If Air New Zealand dumps Virgin Australia, will the partnership be broken?

If Air New Zealand dumps Virgin Australia, will the partnership be broken? Will Velocity gold/platinum members still have privileges on ANZ's flights and VA's cord-sharing flights operated by ANZ?

It would be premature to say otherwise, however the statement that AIR NZ released mentioned that all reciprocal benefits would stay intact. Keep in mind that VA has many many partners who dont have any shares in the company ( Delta, Air Berlin, South African)

I hope so... It (the partnership) has made fares from Brisbane to Christchurch (I travel it few times each month) so uncompetitive and only now that Qantas has started flights has things begun to get cheaper. On a 'seat' only ticket prices can sometimes be in the $400's for a one-way ticket which is more expensive than a JQ seat to Honolulu.

It's too early to tell anything. Meanwhile, I was once told by an Ex-VA exec that when they first formed the partnership, part of the deal was for VA to give up their NZ domestic operations so ANZ can have the (almost) monopoly again. Now that ANZ is saying they're losing money on VA investment, well I guess one has to pay for the monoply at some stage.

No change to the partnership: see Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand alliance is 'business as usual'

I hope the partnership does dissolve. For one, NZ FF's can't earn status credits when flying VA domestically in Australia (which is why I fly QF within Australia as they have more consistent service and a higher quality product in my opinion). Also the VA cardholders tend to fill up NZ's lounges which are quite busy at the best of times. Also there is quite a large gap between NZ’s and VA’s products which begs me to believe why anyone actually flies VA trans-tasman? At the very least a broken partnership may mean cheaper fares for trans-tasman flights ex cities other than AKL as 'Henrus' stated above.

Sorry for hearing that. It is true that Air NZ's lounges are much more congested than those of VA's. I can remember how hard it was to find two seats at Willington airport; unknown people have to share small tables, which is a little substandard to what I know a lounge should be.

Although, I guess that VA pays each time when its cardholders get into a lounge operated by other airliners like SQ, NZ and etc, and vice versa. The frequent flyer programs are like lucrative businesses, and that VA has sold its Velocity program to a property management company. That is to say, it has to be clearly seperated from the other parts of VA, and lounge access should be one of the cost to that program.

Yes the AKL and WLG domestic lounges are crowded at peak times. I blame the there being too many Koru members (which is my biggest gripe with NZ). Although with NZ's new lounges, they are increasing capacity which is a welcome relief.

That's interesting Velocity is owned by a third party, I would be wary of continuity between FF program and VA if I was a velocity member.

I've been in countless airline lounges which are busy at peak (e.g. SYD, MEL, BNE for both QF and VA are constantly busy Mon-Fri morning/evening). But I agree, I think the NZ ones are not due to VA FF's, but more so the Koru members. 

It is maybe true that VA's gold status is the easist one among all the FF programs that gives you 3P+L privileges (priorities on check-in, bording and baggage, and lounge access). Two "flaxi saver" returns to Europe or Asia with a handful of domestic flights, costing you less than $4000 , can secure you this treasured card, while an equivalent from Qantas is likely to charge you twice or even more. You know what, I'm a mostly self-funded traveler and I can easily maintain two gold membership from VA (one for me, one for my wife, by using family pooling). This may be the reason that VA's passenger fills the lounges everywhere.