Virgin unleashes double Status Credits and Points promo
Get ready to ‘double dip’ and set your Velocity status or points balance soaring.
By Staff Writers, May 7 2026
Just days after Qantas sprang an unexpected promotion for a double serve of status credits or points, Virgin Australia has responded in kind – only with a much more generous travel period.
While the current Qantas offer restricts eligible flights to the period of 12 May – 31 August 2026, Virgin’s Pick Your Bonus 2026 promo extends its bounty through to 31 December 2026.
While travellers can choose to collect double Status Credits or double Velocity Points, Status Credits have become far more crucial to members of the airline’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program since it controversially moved to spend-based status in April 2025.
Whereas Qantas determines status credits based on a mix of flight distance and fare class, Velocity now directly ties the number of Status Credits earnt to the cost of your airfare.
The standard rate is pegged at one Status Credit for every $12 spent on Economy Choice, Economy Flex, and Business fares; for the cheapest Economy Lite fares, this drops to one status credit for every $24 spent.
Under that spend-based model, to earn the 250 Status Credits needed to hit Velocity Silver requires spending at least $3,000 on Virgin Australia flights, with at least $6,000 worth of tickets for Velocity Gold and a minimum $12,000 for Velocity Platinum.
So you can appreciate why the opportunity to earn double Status Credits could unlock a torrent of forward bookings for Virgin – because it effectively halves the amount you need to spend to reach any given status tier.
On top of this, the airline says this is the only Pick Your Bonus offer it will run in 2026 – so this is the time to strike, while the double Status Credits iron is red-hot.
Eligible flights are domestic, trans-Tasman and international short-range flights to the likes of Bali, Fiji and Vanuatu, “marketed and operated by Virgin Australia.”
This rules out all codeshare flights with partners such as Singapore Airlines and United Airlines, as well as Virgin’s Doha flights which are “operated by Qatar Airways for Virgin Australia.”
Also ruled out are “domestic flights flown as part of an international long haul journey.” For example, if you fly from Perth to Sydney to connect to a United Airlines’ flight to San Francisco, that Perth-Sydney leg will attract only the normal serve of Status Credits or Points.
Just be sure to activate the Pick Your Bonus 2026 offer on the Velocity website before you make any bookings – and then lock in all your flights by midnight AEST on Friday 15 May 2026.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1080
From a marketing and revenue perspective, Virgin is playing second fiddle to the two Wonder Women at Qantas.
The Platinum Plus tier, which launched last year, has delivered no meaningful benefit beyond the priority team, who are fantastic, but if that's all you get for 24,000 status credits, the value simply isn't there.
07 Mar 2022
Total posts 71
I'd say QF forced their hand, and it won't be the last time. Qantas also seems to be targeting the premium flyers with what they are doing, as someone said "it's not the 1980's, look after the premium flyers Dave".
29 Mar 2017
Total posts 32
It does feel like Virgin are just chasing Qantas. I'm curious as to how their SC changes have impacted loyalty. It has been a significant factor for me personally.
QF
11 Jul 2014
Total posts 1080
A bit of insight for everyone: at Virgin, one status credit was worth $6.00 on average, dropping to $3.00 during double status credit promos. I have the historical data to back this up. What Nick R effectively did was devalue the status credit by 50%, which means they can now run more double status promotions and still come out ahead on revenue.
The real letdown, though, has been the launch of the new Platinum Plus tier. A global brand wouldn't have allowed this to happen with such a weak marketing support package — they didn't even bother updating the coreflute banners at the gate entrances to reflect the new tier. If there were a marketing awards ceremony, VA would walk away with the "Gong" award.
The question now is whether they can fix the Platinum Plus tier and make it a genuine challenger to Qantas loyalty. At least Pepsi got it right when they took on Coke's dominance in the 1990s — VA needs to take a page from that playbook.
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