Our weekly frequent flyer wrap

By Chris C., October 24 2014

Want a share of five million Qantas Frequent Flyer points by booking a Qantas flight with your credit card, or the chance to earn Virgin Australia Velocity points and status credits every day from Brisbane to Los Angeles?

Or, are you already Velocity Gold and have been tossing up between the free car hire perks with Europcar and Hertz?

We’ll show you which is best for Aussie travellers, along with how to make your Qantas journeys stress-free with the airline’s updated Android mobile app, which can be synced with your frequent flyer account.

Also in this week’s wrap, how to earn triple Accor Le Club points on Aussie hotel stays through the year’s end, and new Virgin Australia flights within the Northern Territory that will serve up those all-important points and status credits.

Virgin Australia Velocity Gold: Europcar, Hertz car hire perks

It’s natural to expect perks such as airport lounge access and priority check-in once you’ve run the race to Virgin Australia Velocity Gold, but these members also get a few nifty benefits with either Europcar or Hertz.

But choose wisely – even with both offering free upgrades, priority assistance and rewards in return for your ongoing loyalty, the Europcar and Hertz programs are far from equal.

We’ll show you what each scheme has to offer, and which is the best choice for Australian business travellers.

Virgin Australia goes daily on Brisbane-Los Angeles flights

Come Sunday, Virgin Australia’s Brisbane-Los Angeles flights jump from four-times-weekly to daily, giving Queensland-based high flyers even more opportunities to earn and redeem points and status credits.

Unlike Qantas, Gold and Platinum Velocity members can use their points to lock in an upgrade to either premium economy or business class from the moment they’ve booked, rather than waiting until closer to departure as you’d find with the Red Roo.

To make way for the new flights, Melbourne-Los Angeles faces the axe, although Velocity members will be able to earn points on United’s new Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights between Melbourne and LA by crediting to KrisFlyer, and then by converting those miles into Velocity points from next month.

Qantas brings travel alerts, boarding passes to its Android app

Frequent flyers using the Qantas mobile app on Android-powered phones can now view their flight's gate number, boarding time, status, baggage carousel details and more, along with their digital boarding pass.

To make things easy, travellers can link the app to their Qantas Frequent Flyer account. By attaching your membership number to any Qantas booking as you normally would, the app can then automatically track that journey from start to finish.

Read more: Qantas updates Android app

American Express cardholders can win a share of five million frequent flyer points when booking a Qantas flight through to November 6, 2014.

It’s as simple as answering the question "What would you do with 250,000 Qantas Points?" in 100 characters or less and then using your AMEX card to purchase the ticket.

Better yet, you don’t need a card issued directly by American Express Australia to be in with a shot – customers with an AMEX issued by one of the ‘Big Four’, including the CBA Diamond Awards, NAB’s Qantas Rewards, Westpac Earth Black and ANZ Frequent Flyer Black, are also welcome to enter.

Enter now: Five million Qantas frequent flyer points up for grabs with AMEX

Earn Velocity points and status credits between Darwin and Alice Springs

Virgin Australia will kick off flights between Darwin and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory from March next year, allowing Velocity members to earn both points and status credits on the direct flights.

Economy flyers that work their way to Gold or even Platinum status when flying from Darwin and also elsewhere across Virgin Australia’s network will have a new lounge to enjoy in the Territory capital from early next year.

Also read: New Virgin Australia lounges coming for Perth, Darwin in 2015

Earn triple Accor Le Club points on Aussie hotel stays

Travelling within Australia? You’ll be able to earn triple Le Club points on stays at over 170 Accor hotels nationwide as part of the chain’s new ‘Threedom’ promotion.

That includes brands such as Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel and Mercure, where today you’ll go from earning 25 points per A$14.42 to 75 points on the same outlay.

Silver, Gold and Platinum members of Le Club already earn bonus points on every stay – and while this promotion multiplies the base-level earning rate before any status bonuses are applied, you can earn the ‘Threedom’ points alongside your usual status bonus.

Register for the deal now: Earn triple Accor Le Club points on Aussie hotel stays

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