‘VA, UA, let’s go!’ That’s the uplifting chant uttered by the cheerleaders at Virgin Australia’s launch party at Sydney Airport. United Airways is now officially a partner of Virgin Australia. The US-based carrier boasts a large network in the States and also has the most comprehensive flight connections to Australia.
If you’re a Velocity Frequent Flyer member, you can now use Velocity Points to book United flights through the Virgin Australia website. United replaces Delta as Virgin’s US-based partner, with Delta to exit the partnership on 13 June 2022. Until then, you can use Velocity Points to book either airline.
And until 19 June 2022, you can activate an offer with Velocity Frequent Flyer that will reward you with bonus points and Status Credits when you take a United flight out of Australia by 31 December 2022.
- Economy: 2,500 bonus points and 25 Status Credits.
- Premium Economy: 5,000 bonus points and 50 Status Credits.
- Business: 7,000 bonus points and 70 Status Credits.
Next up for Virgin Australia is a new partnership with Qatar Airways, set to start ‘sometime’ in 2022.
How to use Velocity Points with United
Great news – United will sit on the Virgin Australia reward table, which requires fewer points than most other partner airlines. So whether you’re soaring from Sydney to Los Angeles or from Milwaukee to Chicago, you’ll enjoy favourable reward seat rates with Velocity Points.
| Distance travelled | Economy | Premium Economy | Business |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - 600 miles | 7,800 pts | 11,700 pts | 15,500 pts |
| 601 - 1,200 miles | 11,800 pts | 17,700 pts | 23,500 pts |
| 1,201 - 2,400 miles | 17,800 pts | 26,700 pts | 35,500 pts |
| 2,401 - 3,600 miles | 22,300 pts | 36,700 pts | 49,500 pts |
| 3,601 - 4,800 miles | 27,800 pts | 44,700 pts | 59,500 pts |
| 4,801 - 5,800 miles | 34,800 pts | 53,700 pts | 71,500 pts |
| 5,801 - 7,000 miles | 39,800 pts | 62,700 pts | 83,500 pts |
| 7,001 - 8,500 miles | 44,800 pts | 71,700 pts | 95,500 pts |
| 8,500 - 9,500 miles | 54,800 pts | 83,700 pts | 111,500 pts |
| 9,500 - 15,000 miles | 59,800 pts | 95,700 pts | 127,500 pts |
Both the Sydney-Los Angeles and Melbourne-Los Angeles routes will require 95,500 Velocity Points + taxes in Business Class. United’s unique Sydney-Houston flight – which recommences at the end of October 2022 – commands 111,500 Velocity Points in Business.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to locate any Business reward availability between Australia and the USA, yet. But you will have better luck on other routes including domestic USA and trans-Atlantic routes.
How to earn Velocity Points with United
Like most of Virgin Australia’s partners, you can earn Velocity Points on United based on the fare you book and the distance you travel (in miles). If you’re booked on a Virgin Australia codeshare (VA flight number operated by UA), then the following rates will apply:
- Business (J, C, D): 2 Velocity Points per mile
- Economy (Y, B, W, H, K, L): 1 Velocity Point per mile
- Economy (R, E, O, N, V, P, Q, T, I, S): 0.5 Velocity Points per mile
If you’re booked on a UA flight number operated by United, then a broader range of earn categories will apply.
| UA Fare Type | UA Fare Classes | Velocity Points |
| Business | J, C | 1.5 points per mile |
| Discount Business | D, Z, P | 1.25 points per mile |
| Premium Economy | O | 1.25 points per mile |
| Discount Premium Economy | A, R | 1 point per mile |
| Flexible Economy | Y, B | 1 point per mile |
| Economy | M, E | 1 point per mile |
| Economy | U, H | 0.75 points per mile |
| Economy | Q, V, W | 0.5 points per mile |
| Economy | S, T, L, K, G, N | 0.25 points per mile |
If you hold a Virgin Australia Travel Bank, you should be able to apply the value of your credit to any United flights bookable on the Virgin Australia website (including codeshares with the VA flight number).
American Express Velocity Platinum
- Sign-up Bonus:
- Up to 100,000 bonus Velocity Points¹
- Rewards Earn Rate:
- 1.25 Velocity Points earned per $1 on all eligible spend except for government bodies⁵. 2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent on selected Virgin Australia purchases⁵. 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 on Government spend⁵
- Annual Fee:
- $440 p.a.
