Virgin Velocity Credit Cards Explained

Virgin Velocity Credit Cards allow you to earn Velocity Points to use on flight upgrades and a variety of other purchases via Virgin Australia’s rewards program, Velocity.

Steve Hui, the founder of IFLYFLAT, explains that Velocity points are—in his opinion—the second easiest to earn within Australia after Qantas due to Velocity’s extensive stable of partner airlines, which includes Singapore Airlines, United, Qatar, Etihad Airways and Air Canada.

This means a Virgin Velocity Credit Card allows travellers to easily ‘double-dip’ on points by first accruing them within Velocity and then redeeming them on a wide range of partner airlines, Hui adds.

Few Velocity members realise they can go one step further with Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program—one of the world’s best frequent flyer programs—and exchange points at a rate of 1.55 Velocity points to one KrisFlyer mile, with a minimum transfer of 5,000 Velocity points. Why would you want to move your Velocity points across to KrisFlyer? Generally speaking, KrisFlyer offers its members better reward seat availability, which is key for snagging hotly contested business class bookings.

Related: Best Velocity Credit Cards In Australia

There are two Virgin Velocity Credit Cards that are owned by Virgin Money, however, a number of other brands also offer Velocity cards through a partnership with Virgin, including American Express and BOQ.

Regardless of the Velocity Credit Card you choose, some features you would expect to see from credit cards that offer the ability to earn Virgin Velocity points are:

• Bonus introductory offers
• Travel perks such as free travel insurance, free flights or annual gift cards
• Complimentary lounge access passes, access to partner offers and more

“Some Velocity Credit Cards also give bonus points when using that card to pay for Virgin flights,” Hui says.

In the following article, the two cards Forbes Advisor Australia has chosen to analyse and compare are the two cards owned directly by Virgin Money. These cards are the Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card and the Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer Card.

Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card

The Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card is the top-tier card that Virgin offers its Australian Velocity members. There are a range of different perks available with this card, including the ability to earn up to 80,000 bonus Velocity points on sign-up. You can do this by receiving 40,000 bonus points every month that you spend $3,500 on eligible transactions in the first two months from card approval.  The annual fee is $289.

During this first two month period, and continuing on after, you will continue to earn Velocity points via transactions. For every $1 spent, you will earn up to one Velocity point on eligible transactions up to 8,000 points per months, then. 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 after.

Along with earning points, there are also many travel perks included, such as a $129 Virgin Australia gift voucher added to your travel bank on your credit card anniversary each year, two complimentary single-entry Virgin Australia domestic lounge passes per year, and complimentary travel insurance for both domestic and international travel.

Related: Cheap Travel Insurance: How To Lower Your Premiums

In order to take out the Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card, you must have a minimum income of $75,000 and will be required to have a minimum credit limit of $15,000. The interest rate is 20.74% per annum (higher than the average) with up to 44 days interest free. It also costs an annual fee of $289, with $89 charged for additional card holders

Pros

• Low annual fee
• Annual gift voucher
• Complimentary domestic and international travel insurance

Cons

• High interest rate
• Bonus points only available for first two months
• Lower than standard interest-free period

The second-tier card on offer by Virgin is its Flyer Card, which also has a bonus points introductory offer, albeit, at a lower rate. Upon sign-up, you can earn up to 60,000 bonus Velocity points in the first two months (30,000 each month) if you spend more than $1,500 on eligible card purchases once approved.

Along with a lower bonus offer, the Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer Card also offers a lower rate for its normal points earning, rather than the standard 1:1. For eligible transactions, users will only be able to earn up to 0.66 Velocity Points per $1 spent.

These drawbacks are offset by a lower annual fee: you pay only $64 for the first year, and then $129 after that—less than half of what the High Flyer Card costs per annum.

You also receive the same travel benefit of a $129 Virgin Australia gift voucher applied to your travel bank each anniversary year, which is the same offer provided to the Virgin Australia Velocity High Flyer Card holders. Unfortunately, no complimentary travel insurance is provided with the Virgin Australia Velocity Flyer Card, be it domestic or international.

The interest rate is 20.74% per annum on all purchases (again, the same as the High Flyer card), however, you have up to 55 days’ interest free with this card. It also only costs $39 to add additional card holders.

Finally, to be eligible for this card, you must have a minimum income of $35,000 and a minimum credit limit of $6,000.

Pros

• Half price annual fee for first year
• 60,000 bonus points introductory offer
• $129 annual gift voucher

Cons

• High interest rate
• Only earn up to 0.66 points to the $1
• No complimentary travel insurance

You can use Velocity points to redeem a number of items from their rewards store, such as gift cards and retail items, Hui notes.

“Of course, you can also redeem them for flights in any class flying on Virgin Australia itself or on one of their 16 direct partner airlines,” he says.

“You can also use points to redeem for upgrades.”

In his view, based on Hui’s calculations, the way to get the most value out of your points is to use them for a Virgin Velocity reward seat in business class.

“Whereas the worst value way in my view is to redeem them for a flight via the ‘any seat method’, which is similar to using points for flight credit,” he says.

As mentioned, there are other credit card companies that offer the ability to earn Virgin Velocity points directly through a partnership with Virgin. The full list of other Velocity Credit Cards can be found below:

• American Express Velocity Business Card
• American Express Velocity Platinum Card
• American Express Velocity Escape Card
• BOQ Specialist Platinum Velocity Card
• BOQ Specialist Velocity Signature
• Virgin Money High Flyer Card
• Virgin Money Flyer Visa Card
• Westpac Altitude Platinum Credit Card with Velocity Points
• Westpac Altitude Platinum Credit Card with Velocity Points

Hui says the major negative for Virgin Velocity Credit Cards is the same as Qantas: every card earns you only one type of points.

“The major cons to getting a Velocity (only) credit card is that you can only earn Velocity points, which means you are completely reliant on seat availability and the prices charged by Velocity,” he explains further.

“If you find suitable seats, that is excellent, but if you can’t find the right seats, then even if you had 10 million points, there are no seats.

“If Velocity changes the number of points required to fly, then your points will effectively be devalued, as they would get you less than you could before.”

Just like with Qantas Frequent Flyer Credit Cards, the major risk of this approach is “putting all of your eggs in one basket,” Hui says.

Hui instead recommends the more “flexible path” of using a general rewards credit card that is not tied to one airline or its partners. These ‘flexible points’ cards allow you to earn rewards points, and then transfer to one of the multiple airline partners at a later date.

“Doing it this way allows you to first search to see which airline partner has the reward seats that you desire and then you can transfer your credit card reward points to that specific airline and book the rewards seats,” he explains.