Velocity Frequent Flyer offers new parents an up to six-month pause on their elite status when welcoming a new addition to their family. It’s worth taking up if you have Velocity Silver status or above.
Point Hacks founder Keith previously took advantage of this benefit twice in five years for his two children. It helped him maintain his Velocity Gold status during periods of travel downtime. Qantas also has a similar program, called Status Hold.
What are the benefits of Velocity’s Membership Pause?
Velocity’s parental leave scheme allows a new parent to apply for a six-month pause in their Velocity status, after which their current tier is renewed for a further 12 months.
Both parents can apply for Velocity parental leave when caring for a child under two years of age, including adoption. During this time, you can continue to earn Velocity Points and Status Credits and also get to keep using the benefits of your existing status.
Once the six months are over, you’ll be comped another 12 months of status, unless you’ve earned enough Status Credits to elevate yourself to the next status level.
Members on Membership Pause for Parental Leave who are also members of the Virgin Australia Lounge may be entitled to have their lounge membership paused or extended too.
Am I eligible for Velocity’s Membership Pause?
The eligibility criteria are relatively simple. You need to have:
- Velocity status (Silver, Gold or Platinum) to put on parental leave
- a child under two years old in your care and be willing to provide evidence of that, which can be:
- a doctor’s certificate
- a birth certificate
- adoption or foster parent registration
There may be up to two member parents on parental leave, for the same child, at any one time. Members are limited to one approved parental leave application each two years.
When should I apply for Velocity’s Membership Pause?
Given your child can be up to two years old before you apply for your parental leave, you should time your application to earn the most impact for your own circumstances.
Specifically, consider applying for parental leave near the end of your current membership year. This means you will benefit more from the 6-month status pause and subsequent 12-month extension.
If you were at the beginning of your membership year, then you are effectively wasting a portion of that period by taking out Membership Pause early.
How do I apply for Velocity’s Membership Pause?
It’s fairly easy to apply for Membership Pause, although you won’t be able to do it online.
- Phone the Velocity Membership Contact Centre (see the contact numbers at the bottom of this page)
- Request a membership pause for parental leave
- Provide any relevant documentation as required
Comparing Velocity and Qantas’ parental leave programs
As mentioned earlier, Velocity Frequent Flyer also has a parental leave program that is similar to Qantas’ in most regards, but with some other minor quirks. Here is our unbiased comparison of the two programs.
- You’ll get the same-length status extension with either program
- Qantas allows for an 18-month extension
- Velocity grants an initial 6-month pause, followed by a further 12 months of status
- You can use the benefit more often with Velocity
- Qantas members are limited to using two Status Holds in five years
- Velocity allows one Membership Pause every two years
- Velocity does not require you to be on leave from work
- Qantas requires documentation that you are taking at least six consecutive months off paid employment
- Conversely, Velocity does not impose this requirement
- Velocity is more generous with the age of the child
- With Qantas, you must start Status Hold from three months to six months after birth or adoption
- With Velocity, the child must be under the age of two to be eligible for the Membership Pause
- Qantas is more generous for adoptive and foster parents with older children
- With Velocity, children must be under the age of 2, regardless of the relationship
- With Qantas, adoptive and foster parents can apply if the child reaches 3 or 16 years of age, respectively
Summing up
Membership Pause is great for Velocity elite status holders who are or have recently become new parents. Make sure to time your application to extract maximum benefit from the status hold and to provide documentation if requested.
You can find more information on the Membership Pause for Parental Leave on the Velocity website.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, your children can join Velocity Frequent Flyer. Don’t forget to set up a Family Pool with them, so any points and Status Credits your kids earn can be pooled to your account.
You can apply for Velocity parental leave once every two years.
Yes, you can still earn points and Status Credits while on parental leave. You could even ascend a new status tier.
This article was originally written by Matt Moffitt.
Hi PH team,
If my baby is due in May but my membership renewal date is 2 April, can I still apply for the 6 month parental leave Pause from 31 March onwards with an OB letter?
Thanks!
A couple of interesting things I found out going on to Parental Pause. 1) During the 6 month pause you lose certain benefits – in my case I did the pause just at the end of my 12 months of Platinum so when the pause period commenced I lose the 4 Platinum upgrades I had on my account. 2) When you get the 12 mont period after the extension- you then need to earn 800 SC to keep Platinum. Any SCs earned in the 6 month pause period are in theory wasted – this is very different to how Qantas scheme works where your SC balance is frozen in time.
It looks to me that VA is not offering +12 months comp status anymore:
“You can pause your Platinum, Gold or Silver membership for six months and pick up where you left off with your membership level intact.”
read further down :
At the end of the Membership Pause, you’ll maintain your existing Status level for a further 12 months, unless you’ve earned enough Status Credits and flown the required number of Eligible Sectors to upgrade to a higher Status level.
BTW this can be done online via Chat on VFF site
Hi – wife’s due in March, and my Gold is up for review in June. I’m not likely to move up to platinum by June, which means as far as I can tell there’s actually nothing to be gained from earning more SCs between now and June, or indeed between now and when the six month pause would end. Because in May/June (ie just before Gold review date) I would apply for a pause, earning 6 months plus 12 months comp, and would do so on the basis of my current gold status, not on whether i had earned enough SCs to retain that status, and moreover any SCs I earned now would be well and truly expired by the time I have a new review (i.e. 18 months after the pause commenced). Is that right? If it is, i would just direct my SCs to my wife through family pooling because she can actually make use of them to advance from silver to gold, and because of the way the pause operates I don’t actually need them to maintain my gold status.
Hi seaniimt
Yes, your logic seems correct to me. Eligible Velocity members can pause their status membership for a 6 month period and then following the pause, can resume that membership level for a further 12 months. As such, if you pause just before your renewal, you will gain 6 months plus a further 12 months, as you have stated.
It would, therefore, be optimal, as you suggested, to direct future SC’s to your wife’s account, given all status credits earned during the pause would expire prior to the following review period, 18 months later.
Thanks Daniel, that’s very helpful!
Hi,
I know this is totally different point what I am raising….
My Gold Status is due to review on 19th Sept and for sure I wont have anything to complete that… I am back on the planes from 22nd Sept and should have what it required to in 30 days or so…. any idea do velocity extend the review dates just by days…?
Hey Keith,
Wanting to confirm about the timings on this. Now supposedly planning to have a baby in Feb 2018, while Gold membership expires on Apr 2018, but have acquired the necessary SC to maintain Gold.
Am I correct in assuming that it’s best to wait until Mar/Apr 2019 nearing the end of the next Gold period before starting the pause, which means you get an extra 18 months of Gold for free (without maintaining the SC)?
Totally right – leave it as long as it makes sense to do so for your travel plans and status to ensure you can make the most of the parental leave!