- Offer expires
- 30 April 2026
- The American Express Velocity Platinum Card has 70,000 bonus Velocity Points on offer for new American Express Card Members who apply, are approved and spend $5,000 on eligible purchases within the first 3 months of approval, plus an additional 30,000 Velocity Points when you spend a minimum of $1 on your Card within 90 days of paying your second year annual Card Fee¹. (Offer ends 30 April 2026. New Amex Card Members only. T&Cs apply.) Includes several perks such as Virgin Australia Lounge Access² every time you fly domestically with Virgin Australia, 2 VA Guest Lounge Passes³ each year and a Complimentary Domestic Return Virgin Australia Flight⁷.
Velocity Points status bonus with United
Good news if you hold Velocity Silver status or higher – you’ll earn even more Velocity Points when flying with United on a UA or VA flight number.
- Silver members: 50% more points
- Gold members: 75% more points
- Platinum members: 100% more points
How to earn Velocity Status Credits with United
Get ready to turbocharge your Velocity Status Credits balance with United. When flying on a VA flight number with United, you’ll earn:
| Distance flown | Choice fare | Flex fare | Business fare |
| 0 – 750 miles | 15 | 20 | 40 |
| 751 – 1,500 miles | 20 | 30 | 60 |
| 1,501 – 3,000 miles | 25 | 40 | 80 |
| 3,001 – 5000 miles | 35 | 60 | 120 |
| 5,000 – 8,000 miles | 45 | 80 | 160 |
| 8,001 + miles | 55 | 100 | 200 |
And if you’re just flying United with a UA flight number, be sure to include your Velocity membership number on the booking to earn:
| Distance flown | Discount Economy | Economy | Premium Economy | Business |
| Fare classes | U, H, Q, V, W, S, T, L, K, G, N | Y, B, M, E | O, A, R | J, C, D, Z, P |
| 0 – 750 miles | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 |
| 751 – 1,500 miles | 15 | 30 | 45 | 60 |
| 1,501 – 3,000 miles | 20 | 40 | 60 | 80 |
| 3,001 – 5000 miles | 30 | 60 | 90 | 120 |
| 5,000 – 8,000 miles | 40 | 80 | 120 | 160 |
| 8,001 + miles | 50 | 100 | 150 | 200 |
Don’t forget to consider using Velocity’s excellent Family Pooling benefit if you’re travelling with a family member or children who share the same address as you. You could collect everyone’s points and Status Credits into your account, reaching your status goals even faster!
Earning United miles on Virgin Australia
Are you a member of United and want to earn more miles while dashing around Australia? You’ll earn miles based on either the fare you paid or the distance flown, depending on how you bought your ticket.
For United tickets starting with ‘016’
| MileagePlus Premier status | Award miles earned |
| Member | 5x the fare |
| Silver | 7x the fare |
| Gold | 8x the fare |
| Platinum | 9x the fare |
| 1K | 11x the fare |
For all other tickets on Virgin Australia
| VA Fare Type | VA Fare Classes | United miles earned |
| Business | J, C | 150% of mileage |
| Discount Business | D | 125% of mileage |
| Full Fare Economy | Y, B | 100% of mileage |
| Economy | W, H, K | 100% of mileage |
| Discount Economy | L, A, R, E | 75% of mileage |
| Deep-discount Economy | O, N, V, P, Q | 50% of mileage |
| Deepest-discount Economy | T, I, S, F | 25% of mileage |
| Basic Economy | M | 25% of mileage |
| Groups | G | 25% of mileage |
| Reward seats | Z, U, X | 0% (not eligible) |
Reciprocal elite perks
Elite status members of both programs can enjoy reciprocal perks when flying with the other airline.
United Premier Gold, Platinum and 1K members are eligible for:
- Priority check-in, boarding and security (where available).
- One additional complimentary checked bag.
- Virgin Australia domestic lounge access.
Meanwhile, Velocity Gold and Platinum members will have these perks on United:
- Priority check-in, boarding and security.
- One additional complimentary checked bag.
- Limited United lounge access depending on the itinerary booked (more below).
Velocity lounge access with United
Velocity Gold and Platinum members enjoy access before some United flights, although access has been somewhat trimmed compared to the Delta days.
