Virgin Australia wants a bigger share of your travel dollar. If you hold Gold status or above in a competing Frequent Flyer Program like Qantas, here’s your chance to earn a free status match to Velocity Gold.

The gratis status, dubbed Switch-A-Roo Discover Gold comes with a 3 month validity during which time all the commensurate benefits such as lounge access, priority check-in and boarding etc will be yours to enjoy. You will also be offered an easy pathway to extend the status for a further 12 months (total 15 months) or better still, a shot at earning Velocity Platinum status.

Here’s everything you need to know about the promotion;

• Firstly, you need to be a member of Velocity Frequent Flyer Program. If by any chance you aren’t, you can sign-up here. Membership is free, unlike, you know who 😉
• The promotion starts today and is open until 26th September 2022. However, there are only a limited number of Switch-A-Roo Discover Gold places so you will want to get-in-quick.
• Only status holders from competing programs are able to request the status match. This means that if you hold status with any Virgin Australia partner airlines such as United, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways etc, you are not eligible.
• If your status match application is approved, your Velocity membership will be upgraded to Velocity Gold for 3 months. You can extend it by another 12 months by flying one eligible sector and earning at least 80 status credits during that time.
• If you hold the equivalent of Velocity Platinum status or above in the competing program, you are also able to fast-track to Velocity Platinum status by flying two eligible sectors and earning at least 200 status credits during the trial period. Note that all 200 status credits must be earned on flights flown with a VA flight number and operated by Virgin Australia.
• This promotion is not available to members that have held Silver Status or above with Velocity since April 2020.

Applying for Switch-A-Roo Discover Gold

As mentioned earlier, the last date to get your application in is 26th September 2022. Once you have established that you meet the eligibility criteria;

• Send an email to switcharoo@velocityfrequentflyer.com. In the email, provide your full name and Velocity membership number.
• Also include evidence of your status in the competing program, this can be in the form of a picture of your Frequent Flyer Card showing your current status.
• Velocity will assess your application over the next 4 weeks. If approved, you will be upgraded into a 3-month Switch-A-Roo Gold trial.

It is important to remember that you must hold Platinum status or above to be eligible to participate in the fast-track to Velocity Platinum part of the promotion. In other words, if your status in the competing program is equivalent to Velocity Gold or below, you will not be upgraded to Velocity Platinum even if you fly the 2 eligible sectors and earn the required 200 status credits.

In Conclusion

Virgin Australia is making a strong play for the loyalty of Australian Frequent Flyers. Although status holders from multitude of programs are eligible to apply, the promotion is almost entirely focussed on enticing high value Qantas Frequent Flyers to switch allegiances.

Virgin frequently offers promotion such as Pilot Gold or Discover Gold to bring mew members into the fold, but those promotions usually only get you the Gold status. It is rare for the airline to provide a pathway to Velocity Platinum status. And with Virgin Australia now boasting a very strong roster of partners such as Qatar Airways, United and Singapore Airlines, there has never been a better time to earn status with the airline.

Are you a Velocity Gold or Platinum member? Leave a comment below.