If you were regularly crediting a frequent flyer program in ANZ with points, would you choose Air New Zealand or Virgin Australia?

If you were regularly crediting a frequent flyer program in ANZ with points, would you choose Air New Zealand or Virgin Australia? (Qantas not being considered)

Depending on where you live if in NZ go with air NZ or if in AU go with Virgin,there is no benefit to Go With air NZ if you live in Australia unless you are a kiwi and flys home regularly.

The main benefit to Air New Zealand would be that you can get status on Star Alliance rather than VA's cobbled-together system of friends-with-inconsistent-benefits. Depending on your travel patterns it might still be worthwhile.

My understanding is that earn-and-burn is significantly better with Velocity though.

Air New Zealands airpoints works in real dollars which means 1 Air Points dollar = 1 AUD (or NZD depending on your country of residence) you then can use the airpoint dollars on on bookable fare online minus the taxes. From Australia is means that you can only book on Air New Zealand flights operated by them or Virgin Australia or on some partners only in the US (United, Alaskan, Air Canada and Virgin America) and you can only use airpoints on these partners when booked with another Air New Zealand operated flight on the same booking

Status credits are earned on any Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand or Star Alliance flight which makes it easy to get  status with many airlines

Virgin Australia on the otherhand operate on a points based system and flights can be booked on any partner (you may need to ring up though) and you can only earn on Virgin Australia or its partners 

Status can sometimes be easier to get if you fly enough on Virgin

For example a Sydney to Brisbane flight is Discount Economy would get you 10 Status credits and with 500 needed to get gold (and min 4 flights) you could get gold with 25 return journeys

But with Air New Zealand on a Auckland to Christchurch flight in Discount Economy you would get around 10 status points but need 900 to get to gold meaning 45 return journeys 

You also con not earn Air New Zealand Status points on Virgin Australia operated flights in Australia unless booked on an NZ7000 Flight number which can only be booked on a booking with another Air New Zealand Flight