- If you’re departing Sydney or Melbourne in Economy or Premium Economy on a United flight, you’ll have access to the Singapore Airlines SilverKris lounges before your flight. If you’re flying in Business Class, you may be able to access other Star Alliance lounges as well.
- Domestic lounge access within the USA is restricted to Gold and Platinum members holding a ticket with an international leg in conjunction with the domestic leg. Access is only given to United owned and operated lounges. Flights on separate tickets won’t be eligible. Flying USA domestic First Class won’t get you in either – but that’s standard across all airlines in the States.
- International lounge access is limited to United owned and operated lounges with a same-day international boarding pass. Access to other lounges, such as Star Alliance lounges, is not included unless you fly Business Class.
Summing up
As the Virgin Australia and United Airlines partnership gets ready to soar, we now know all the details of how Velocity Frequent Flyer members can benefit. Remember, the most important step is to make sure your Velocity membership number is attached to your United flight booking.
The points earning rates are a little on the lower side for Business Class, but it’s fairly standard in all the other cabins. At least Velocity elite status members will enjoy bonuses from 50-100% bonus points. The Status Credits earn rate is good across the board, particularly if you’re using Family Pooling.
Does this mean I can transfer virigin points to united?
No, but you can book United reward seats with Velocity Points via the Virgin Australia website.
Hi,
I would like book a bassinet for a flight from Sydney to San Francisco which are available on United flights but not Virgin flights. If I were to book with United I can request a bassinet at the time of booking but not when I book the same United flight through Virgin. Do you know anything about this?
I booked a business class award flight using QFF points. It was cancelled and Qantas ended up putting me on a cash flight with United Airlines. I’m confused but happy about that. However, I have tried many many times to add my Velocity number to the booking in order to benefit from those points. System says no. I even tried ringing both Velocity in Australia and United in Chicago and both operators say I can’t. I have joined Mileage Plus but don’t plan on traveling a lot in USA so may not use them. So my question to this forum is: How can I add my Velocity credentials to this flight OR can I transfer the Mileage Plus points to Velocity after the flight?
How do we go about getting these 95500 velocity points for business class seats Melb to LAX / SFO?
On Velocity’ s frequent flyer portal they are in the millions for business class.
Hi Rod, you need to find days with ‘reward seat’ availability which is 95,500 points. A paid tool such as seats.aero can help you find them quickly.
Looking ahead, I can see multiple seats from Melbourne to Los Angeles in Business for 95,500 pts on limited number of dates including: 25 Jan, 13 Feb, 9 March, 17 April and 10 June 2024.
According to VA velocity website platinum’s get an extra 23kg baggage allowance when flying United. If I am flying from Canada to USA on UA, will I get my first bag free or will I pay the 50$ bag fee? Can’t seem to find this answer anywhere.
You get 1x23kg on top of the ticketed allowance, so if the ticketed allowance has no free checked baggage, the first bag (1x23kg) is free courtesy of status. Works well on UA domestic flights as well.
Thanks heaps!
What about Reward flights. You get no baggage with a reward flight. Does the Platinum member get an additional bag with the Reward domestic flight.
Hi Michael, short answer, yes.
If I book Economy class flights through Virgin Australia that includes United flights, can I use Velocity points to upgrade to business class?
Hi Martin, you will only be able to upgrade the VA-operated sectors with Velocity Points.
If you hold a Virgin Australia Travel Bank, you should be able to apply the value of your credit to any United flights bookable on the Virgin Australia website (including codeshares with the VA flight number).
The VA rep I spoke to on the phone says I cannot use my Travel Bank funds with code share United (considerable $$ as I had originally booked VA Premium Economy LAX-Perth return March 2020)
Can you confirm this is so, having a huge credit with VA and living in the US is no good to me
Hi Paul, I was able to apply a VA Travel Bank to a United codeshare flight to LAX. Have you been able to apply the credit online?
Question – if you are flying United Domestic, do you get any luggage allowance or does the additional bag only apply to International flights
Hello and thank you for your excellent article…are there ways to use Platinum Velocity to upgrade to business class or Points to upgrade to Business??
Thanks in advance
Keen to know this one too please .. don’t have enough Virgin Aust points to get a business class flight immediately but will have in a couple of months so hoping there’s an opportunity to upgrade a flight we’ve booked via Virgin or direct with United
Also very interested in this question. We would like to use velocity points to upgrade our recently purchased united flight from economy to premium plus if available.
