Frequent flyer scheme rejig ahead

Frequent flyer scheme rejig ahead
By Daisy Melwani


Virgin Australia are planning to change its frequent flyer scheme from June 1 for the first time in five years.

The proposed changes will affect the cost of reward seats redemption, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, which could be a concern for some loyalty program members depending when they were looking to fly.

In addition to the cost changes, from June 1 Virgin announced members’ Velocity points will expire after two years if there is no member activity in the account. Currently the period set is up to three years. However this still fares better than Qantas, which limits its frequent flyer point expiration to 18 months if there’s no activity.

Under the new scheme, the price of premium economy and business class seats on Virgin, Delta, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America and some Air New Zealand flights will increase per distance, but members will require fewer points to redeem flights on economy class tickets of more than 4801 miles (7700 kilometres).

The number of points will largely decline for redemption of flights on partners such as Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand long-haul services, Hawaiian Airlines, airberlin and South African Airways.

Redemption tickets on Etihad Airways will increase as it moves to a different grouping.

“These are the first changes that have been made to the points expiry period or the reward seats points tables since they were introduced to the program more than five years ago,” a Virgin spokeswoman said, SMH reported.

“During this time Virgin Australia has undergone significant changes to become a full service airline, providing all guests with a complimentary checked baggage allowance, in-flight entertainment, food and beverages.”

The SMH report points out the new Velocity points earning table, a one-way economy class flight from Sydney to Melbourne will require 7800 points and $21.11 in taxes and fees on Virgin versus 8000 points and $33.98 in taxes and fees on Qantas.

Image credit: Wikipedia 

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