Velocity Points Redemption Post Virgin Australia Voluntary Administration Mega Thread

Update 22 April 2020: This is now the Velocity Points Redemption Mega Thread in light of Virgin Australia entering voluntary administration on 21 April 2020. All Velocity Points Redemption discussions post voluntary administration with be merged into this thread.


Am I the last person in Australia to try and redeem velocity points?

is everyone else smashing this web site right now?

im trying to find any old crap to buy

Poll Options

  • 313
    you are to slow
  • 32
    on there right now
  • 130
    relax bro it will be fine

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Comments

  • +20

    I probably about to loose a lot of points, but I still have a job so can’t complain.

    • +10

      And you are alive. I think that's more important.

      • +1

        Very true.

    • +1

      Yeah. Me too.

      Sad for them but looks like there are still a lot of love for Virgin Australia so let's hoping SingAir is one of the partner airlines with BFG Private Equity.

    • +5

      280k here. FML

      • +2

        Had 800k in there. Transferred most out to KF, left 100k in VFF still

        • +4

          Nice well done. I saw Virgin on the news over the past week but the velocity points didn't click in my head until now :(

    • Should be fine. Even if VA goes under, Velocity is set up as its own entity and is quite profitable. A devaluation of points is possible. My guess is that VA will be saved. Plenty of vulture opportunists just waiting to grab a firesale bargain.

      • +1

        Doubtful. Just because it’s seperate does not mean anything. Points have no value unless you have an airline to go with it. FF points are a liability to an airline that is in administration. It would be the first thing to be wiped or at the very minimum, re-calculated to make it harder to redeem.

        • I know this reply is super late, but this is completely illogical.

          Virgin was not very profitable, and the most profitable asset in the entire company is the Velocity rewards program. It would be idiotic to ruin the one profitable part of the company, hence those points are as safe as houses.

    • +1

      Velocity is a separate company. Relax.

  • +8

    Life is not worth living if one loses 6 figures Velocities.

    Disclaimer : I have none.

    • same here…whats a velocity point?

      • +2

        Its like money but you can only spend it one place and you lose it. Congrats!

  • Is there a way to transfer to krisflyer points or something? Feels like such a waste since I've been saving up for ages now

    • +4

      Used to be but that stopped

      • Damnit, ah well, thanks for your reply!

  • +5

    Redeemed $100 Westfield gift card on 4/4, hoping it gets sent out..

    • same boat

    • +1

      Similar story, I redeemed on the 15/04, hopefully they'll be fulfilled without any issues

    • +1

      I redeemed for Westfield gift cards on 4/4-8/4, one a day. The first 2 arrived today

      • Hm mine should be tomorrow then, since my order was placed at 7pm..

  • I’m trying right now. The website crashed.

  • Need to cash out QFF too

    • why

      • +23

        So we don’t get another post from you asking the same thing again

        • +1

          provided your life with some reading, so the post must be more interesting than whatever else you do

          • +3

            @Donaldhump: I know where to search if I’m desperately bored.

            • +1

              @cloudy: Haha still proves his point I guess..

              • @illumination: Nar, I just checked it coz I wrote about this a month ago, telling people should redeem FFP as airlines might go bust.

    • Already have 😉

  • Managed to buy a pair of Asics this evening but had to be very patient with the website.
    Still have points to spend though.
    With the westfield gift cards are they accepted at every shop in a westfield centre eg Coles or Woolies?

    • yes it is EFTPOS card just like cash every where

    • Ive used them at Woolworths before

    • Don’t even need to use them at a Westfield. I’ve been using them at my local Coles.

    • +1

      My gut says you won't get them :(

  • website not available

  • +3

    I managed to get an order through on Velocity wines before it went down. Unfortunately the main velocity site was already crapping out. But I think $500 worth of wine will certainly make isolation more interesting.

