Velocity to extends status, gift status credits to its frequent flyers

Things move fast these days. Last night, Velocity announced that it was gifting status credits for he next three months. This morning they have stepped it up a notch, and will be extending all elite level status by one year.

Velocity has announced that it will be helping its frequent flyers to retain their status. This comes on the heels of the recent announcement of Qantas in their gift of 12 months at a member’s current status.

Velocity are taking a two pronged approach. Firstly, there was the originally announced Status Credit Gift. Secondly, they have decided to match Qantas and extend elite memberships by 12 months.

Status Extension

Velocity has decided to push out the expiry date of all Silver, Gold and Platinum members. They will be extending everyone’s elite membership by 12 months. This additional benefit seems a direct response to last nights announcement from Qantas offering the same extension.

Status Credit Gift

Velocity will be gifting status credits to Silver, Gold and Platinum members. They will be calculating the amount you would need to earn each month, on average, to retain status. The monthly gift will be calculated based on the status credits needed to renew your status. To put that another way, you will get a gift of roughly 1/12 of the requirement. It is slightly better than 1/12 as Velocity will be doing some rounding.

The first slab of points is expected to land in members’ accounts during the first week of April. The second and third installments will be in members’ accounts in May and June.

The following table shows the number of points you can expect to be given:

Final Thoughts

Originally, the two airlines had taken somewhat different approaches. Qantas extended memberships by a year, while Velocity opted for a status credit gift. It is interesting that Velocity have chosen to match Qantas.

Under the original Velocity plan, you still needed to make the qualifying flights. This is no longer needed.