Do you have an American Express card that earns Membership Rewards Points? Great, depending on the card you hold, you can currently earn a 15-20% bonus when you transfer points to your Velocity Frequent Flyer account by 16th March. The offer is not targeted and anybody with a card can benefit from it.

Additionally, if you have the business version or the corporate version of premium American Express cards, there is also an opportunity to score free upgrade to Velocity Gold or Platinum status when you transfer a certain number of points.

Redeem Velocity points to fly Singapore Airlines Business Class (currently suspended)

How does it work

Ordinarily, American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to Velocity in the ration of 2:1 (2 Membership Rewards points = 1 Velocity point). However, until 16th March, you have an opportunity to earn a further 15-20% bonus on transferring points.

Specifically:

• You will receive 20% bonus points when you transfer points from your Platinum, Business Platinum or Centurion cards.
• You will receive 15% bonus points for transfering points from all other American Express Cards.

Retain or Upgrade your Velocity Status

If you have a card that participates in American Express Membership Rewards Business Ascent or Corporate Ascent Program, you may be able to retain your current Velocity status or upgrade to a higher status by transferring a minimum number of points.

Specifically:

• To receive an upgrade to Velocity Gold membership for 12 months, Business Ascent members and Corporate Ascent members must transfer a minimum of 500,000 Membership Rewards points. These are equivalent to 250,000 Velocity points at the same 2:1 ratio as the personal cards.
• To receive an upgrade to Velocity Platinum membership for 12 months, Business Ascent members and Corporate Ascent members must transfer a minimum of 1,000,000 Membership Rewards points (the equivalent of 500,000 Velocity Points).

Note that there is no requirement to transfer all the points in 1 transfer, as long as you can transfer enough points to meet the requirements by 16th March, your Velocity membership will be extended or upgraded.

I should also point out that any status awarded as a result of transferring points is valid for the 1st year only. If you wish to retain the status in subsequent years, you are required to meet the normal qualifying conditions linked to the status. You can read more about various levels of Velocity membership, benefits and associated conditions over here.

The other thing to note is that when flying Virgin Australia, Platinum and Centurion card-members already have access to Virgin Australia lounges, however, the upgrade to Gold or Velocity status comes with many added benefits such as bonus points on flights, priority check-in and boarding, higher baggage allowance, free upgrades to business class and more.

Velocity Platinum members have free access to economy-x seats that provide up to 40% extra legroom

In Conclusion

Velocity points are some of the easiest points to earn in Australia, so unless you have confirmed travel plans and a specific redemption in mind, I wouldn’t recommend you take advantage of this offer.

However, if you are sitting on a mountain of American Express Membership Rewards points and Velocity points are the main frequent flyer points currency you accumulate, it may make sense to transfer points and pocket the bonus. If you wish to read more about earning Velocity points, check out one of my earlier posts via this link.

Do you plan to transfer points? Leave a comment below.