American Express is offering 100,000 bonus Velocity Points for New Card Members who apply for the American Express Velocity Platinum Card by 15 May 2024.

A minimum spend of $3,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months of approval is required to receive the bonus. T&Cs apply. New Card Members only.

The American Express Velocity Platinum Card has a $375 annual fee, with the benefits helping to offset this including a complimentary domestic return Virgin flight, two Virgin Australia lounge passes for use in domestic Virgin lounges and two more The Centurion® Lounge passes to be used at either the Sydney or Melbourne American Express lounges.


This is still one of the highest Velocity Points-earning cards in the market and is handy for ongoing use for Virgin Australia frequent flyers and Velocity Points hunters.

The American Express Velocity Platinum is a card to consider holding for the frequent Virgin flyer, especially for those who travel in Economy and can make good use of the included lounge passes and complimentary return flight.

Virgin Australia 737 Business Class
Travel between Sydney or Melbourne and Perth in Virgin Australia’s 737 Business Class for 35,500 Velocity Points.

Digging into the benefits of the American Express Velocity Platinum Card

The American Express Velocity Platinum is the card to apply for if you usually fly with Virgin Australia and can take advantage of the bonus points from Virgin Australia spend and accompanying lounge passes.

Card Details

CardAmerican Express Velocity Platinum
Loyalty programVelocity Frequent Flyer
Points earned from spend1.25 Velocity Points earned per $1 on all eligible spend except for government bodies
2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent on selected Virgin Australia purchases
0.5 Velocity Points per $1 on Government spend
Points capNone
Earns points at ATOYes (reduced earn rate of 0.5 point/$)
Travel benefitsEach year:
2x Virgin Australia lounge passes,
2x The Centurion® Lounge lounge visits,
Complimentary Virgin Australia domestic flight
Included insurancesTravel Insurance
Travel Inconvenience Cover
Card Purchase Cover and Card Refund Cover (PDS)
Overseas transaction fee3% of the converted amount
Mobile walletApple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay
Annual fee$375

Earning Velocity points from spend

When using your card in Australia, you’ll receive 2.25 Velocity Points per dollar spent with Virgin Australia, and 1.25 Velocity Points per dollar on all other expenses except for government bodies where you will earn 0.5 Velocity Points per dollar spent.

Your Velocity Points will be swept over to your Velocity account on a monthly basis, and additional card members are free of charge.

Complimentary Virgin Australia domestic return Economy Flight

With the American Express Velocity Platinum Card, you can also redeem the complimentary domestic return flight with Virgin Australia to selected cities each Card Member year.

It differs depending on your departure airport. However, in a nutshell, it is to/from most cities within a couple of hours’ flight time of the departure airport. Read our full guide to this free flight benefit.

Virgin Australia 737 Economy
The free flight benefit could easily recoup your annual fee.

In all likelihood, the complimentary domestic flight will cover the cost of the annual fee of the card alone — or close to, at least.

Virgin Australia and American Express The Centurion® Lounge passes

The American Express Velocity Platinum Card comes with two free single-entry passes to Virgin Australia domestic lounges each year. You can use these passes prior to travelling on a Virgin Australia domestic flight.

Virgin Australia Perth Lounge
Virgin Australia Perth Lounge

If you don’t have Velocity status, this is a nice little perk which will see you enjoy their excellent domestic lounges — save this up for a leisure trip, in our opinion.

Even if you do have Gold or Platinum status (and therefore, a guest allowance), you could use these passes to bring extra guests in.

On top of those, you’ll also receive two access passes to The Centurion® Lounge at Sydney or Melbourne‘s International Terminal with two children travelling with you (when overseas travel is open again). You can also buy additional access at $55 per visit.

American Express Sydney lounge
The Centurion® Lounge, Sydney

Notably, this benefit is only available to the top-tier American Express cards at most banks, so this is quite a perk for a card with a lower annual fee.

Status Credits

Another noteworthy ongoing benefit of the American Express Velocity Platinum Card is the Velocity Status Credits.

American Express is offering 100 Velocity Status Credits as a target for spending $50,000 in 12 months (your membership year) — this applies to both existing and new Amex Card Members and is a neat way of bumping up your Status Credits balance if you are on the hunt for Silver, Gold or Platinum Velocity status.

Velocity status cards
Status Credits are the key to unlocking elite Velocity Frequent Flyer perks.

American Express Plan It

American Express launched ‘Plan It’ in mid-2020, which allows cardholders to create instalment plans that allow for equal payments to be distributed over a 3, 6 or 12 month payment period. There is a monthly fixed fee to access this feature, with up to 10 Plan It plans with a minimum of $150 balance able to be created.

Other Benefits

There is also a range of insurances, including domestic and international Travel Insurance, and Travel Inconvenience Cover available for travel purchased on the card, as well as Card Purchase Cover and Card Refund Cover.

The full PDS outlining the details of all the benefits included with the American Express Velocity Platinum Card can be found here.

This guide references some of the benefits of insurance policies provided with this card. You should read the PDS and obtain independent professional advice before obtaining this product.

Unparalleled mobile wallet integration

American Express cards support Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, meaning you can use this card on your smartphone for easier payments.

Read the Point Hacks guide to using Apple Pay or for using Google Pay and Samsung Pay, including instructions on how to add your American Express card to those services.

With this feature set up, it means you could still use your NFC-enabled phone to make purchases with your American Express account, even if your physical card is lost or stolen and pending replacement.

Eligibility criteria for bonus points for existing American Express Card Members

American Express are quite specific about whether existing Card Members will be eligible for bonus points if they apply for a card, are approved, and meet the minimum spend criteria.

Card Members who currently hold or who have previously held any Card product issued by American Express Australia Limited in the preceding 18 month period are ineligible for this offer.

American Express don’t allow existing Card Members, even for different types of American Express cards (e.g. Charge, Credit or Business) to be eligible for bonus points offers for cards in a different family.

Summing Up

The American Express Velocity Platinum Card is aimed at those really looking to maximise their Velocity earn from spending.

The additional lounge access, insurance and other perks are nice to have but are secondary in importance compared to the high Velocity Points earn potential.

Offer extended! 100,000 bonus Velocity Points with the American Express Velocity Platinum Card was last modified: February 22nd, 2024 by Daniel Sciberras