Velocity has sent out news that they are offering eligible Velocity Gold or Platinum members an 18-month extension. Even though the announcement came on April 1, it was no April Fools Joke.
Initally, Velocity had promised a 12-month extension for members making an eligible booking. However, in a momenet of generosity, members meeting the requirements will now get an 18 month extension.
Details of the Extension
Members that met the status extension requirements will be eligible for the extension. Basically, all you had to do was make an eligible booking by 28 March 2021 for travel from 7 December 2020.
Initially, Velocity had promised an extension of 12 months, from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022. This was a reasonably generous offer in itself. Velocity has now decided to give those members a total of 18 months.
Velocity will be rolling this out in two phases. Firstly, Velocity will be providing an extension of 12 months. This extension has already been applied. Those members that have been granted the extension will see an expiry date of 31 March 2022 in their account.
Later, Velocity will update members’ profiles to indicate that the extension goes through until 30 September 2022. They have not specified an exact timeline for this beyond saying ‘later this year’. However, given the design of the Velocity program, I would expect this to be applied in late September. This would then give members 12 months to renew their status level.
Status Rewards
The good news is that this does not effect the status rewards incentives still on offer. For example, members will still receive 5,000 Velocity Points when taking their second flight by 30 May 2021. In addition the offer of Economy X upgrades for Gold Members, and Business Upgrades for Platinum members will continue.
Thoughts
It is interesting that Velocity has taken this tack. Perhaps they are not expecting much in the way of normal travel over the next six months. While unexpected, I am quite happy to accept the extension.
For more information on the Status extension visit the Velocity update.