As the top tier of Velocity, Platinum status brings a number of benefits. One of those is that you receive four complimentary upgrade certificates from economy to business class each year.
You can then use these certificates to upgrade up to four flights a year. The main drawback of the ‘Upgrade Me Platinum’ offer is that it requires you to book an Economy Flex ticket to begin with. These are the most expensive family of Economy tickets that Virgin Australia sells.
Economy Choice is the middle-range offer, and in many cases is not much more expensive than the Economy Lite fares. Indeed, they are usually much cheaper than Economy Flex.
Upgrade Me Platinum – Choice fares
As a promotional offer, Velocity and Virgin Australia will allow the certificates to be used on Economy Choice tickets. The offer is available to Platinum members un til 31 March 2024.
Having said that, you will need more certificates to upgrade a Choice fare. Normally, an upgrade requires just one certificate. However, if you are upgrading from a Choice fare, you will need:
- two upgrade credits are required on flights up to 1,000 miles, and
- four upgrade credits are required on flights that are 1,001+ miles
Final Words
While the Upgrade Me Platinum offer is a good Velocity perk, it does have a couple of drawbacks.
Firstly, you would usually need to book an Economy Flex fare. This promotion addresses that issue by allowing their use on Economy Choice fares.
The other main issue is around the ability to actually use the certificates. Even with Economy Flex fares, it can be difficult to use the certificate for an upgrade. Unfortunately, this offer is not going to make that task any easier.
As usual, whether this offer is useful depends on your individual circumstances. However, it does make it slightly easier to use those certificates.