CBA, Westpac restore Velocity credit card points transfers

Customers of the Commonwealth Bank and Westpac can once again convert their hard-earned credit card points into Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer points.

Bringing welcome news for members of CommBank Awards and Westpac Altitude Rewards, eligible cardholders from St.George, Bank of Melbourne and BankSA also see Velocity Points conversions restored from their Amplify Rewards program – these banks being subsidiaries of Westpac.

With the freeze initially triggered by Virgin Australia’s entry into voluntary administration back in April, it’s the first time in five months that these cardholders have been able to manually convert their bank reward points into Velocity Points.

Conversions to Velocity Frequent Flyer once again take place at the following rates:

However, while Velocity Points conversions have been restored in Westpac’s Altitude Rewards program, the bank has not currently returned the separate ‘Altitude Velocity’ card loyalty option, as had also been offered prior to the shutdown.

Unlike Altitude Rewards, through which points are earned in the bank’s program and converted to Velocity at will, Altitude Velocity enabled the direct earning of Velocity Points (without the need to convert points manually), alongside some Virgin Australia travel perks.

This latest move from CBA and Westpac follows the earlier restoration of Velocity Points transfers from both American Express Membership Rewards and NAB Rewards.

Credit card points transfers from ANZ Rewards to Velocity remain unavailable at the time of publishing: making ANZ the only ‘Big Four Bank’ to continue blocking its customers’ access to Velocity Points.

Velocity Points conversions also remain off the cards for members of HSBC Rewards Plus, and those with Citigroup cards attached to the Citibank Rewards, Diners Club Rewards, BOQ Rewards, CardServices Rewards and Suncorp Rewards platforms.

In related news, Virgin Money, which had halted new applications for its Velocity High Flyer and Velocity High Flyer credit cards back in April, has this month reopened those cards to new customers.

However, the American Express Velocity Escape and AMEX Velocity Platinum cards remain off the market for now.

Existing AMEX Velocity cardholders can continuing earning Velocity Points as usual, with Membership Rewards cardholders able to convert their rewards into Velocity Points.

Also read: Your guide to the Westpac Altitude Rewards program

Chris C.

Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.