    • +7

      where do you live im moving in

  • +2

    Burnt the points on gift cards about a week ago, still waiting for them to arrive…goodluck

    • I did them about 3 weeks ago - cards arrived within the week.

  • +1

    Here's to hoping they don't go into voluntary administration.

    I did my JB Hifi gift cards 18/3, arrived 27/3 so it did take some time.

    • Yeah I have orders on the 3-Apr and 15-Apr.

      Neither have arrived.

      Funny how most people (myself included) didn't max out their spend until today.

      I kept enough points to get home (business class of course) for Christmas. That may not happen now. :-(

      • +1

        I'm surprised your redemption from the 3rd hasn't arrived yet. Mine from the 3rd came on Thursday or Friday last week (Melbourne Metro). Should be fine. My redemption from the 5th and 14th hasn't arrived yet. Like you, still have some points to redeem and locked out of the site.

    • I ordered mine on 23/03. Arrived 09/04.

  • I thought the gig was up about 4 weeks ago - used my last 9,100 points on a swiss ball in late March - still hasn't arrived, or even had dispatched notification

    • Anyone able to still get in? I'm getting 'site can't be reached errors', but am making it through occasionally. Redeemed 340k worth of gift card points, but had 60k left!

      • I'm trying to get in too, but getting 504 gateway time out.

        I've got 6 digits of points, though less than yours waving…

        • +2

          Keep trying. I've added an item and made it to checkout. Think it's still open, just getting slammed!

          • +1

            @waving: I got it! Got a 50k item. Took about 20-30 attempts to get through the various steps of checkout, but it was successful and I received the email with confirmation. If it comes, it will be a miracle.

            I am going to keep trying for the last 30k of points, but can live with losing that amount.

            Who knows.. It might all be for nothing.

            • +1

              @waving: the speedos come up no problems under sports and fitness….

  • You should have read my post.

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/526224

    Next we’ll see someone using afterpay on a item not delivered and can’t get afterpay to refund.

    • i did read it! :) lol - and forgot about it

  • Am I missing something? I can't find westfield giftcards anywhere on the estore

    edit: Nevermind, I was looking in the estore section instead of the shop velocity points section

  • +1

    Phew, I thought I had about 70-80k in points but turns out I only had ~600 points. I think I cleaned out my points during black Friday sales last December! Thank god for those bargains!

    • +24

      what because of the the 1 in a 100 chance an airline goes bust due to a 1 in a 100 chance of a pandemic

    • +1

      What other options do you have?

      You either earn:

      • Some form of loyalty points (FlyBuys, AMEX Membership Rewards, Bankwest More Points, Virgin Velocity, Qantas Frequently Flyer, CBA Points, ANZ Points, NAB Points)
      • Cashback (on cards like the HSBC debit, and a long time ago, MEBank/Citibank/ING)
      • Nothing

      So the only way your comment makes sense is if you use cashback, i.e. HSBC, or you earn nothing. And even then, that's only on transactions of $100 and below (PayWave).

  • +5

    Same boat as OP - Put in 2 orders - for a giftcard from jbHifi on 16/4 and earlier today (20/04) for a Bose headphone (QC 35-ii).

    Don't think they will be honoured as Velocity/Virgin would have to be a going concern (business to be expected to continue running as usual) for the partners (Westfield, Myer, JB Hi-fi)to fulfil the orders which isn't the case now.

    But the FAQs on the website show that once an order is placed via the online shop with points, the onus is on the delivery partner to deliver the item… ( https://shop.velocityfrequentflyer.com/faqs)

    Read the below earlier that gave me some hope… (https://www.savings.com.au/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/…)
    " In the case of Virgin Velocity, it is actually a separate division to the airline run as a different division within the airline.

    Founder and CEO of iFlyFlat Steve Hui, aka the Points Whisperer, said Virgin Velocity was valued by the company at around $2 billion before COVID-19 struck, and isn’t automatically gone if the airline goes.

