2022 with just one flight
The first part of the offer is the ability to extend your status through to 31 March 2022. The fact that this is a fixed date has a couple of effects. Firstly, everyone taking advantage of the offer will end up on the same membership year. Secondly, it results in some members getting a better extension than others.
So, to explain. To qualify for this offer you need to
- Be a Gold or Platinum member of Velocity
- Book a flight between 7 December 2020, and 28 March 2021. You can travel anytime between now and 22 February 2022.
If you achieve that, then by the end of March 2021, Velocity will extend your membership out through to 31 March 2022.
In the case of Velocity, this will need to be a flight that would normally earn Velocity points. That is, you can’t book a Reward flight to take advantage of this offer.
As mentioned, this will result in some members getting a better deal than others. For example, my membership year ends in May. So, in my case, I will really be getting an extension of 10 or so months. Compare this to someone that would have a membership year in December. They will effectively end up with a three-month extension.
More Perks after Flight 2 and 3
Second Flight by 31 May
If you take more than one flight by 31 May 2021 Velocity will offer additional perks.
After the second flight, you will be awarded 5,000 bonus points. Any points from this bonus should be in your account by June.
Third Flight by 31 May
If you take three flights by 31 May, you will unlock an additional benefit. The benefit you will get is based on whether you are a Gold or Platinum member.
If you are a Gold member and take three flights, you will unlock the ability to upgrade to Economy X.
Platinum members flying three flights will be able to use their upgrade vouchers on any Economy fare. Normally, you need to be booked on a Freedom fare in order to use the upgrade voucher.
You will now be able to use these vouchers on any Economy booking that operates before 31 May.
Thoughts
The announcement originally followed on from an offer made by Qantas during November. While there are similarities between the two offers, there were important differences.
In particular, you needed to both book and take a flight by 28 March. While that sounded easy enough back in December, it soon became obvious that it was still going to be a challenge for many people.
Now that the borders are mostly open, it is good to see the adjustments that have been made to the offer. In particular, you can now extend your status simply by making a booking. You don’t need to fly by the end of March.
Overall, it seems positive, and I now have an opportunity to renew my Platinum status a little longer.
Further details are on the Velocity website
