Your Virgin Australia, Qatar Airways partnership guide

Since its 2022 debut, Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways partnership has quickly become a prized asset for both Velocity and Privilege Club members, delivering perks from reciprocal lounge access to global travel on a single ticket. 

Virgin’s 11 million-plus Velocity members can also earn Velocity Points and Status Credits for flights operated by Qatar Airways, as well as use points to book flights across all Qatar Airways cabins – including first class and Qsuites business class.

Of course, there are handy benefits for Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club members too, such as racking up Avios and QPoints on flights operated by Virgin Australia. 

Putting their best foot forward: partners Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways.

Here’s how the Virgin Australia, Qatar Airways partership works.

Virgin, Qatar codeshare flights

A codeshare pact unlocks the full network of both airlines. That means Qatar Airways flights to over 150 destinations worldwide sport a VA code, while the QR prefix appears on all Virgin Australia flights – allowing passengers to journey from Cairns to Sydney on Virgin Australia (for example) and then seamlessly connect to a Qatar Airways Sydney-London flight, all on one booking. 

Virgin, Qatar ‘earn and burn’

Under the Virgin Australia / Qatar Airways partnership, frequent flyers can choose which ‘currency’ they earn when travelling on either airline – Velocity Points or Avios –  according to which rewards program membership is entered against their booking. 

The same applies to Virgin Australia’s Velocity status credits and Qatar Airways’ Privilege Club Qpoints.

Velocity members flying on a Qatar Airways operated flight with a VA flight number earn:

And on a Qatar Airways operated flight with a QR number, they receive:

The other side of the coin is Virgin Australia frequent flyers can use Velocity Points to book seats on Qatar Airways, while Qatar loyalists can turn their Avios into a Virgin Australia flight.

This includes award redemptions on Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways business class.

The exact number of points and status credit earned by Privilege Club members of Virgin Australia operated flights is yet to be revealed.

Redeeming Velocity points with Qatar Airways

Frequent flyers keen to step aboard Qatar Airways can redeem Velocity points for flights in economy, business and first class across the Middle Eastern airlines’ full network.

Reward pricing is determined by zones/miles flown, based on the same Reward Points table used on Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airways flights. Simply search the route on Virgin’s Mileage Calculator to find the number of miles, which then correlates to the table. 

You can trade in your Velocity Points for a flight in Qatar Airways' superb Qsuite.

As an example, a one-way flight from Sydney to Doha is 7,691 miles (12,305 kilometres). This equates to nine zones in the Partner Reward Points table, with a minimum of 121,000 points required for a business class flight, and 177,000 for first class.

Bonus Velocity Points on Qatar Airways flights

One of the appreciated perks of status is the ability to earn bonus points. That continues under the partnership, with Velocity Platinum, Gold and Silver members travelling on a Qatar Airways operated flight with a VA flight number, earning Points bonus on miles flown in addition to the Base Points earned.

Silver members earn 50% bonus Points; Gold members earn 75% bonus Points and Platinum members earn 100% bonus Points in addition to the Base Points earned.

Virgin, Qatar lounge access

Top-tier members of the Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways frequent flyer programs also enjoy access to the other airline’s lounges.

For Qatar Airways, Privilege Club Gold and Platinum members can access any Virgin Australia lounge (excluding the invite-only Beyond, of course) ahead of their domestic VA flight. On-arrival access is not permitted. 

Privilege Club members can enjoy access to Virgin's extensive domestic lounge network.

And if there’s a Velocity Gold, Platinum or Beyond card tucked into your wallet, that’s your pass into Qatar Airways’ premium lounges around the world.

However, at Qatar’s Doha hub, lounge access is restricted to the same lounges as frequent flyers of Qatar Airways and Oneworld partners – the Platinum and Gold lounges for Velocity Platinums and Golds, respectively – rather than the more salubrious Al Safwa First Lounge and Al Mourjan Business Lounge, which are for Qatar Airways’ own first class and business class passengers.

More info on Virgin Australia domestic lounge access for Qatar Airways Privilege Club members can be found here.

Virgin, Qatar status benefits

While lounge access is generally the most appealing and obvious benefit of status, there are plenty of other perks which will also cascade down to Velocity and Privilege Club frequent flyers – such as priority check-in and boarding, a more generous luggage allowance and a bonus serve of Velocity Points or Avios.

It’s easy to determine which perks your status attracts, as the Virgin Australia Velocity and Qatar Airways Privilege Club tiers are neatly aligned:

• Velocity Silver = Privilege Club Silver
• Velocity Gold = Privilege Club Gold
• Velocity Platinum = Privilege Club Platinum

Qatar Airways is in fine company one of 15 Virgin Australia partners, with others on the list including Air Canada, All Nippon Airways and United Airlines, in addition to Etihad Airways and Hawaiian Airlines.