Virgin Australia Group entered Voluntary Administration yesterday. It was announced that Deloitte was appointed as the administrators, meaning they have assumed responsibility for the business and operations of those companies in administration. The intention of the administrators is to bring the relevant Virgin Australia Group companies out of administration as quickly as possible and return to normal operations. Virgin Australia’s loyalty program, Velocity, is a separate company and was not impacted or placed in administration. However, they just sent notice to their members that they are freezing award redemptions, interestingly blaming the freeze on unprecedented and increased demand for gift cards, electronic goods, and wine while planes are mostly grounded. Full details below:
As a valued member of Velocity and a keen traveller like us, we’re committed to keeping you updated throughout these uncertain times of coronavirus and reduced travel.
We wanted to share some information with you regarding temporary changes to the Velocity program and what this means for you.
We’ve made the difficult decision to pause all redemptions for an initial period of four weeks, effective immediately. This means you won’t be able to redeem your Points for rewards during the pause.
We know how much you love to plan your travel and use your Points to redeem flights, however the ongoing travel restrictions and reduced flights have limited the options for you to use Points for flights. We’re seeing more members use Points to shop online for items such as gift cards, electronic goods, and wine. This unexpected demand has made it difficult for our suppliers to provide these offers and limits the availability for all members to redeem their Points.
What you need to know:
- Your Points aren’t going anywhere. They will remain in your account.
- Your existing Points will not expire through this period. We will be extending the expiration period for your existing Points by the timeframe of the pause.
- You can continue to earn Points with our partners, although you won’t be able to redeem them during the pause.
- These changes take effect immediately. Although the initial timeframe for this restriction is four weeks, this period may be extended. We will come back to you with an update as soon as we can.
What’s next?
Velocity has a trustee in place to look after the interests of members. We will continue to assess a range of options for the program and we want that to include a continuation of our long-standing partnership with Virgin Australia.
We thank you for your patience, loyalty, and understanding in these challenging times.
The Velocity Frequent Flyer Team.
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