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Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka believes the airline can win business from higher-cost rivals such as Qantas.Credit:Bloomberg
The loyalty program, called “Virgin Australia Business Flyer”, is a concerted push from the airline to capture a 33 per cent slice of the domestic market.
The new rewards program, which replaces the older Accelerate program to be discontinued from today, lets members “double dip” by earning Velocity Points as an individual while earning points for their business at the same time.
“It’s going to be very hard for any business owner to look past Virgin Australia when choosing a domestic airline partner,” said Ms Hrdlicka.
Members are separated into three tiers depending on how much they spend on flights every year.
Tier one members, those who spend $9,999 or less per year, will earn one point per $1 spent on eligible flights. Tier two members, who spend $10,000 to $49,999 every year, will get 1.4 points for every $1 paid for flights, while tier three members, spending $50,000 to $300,000 a year on flights, will get 2 points every $1 spent.
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All three tiers will get 4 per cent off flex economy fares, 6 per cent off business class fares, and a discounted lounge membership at $379 a year.
The airline will also return the service frequency of key business routes, including the ‘triangle’ of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane - to pre-pandemic levels.
Those who spend at least $2,000 on flights in the first three months of becoming a member will be gifted two Velocity Pilot Gold memberships.
Members of the Accelerate program will be automatically rolled onto the new Business Flyer program.
Accelerate customers will get bonus Velocity Points for their business if they have travelled between January 1 and February 28 this year, as well as backdate the last 12 months of travel spend that will allow them to jump tiers.
Virgin’s new program makes it comparable to rival Qantas’ Business Rewards scheme that also splits members into three tiers.
Qantas’ program sees the business receiving a proportion (20, 30 or 40) of Qantas points for every 100 points the individual flyer earns.
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