    “The Velocity program is a profitable business with over 10 million members and is a very strong loyalty marketing powerhouse,” he told Savings.com.au.

    “I believe Velocity points will continue to have a life even if Virgin the airline changes, but the value of the points and the redemption options and airline partners might change a little depending on who buys the Velocity business.”

  • weird, desperate to redeem and now my login show someone called gregory g with 40k point less than mine

    • +3

      book a flight for him

    • +15

      book a flight to wuhan

    • Mine is doing something weird too, I went to check out and now the page says my account name is Leigh something instead.

      • Yeah. Mine has just loaded as Paloma Drehs. She has 243,000 points to spend.

        • Platinum status as well… I was only ever red..

          • +20

            @waving: If anyone gets my account, can you please process a westfield gift card for me? I'm off to bed.

            • @waving: Haha was about to say we should track these people down and buy things for each other

    • Wow logged out and in and this happened to me too

    • +1

      Oh man, that's a big security stuff up. It's a pretty classic exploit but for it to happen accidentally means they're doing something very wrong.

      • What exploit are you referring to?

        • I was thinking generally of manipulating authentication tokens to tell the browser (and hence the website) you're logged in as someone else

    • it's gregory griggs and his 21 wigs

  • +1

    Got ~280k Velocity Points. https://shop.velocityfrequentflyer.com/ is down. Can't redeem. I'm a bone head. It just didn't click to me earlier

    • I'm in the same boat plane mate :(

    • +4

      I didn't blow my points earlier because I honestly didn't think they would go under.

    • 250k points here and $200 travel credit.
      Told my wife our honeymoon will be downgraded.

  • +1

    Anyone else getting "We could not retrieve your Velocity Points balance at this moment. Please try again later."?

  • noob question - What happens to the reward bookings on their partner airline?
    I've a booking with Etihad booked using Virgin points. Will it be honored or if I were to cancel the booking now, will I get my points and money back?

  • +1

    Can only hope someone like Coles buys the FF part of the business

    • and instantly devalues the points by half….

      • +1

        Better than $0 tbh

  • +3

    I also redeemed a set of earphones today and it showed the delivery partner as Harvey Norman. Took maaaaaaany clicks to get through all the "unable to load" and "gateway time-out" messages but it did finally go through.

    My order is now showing as Pending on my profile and no confirmation email received, so I do not have high hopes. In any case, worth a try!

    • Same here, points were deducted but no confirmation email.. couldn't load the page to see if my order was pending.

      fingers crossed it get's honored

      • +1

        Same, ordered headphones - delivery partner was Harvey Norman.

        Points deducted but got a confirmation email which had the below contact:
        Partner contact details:
        [email protected]

        • Did the same. Got the same email. Hoping they come through.

  • Is the site completely down now? I was able to navigate through it for a while but not any more… Just when i found a gift card that wasn't out of stock!

    • Trying to get into checkout for a Dyson fan and a speaker. Uh. Lol. Got to the last checkout page but constantly crashing

      edit: how tf does dyson go out of stock when you can't even checkout :(

    • its shagged

  • +1

    As far as I can get…

    https://imgur.com/a/buMNggv

  • +1

    was finally able to check out

    • Me too - $100 westfield gift card - hopefully it goes through

    • +1

      what time? even with the error above?

  • 3 hours of trying but order went through for dyson fan and speaker. points deducted and got confirmation email. fingers crossed it's fulfilled by HN. 230k points order fingers crossed

    • I'm similar to you. I got the 131k Dyson fan at just after midnight (12.02am) on 21 April 2020 (AEST). After an hour of clicking and time outs, I finally managed to redeem it and received the email almost instantaneously. Now just hoping it get provisioned by Harvey Norman.

  • +1

    Looks like they've closed down the store.

    • What are you seeing?

      • Still there. They just removed a link from the main page.

  • Just tried to go through checkout, but upon trying to sign in it appears they've disabled the ability to sign in with your Velocity account to actually redeem the points.

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