One of the many perks of being a Velocity Platinum member is the 4 complimentary upgrade vouchers you receive each membership year. These upgrades will see you sitting up front. However, the catch, of course, is that you need to be booked on the Flex fares.
For a limited time, Virgin Australia is offering more choice (surely the pun was intended?!) so you can enjoy the perks of Business Class when using your complimentary UpgradeMe Platinum benefit.
As a Platinum member, you can now request to use your complimentary “UpgradeMe” credits when travelling on eligible routes with a Choice fare, in addition to the Virgin Australia Flex Fares. To clarify: you are still able to upgrade from a Flex fare to Business Class using one of your “UpgradeMe” Platinum credits.
To use your UpgradeMe credits on a Choice fare, the number of credits required will depend on the distance of the flight.
This promotion is valid for travel between 27 September 2023 and 31 March 2024.
How many credits do I need to upgrade?
For all flights up to 1,000 air miles, you will need 2 credits (vs. 1 credit needed on Flex fares). For all flights over 1,000 air miles, you will need 4 credits (vs 1 credit required on a Flex ticket).
How to Use Your Virgin Australia Platinum Upgrade Vouchers?
A handy tip to see if you can redeem your UpgradeMe voucher is to first check if an award seat is available. You can do this by logging into the Virgin Australia website, clicking “book with points”, and looking out for the small logo on the search results page that reads “award seat available”.
If a business award seat is available, you can then call the Velocity Platinum contact centre and process your upgrade request. Ensure you request your upgrade up to 2 hours before the scheduled flight time by calling 13 18 75.
If you’re struggling to find business class award seats on Virgin Australia, check out our guide to Seats Aero.
Conclusion
It’s great to see Virgin Australia making it easier to use the upgrade vouchers on more affordable economy tickets. However, the jump from 1 to 4 vouchers for the same flight could be a deciding factor if you have multiple flights planned for the year or if you intend to also upgrade a travel companion.