You wont be able to. For some reason Virgin doesn’t have this infrastructure yet.
Following some frustrating time on the phone, I refunded my tickets and purchased through Singapore to utilise Krisflyer miles.
Any hints please to get SYD – HNL – LAX business. I can’t do the long sectors. Thanks
United released a batch of award seats overnight varying between one to 4 plus seats. These appear to be available using Velocity (dates listed below).
BE CAREFUL FOLKS!
The VA booking engine shows each flight twice when you click through a date, once with the VA flight number and then the UA flight number.
The former (e.g. VA8000 SYD-LAX) shows dynamic award pricing (1,055,000 points for one way business)!
The latter (e.g. UA842 SYD-LAX) the award chart pricing of 95,500 points.
Co-payments are relatively small.
I have been monitoring award availability to and from US daily for about 6 weeks. UA appears to release award seats in batches. A big batch a month or so ago. Then nothing. Now another batch overnight. don’t give up – be patient!
SYD-LAX
8 July
9 July
11 July
14 July
15 July
17 July
18 July
…many dates up until…
31 July
SFO-SYD
14 June
4 July
25 July
31 July
Good luck!
PS. Them’s business class awards…
Hi platy, thanks for sharing this. We will share this on our social and credit you for the info. Cheers.
@ Brandon
No worries, mate.
You and the PH team are doing a great job!
Do you have any tricks/hacks for searching business reward availability? I can’t see an option to search by class on the virgin website. It’s so frustrating going in day by day.
@ Cassie
Search them out on United’s website first. They pop up as 80,000 points. Under flex dates you can search in monthly blocks. Input one person. The number of seats shows on the award option. Run through single sector options (e.g. SYD-LAX one way) and select business class for each search.
Go back to Virgin’s website once you have identified any award availability.
Options include (and the returns):
SYD-LAX
SYD-SFO
MEL-LAX
MEL-SFO
Later in the year they’ll add Houston.
You can also quickly check for Air Canada availability (also redeemable on Virgin points)
YVR-SYD
YVR-BNE
Thanks Platy, that’s a good hack
@ Cassie
No worries, Cassie, just make it happen! Just booked my wife a SYD-LAX//SFO-SYD to see her family out of the above availability.
What are the taxes like on UA awards booked with VA points?
Lower than Delta, in most cases. Not too exorbitant.
From my efforts today, they are not offering any premium United reward seats. There were no business class seats for any of my searches and it doesn’t even seem to search for Premium Economy. Domestic US routes had very little availability. It was easy to get Aus-US economy rewards (for lets face it very low points charges) but that was all.
Do you know when it all becomes official (nothing on the website yet) and if we can use travel bank credits on united flights?
Doesn’t look like you can use travel bank. Flights live now.
When booking a codeshare flight on United such as VA8000, I can see an option to pay by Travel Bank.
Nothing mentioned about Virgin Gols/Plat members getting access to Economy Plus and vice-versa United Gold/Plat to Economy X. Would this be included too?
Hi John, this is something we’ll confirm with Virgin at the launch tomorrow.
Any chance this was confirmed (or denied) today?
Hi was this confirmed at all?
Hi all, there’s currently no reciprocal access to United’s Economy Plus and Virgin Australia’s Economy X. Each airline reserves that benefit for its own flyers at this point in time.
Can Velocity points be used on United flights within the USA?
Yes, you will be able to.
So… Velocity Gold doesn’t get domestic lounge access within the USA but United Gold gets domestic lounge access within Australia? Plus the luggage allowance within the USA is way more generous for United gold than Velocity. Feel like Velocity members are getting shafted.
Based on the above, if a gold Velocity status member flys a domestic United flight, they will not be given lounge access unless that flight is to connect to an international flight. Is that right?
If so, what a shame I liked using Delta lounges for domestic US flights.
Hi Cassie, your interpretation is correct. Stand-alone domestic lounge access has been removed.
Nothing mentioned about United members flying on Virgin Australia.
I am a United Million Miler living in Australia and I want to know what perks I get if I fly on Virgin within Australia
Thanks, this has been added in.
Myself included. When I am booking, I am logged in with my United Mileages Plus so how can I also add my velocity number? So that I am getting points in both accts?