Virgin Australia Launches Partnership with Qatar Airways

In some exciting news for Australian frequent flyers, Virgin Australia’s unlikely new partnership with Qatar Airways is taking off from 6 September 2022.

Under the new partnership, Velocity Frequent Flyer members can earn points and status credits, redeem points and receive reciprocal status benefits on Qatar Airways flights. The Doha-based Oneworld airline was voted the “world’s best airline” at last year’s Skytrax awards.

Qatar Airways currently flies from Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to Doha, with onward connections to many other destinations. Qatar also serves the Adelaide-Auckland market, and will start flights from Canberra to Doha via Melbourne next month.

Virgin Australia says that its new partnership with Qatar Airways will give its customers access to 57 new international destinations not currently served by existing partners such as Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines or Virgin Atlantic. These will include places such as Almaty, Nairobi, Tbilisi, Helsinki, Oslo, Addis Ababa and Mykonos.

Earn Velocity points and status credits with Qatar Airways

As part of the new partnership, Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways are now codesharing on selected routes. From 6 September 2022, Velocity members can earn points and status credits when flying with Qatar Airways on a VA or QR flight number.

Velocity points will be earned based on the distance flown and the fare class purchased, as per the following tables on the Velocity Frequent Flyer website:

Velocity status credit earn rates on Qatar Airways marketed and operated flights are as follows:

And the following status credits apply when booked on a Virgin Australia codeshare service operated by Qatar Airways:

As an example, a Velocity Frequent Flyer member could expect to earn 560 status credits and at least 43,792 Velocity points for a round-trip Business Class trip from Sydney to London via Doha with Qatar Airways when booked on a “VA” flight number. If booking the QR flight number, the same trip ticketed as a “Business Classic” fare would earn 560 status credits and 27,370 Velocity points.

Redeem Velocity points with Qatar Airways

Already as of 5 September, Velocity members can redeem points for flights in Economy, Business and First Class across Qatar Airways’ extensive international network. Velocity reward seats on Qatar Airways can be booked on the Virgin Australia website.

Reward seat pricing is based on Velocity’s more expensive award chart for partner airline bookings on Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Hawaiian Airlines, South African Airways and now also Qatar Airways.

The following carrier charges do apply to reward seat bookings on Qatar Airways:

Velocity status tier benefits on Qatar Airways

As part of this tie-up, Velocity Silver, Gold and Platinum members can also enjoy some reciprocal status benefits when flying with Qatar Airways. These benefits will come into effect from 12 September 2022. Velocity Frequent Flyer says members will need to carry a physical or digital Velocity membership card to access their benefits.

According to the Velocity Frequent Flyer website, Velocity Silver members will receive priority check-in.

In addition, Velocity Gold and Platinum members will receive:

• Access to Qatar Airways lounges, and
• Priority boarding

Velocity Silver, Gold and Platinum members can also earn 50%, 75% or 100% bonus points respectively when travelling on a Qatar Airways operated codeshare flight with a VA flight number.

Unlike with many of Virgin Australia’s partnerships, lounge access will be offered to Qatar Airways Economy passengers holding Velocity Gold or Platinum status at airports where Qatar Airways does not operate its own airport lounges – not just in Doha. This includes lounges in Australia.

It does not appear that priority baggage or additional baggage allowance is being offered as a benefit to Velocity Frequent Flyer members.

Similar benefits will be available to Qatar Airways Privilege Club members when travelling with Virgin Australia. Passengers of both airlines will also be able to seamlessly connect between each others’ flights on a single ticket.

Virgin Australia’s partner airlines

Virgin Australia currently partners with 12 international airlines:

Velocity ended its partnership with Delta Air Lines in June 2022.

Etihad Airways has been a long-standing Virgin Australia partner and previously offered considerable connectivity between Australia and Europe. But Etihad has reduced its network reach significantly in recent years, becoming more of a boutique airline serving only a handful of major destinations including only two Australian cities in Sydney and Melbourne. (Etihad no longer flies to Perth or Brisbane.)

Meanwhile, Qantas already partners with the two other (now much larger) airlines that make up the “ME3”, or the big 3 Middle Eastern airlines. This has offered Qantas customers a lot more international connectivity.

Qatar Airways’ new partnership with Virgin Australia will level the playing field a bit, and is a significant win for Velocity Frequent Flyer members.

Qatar Airways now partners with both Qantas and Virgin Australia

The elephant now in the room is the fact that Qatar Airways already partners with Qantas, Virgin Australia’s main competitor, through its membership in the Oneworld alliance. There is no indication that Qatar Airways would leave Oneworld as a result of this announcement (nor that Velocity will end its partnership with Etihad Airways).

Although Qantas and Qatar Airways are both part of the Oneworld alliance, the two airlines have historically not really got along. Over recent years, Qatar Airways has also been blocking Qantas Frequent Flyer members from accessing many reward seats to and from Australia.

The new Virgin-Qatar partnership could create some interesting opportunities for people with Qatar Airways Privilege Club status who could soon enjoy benefits when flying with both Virgin Australia and Qantas, as well as the rest of the Oneworld alliance.

This situation has existed before, when Airberlin was both a member of the Oneworld alliance and a Virgin Australia partner. But Airberlin’s former Topbonus program made it very difficult to earn status from flights within Australia, and the airline went out of business in 2017.

With Qatar Airways also recently switching the currency of its frequent flyer program to Avios, this could make the Qatar Airways Privilege Club program more attractive to Australians going forward.

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Virgin Australia and Qatar Announce Strategic Partnership