South African Airways and Virgin Australia bring new benefits to frequent flyers

21 November 2014, South African Airways and Virgin Australia have today announced a reciprocal frequent flyer agreement giving Velocity Frequent Flyer and Voyager members the ability to earn and redeem Points and be recognized across both airlines’ networks.

From early next year, Velocity members will be eligible to earn Velocity Points and Status Credits on all South African Airways operated services, including Airlink and SA Express, while Voyager members will be able to earn Miles on all Virgin Australia operated services, on all domestic, short-haul and long-haul international routes.

Velocity members will be able to use their Points to purchase Reward Seats on all South African Airways operated services in either Economy or Business Class, while Voyager members can do the same across the entire Virgin Australia operated network in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class.

Velocity Frequent Flyer Chief Executive Officer Neil Thompson said: “This is an exciting extension of the bilateral codeshare agreement Virgin Australia launched with South African Airways in October this year.

“Having the ability to earn and redeem Points as well as enjoy a number of premium services like priority check-in, priority boarding and lounge access with South African Airways is an important benefit for our members.

“We continue to find innovative ways to reward our members and extending the ability to utilise points on our growing international network is important to our most valued customers,” Mr Thompson said.

Executive SAA Customer Loyalty, Ms Suretha Cruse said: “South African Airways is delighted to build upon the strong relationship we have with Virgin Australia. We have had very positive feedback since code-sharing on Virgin Australia’s domestic network and this will only further enhance our customers’ experience.

“We are very pleased to be able to offer our valued Voyager members with new mileage earning and redeeming opportunities when they fly on the Virgin Australia network, and look forward to welcome Velocity members on the award-winning services of SAA,” Ms Cruse said.

For more information visit www.velocityfrequentflyer.com or www.flysaa.com.

Velocity Frequent Flyer is the multi-award winning loyalty program of Virgin Australia. The program launched in 2005 bringing competition to the loyalty landscape in Australia for the first time by offering genuine and unique rewards to its members. 
 
Today, the program has a membership base of more than 4.5 million. The program gives members the ability to earn Points when flying to nearly 600 destinations worldwide with Virgin Australia or any of its 11 airline partners including Air New Zealand, Delta Air Lines, Etihad Airways, and Singapore Airlines. It also offers an extensive portfolio of more than 130 hotel brands and a partnership with Agoda, giving members the ability to earn Points at more than 400,000 hotels around the world. Velocity Frequent Flyer has the widest retail offering of any loyalty program in Australia with more than 200 retail brands in its online e-store, which launched in 2008 and a wide range of credit card options to suit the different needs of its customers.
 
Velocity Frequent Flyer continues to bring unique innovations to the Australian market and in 2014 became the first loyalty program to partner with Australia Post and Aussie Home Loans giving members brand new ways to earn Points on everyday spend.
 

Media Contact:
Libby Armstrong (Virgin Australia)
+61 400 814 573
libby.armstrong@virginaustralia.com

Tlali Tlali (SAA)
+27 82 333 3880
tlalitlali@flysaa.com