Last day for Virgin ‘Switch-a-Roo’ Qantas status match

Virgin Australia is inviting frequent flyers with rival Qantas to parlay their status with those airlines into Gold or Platinum membership in Virgin’s own Velocity rewards program – but those frequent flyers will need to move fast, as the offer ends at midnight Friday May 24 and is “limited to the first 3,000 eligible applicants.”

The status match will elevate any Velocity Red or Silver member to Velocity Gold – or more specifically, to what Virgin calls Discover Gold – with that gratis status theirs for three months.

To keep that Velocity Gold status for a full year, all you need to do is

• take one eligible Virgin Australia flight, and
• earn 80 Status Credits during the three-month Discover Gold trial period

Given that Velocity Gold usually requires 500 Status Credits, this is an exceptional shortcut on the road to Gold.

And if you currently hold Platinum (or equivalent) status with a competing airline, earning 200 Status Credits on flights with a VA flight number operated by Virgin Australia will lock in Velocity Platinum status for 12 months.

Virgin Australia lounge access is a key drawcard of Velocity Gold status.

Velocity Gold and Platinum come with the usual perks such as lounge access, a higher checked baggage allowance (excluding Lite fares), priority boarding and priority seating – they also deliver equivalent perks with selected partners such as Air Canada, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines.

Also, don’t overlook the potential of Family Pooling to have the status credits of a family member’s flying funnelled into your Velocity account during this 90-day period (although you’ll still need to make at least one Virgin flight to chalk up that “eligible sector”).

How to apply for the Virgin Velocity status match

You’ll need to hold Gold status (or the equivalent) or higher status in any airline loyalty program that is not a Velocity partner.

Virgin obviously has Qantas in its cross-hairs, but this status match also applies to most other airlines from Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance plus non-aligned airlines such as Emirates.

One business class trip is all it takes to lock down Velocity Gold status until the end of 2024.

Then, fire off an email to [email protected] by midnight AEST this Friday 24 May 2024 with your full name, Velocity membership number and “evidence of other valid non-partner airline frequent flyer membership card indicating the equivalent of Velocity Gold status or higher.”

“Only 3,000 Switch-A-Roo Discover Gold trials are available as part of this promotion, and only the first 3,000 eligible Applications will be awarded a Discover Gold trial,” Virgin says.

“Velocity reserves the right to end this promotion at their discretion, based on the number of Applications received. It may take up to 4 weeks to receive the upgrade into Switch-A-Roo Discover Gold trial status.”

However, note that according to Virgin’s Discover Gold Terms and Conditions, you must not have held Silver, Gold or Platinum Status with Velocity since April 2020.

For more information, visit the Virgin Velocity Switch-a-Roo page.

Looking for a status match which goes the other way, from Virgin Velocity to Qantas? Read our guide to the little-known Qantas Tier Accelerator program.