No change to Virgin’s SAA, Virgin Atlantic partnerships
It’s ‘business as usual’ for Velocity members flying on these two international partners.
By Staff Writers, December 2 2024
Virgin Australia’s new “integrated alliance” with Qatar Airways comes with major changes to Virgin’s partnership with Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines.
But Virgin’s frequent flyers will still be able to earn Velocity Points and Status Credits on South African Airways and Virgin Atlantic, and also redeem their points on a Reward Seat.
In its interim authorisation for the VA/QR alliance, which gives the go-ahead for Virgin Australia flights – using Qatar Airways jets and crew – to and from Doha, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission confirmed that “Virgin Australia’s arrangements with South African Airways and Virgin Atlantic would be unchanged.”
Star Alliance member South African Airways flies between Perth and Johannesburg, while of course maintaining an extensive network throughout Africa.
Virgin Atlantic, which joined SkyTeam earlier this year, is a popular choice for Virgin Australia passengers darting between London and New York.
However, there are still some changes on the horizon as part of a sweeping revamp of the Velocity Frequent Flyer scheme.
From 21 January 2025, the number of Velocity Points required to snare a Reward Seat is increasing across all partner airlines:
- a Reward Seat on a one-way business class flight with South African Airways between Perth and Johannesburg will rise from the current 114,000 Velocity Points to 120,000 Velocity Points
- a Reward Seat on a one-way business class flight with Virgin Atlantic between London and New York will rise from today’s 49,500 Velocity Points to 51,500 Velocity Points
As of 1 October 2025 there’ll also be a drop in the number of Velocity Status Credits earned on both airlines:
- a one-way business class flight with South African Airways between Perth and Johannesburg now earns 160 Status Credits, but that will fall to just 110 Status Credits
- a one-way business class flight with Virgin Atlantic between London and New York today earns 120 Status Credits, but from 1 October this steps down to 90 Status Credits.
On the upside, Virgin loyalists can look forward to lifetime Velocity status and a new Platinum Plus tier.
Also read: Velocity moves to spend-based status earning
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1025
Qatar - Virgin Europe pricing sweet spot should be $6k return business class per passenger or 120,000 (+$1000.00 tax) - 200,000 (+$150.00 tax) each way per passenger other wises I'm looking at all options.
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1225
I think you will be looking at other options and probably be disappointed in what you can find. $6K return is highly unlikely, something between $9K and $10K is more likely, maybe a little lower off-peak. Even the discount websites rarely have prices around $6K for AU-Europe return in J and that is usually on Chinese airlines with long stopovers each way.
14 Oct 2016
Total posts 115
It never made any sense in the rumour why they would force customers on Qatar flights for South African treks as it at least adds another 8 hours flying time onto the trip.
It also had to be reminded that Qatar is only buying 25%, so I don't think that is enough territory to be wholly in charge of all international partnerships and codeshares.
24 Aug 2011
Total posts 1225
Calling the Velocity revisions a major change for SQ is a bit excessive. The only change is that the VA code is no longer applied to SQ's Europe flights but that doesn't change much for most. Most Velocity travellers to Europe on SQ travelled with an SQ code anyway with the SQ price often much lower than VA offered.
I think those Velocity passengers who choose to continue to travel to Europe with SQ will notice no changes.
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