Make the most of Virgin Australia's unique set of airline partners

Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer loyalty program is one to keep an eye on, despite having a smaller footprint than Qantas.

Their curated list of partners includes some international heavyweights such as Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and United. But there are also other ones, such as ANA, which will be useful for some people.

The good news: with the right mindset and the right tools, you can turn your Velocity Points into real trips. Business Class to Europe for two is certainly doable (and some may say it’s arguably easier to achieve than with Qantas Frequent Flyer).

Step 1: Know your Velocity Points

Before you start dreaming about lie-flat seats, make sure you’ve got a rough idea of what your points can actually get you.

Velocity uses different reward tables to price flights, based on distance and cabin class (check them all out here). Unlike cash fares, reward seats have fixed points pricing, which is exactly what you want. If a seat is available, you’ll know upfront how many points it costs.

As we mentioned above, you’re not limited to Virgin Australia flights. Velocity partners include airlines such as Singapore Airlines, ANA, United Airlines and Qatar Airways. That opens up a lot of international options, often with better availability and value than Virgin Australia alone.

Once you’ve done the hard work of earning points, it’s time to spend them wisely.

Step 2: Know your reward seats

Velocity keeps things simpler than some other programs, but there are still a couple of things to look out for. The main issue is that when you’re looking for points, the website will show both reward seats (which we want) and normal cash fares converted to points (which usually costs many more times more points than reward seats).

Luckily, a tool like Gyoza Flights will help you cut through all that and just show you the actual reward seats available!

As with most programs, taxes and fees are extra. Velocity also passes on carrier charges with most programs. Your cash co-payment can range from under $100 per person (e.g. some ANA flights) to over $700 per person (e.g. many multi-leg Qatar Airways flights).

Step 3: Be flexible with dates and destinations

If there’s one rule of reward travel, it’s this: flexibility wins. With limited supply and high demand, you’ve got a recipe for frustration if you’re too rigid.

Velocity reward seats don’t always appear on a neat schedule, as they are usually at the whim of the operating airline. Some are released well in advance, others appear at random, and some appear just weeks before departure. To boost your chances:

• Be flexible with dates (±3 days helps a lot)
• Check nearby airports where possible
• Look at different cabin classes and partner airlines
• Don’t be locked to one specific route, if possible

Step 4: Use tools such as Gyoza Flights (yup, that’s us 😉)

Yes, you can search directly on the Velocity website. And sometimes you’ll strike gold straight away. But if nothing shows up, that’s where Gyoza Flights comes in.

Instead of manually searching day-by-day, we aggregate reward availability across dates and airlines, so you can see what’s actually out there, fast. Virgin Australia doesn’t have a decent calendar function for bulk reward seat searches, so you will save time using another tool.

With Gyoza Flights, you can:

• Scan availability across multiple dates at once
• Compare Virgin Australia and partner airline options
• Set alerts when new reward seats open up
• Discover routes you wouldn’t have thought to search

Basically, we do the heavy lifting so you don’t have to.

Step 5: Head to the Virgin Australia website to book

After finding availability on Gyoza Flights, you should head straight to the Virgin Australia website to verify the seats are bookable. Here are the steps:

• Check Gyoza Flights for seat availability and/or set SMS alerts
• When you find a seat that works, note down the details
• Head to the Virgin Australia website and log in to your frequent flyer account
• Tick 'Use Velocity Points' and fill in your search details
• If the same seats appear, then continue with the checkout process
• Congrats, you’ve booked reward seats with Velocity Points!

If you’re booking a simple one-way or return booking, chances are you can follow these steps and do it on the Virgin Australia website. However, it’s not usually possible to book international multi-city itineraries online. Instead, consider booking them as separate one-way reservations, or give the Velocity call centre a buzz.