Turn your power bill into Virgin Australia Velocity points

Australian airlines are finding new ways to attract customers in the battle for frequent flyers, with Virgin Australia and Lumo Energy joining forces to take a bit of the sting out of the ever-rising home electricity bill.

Customers of Lumo – a privately-owned energy retailer serving NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland – can now earn Velocity Rewards points.

There's a 'welcome to Lumo' starter bonus of 10,000 Velocity Rewards points (enough for a flight from Sydney to Melbourne) when you sign your home electricity account over to Lumo for 24 months.

After that you can earn six points per dollar on electricity bills, with the power company promising to remit points to Velocity Rewards accounts within 10 days of receiving payment on a bill.

The availability of points on electricity is a more promising points-earning strategy than getting points on your Optus bill, for example, as most people spend more on electricity than telecoms each month.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should make sure that your Lumo plan costs no more than competing electricity providers – otherwise those Velocity Rewards points could turn out to be very expensive.

Also note that with a 24 month energy contract, providers will typically offer at least a five to 10 per cent discount on standard market prices.

Full pricing for the Lumo Velocity package is availabe at http://www.lumoenergy.com.au/velocity.

danwarne