Virgin Australia: Velocity site crashes and accounts frozen

With Virgin Australia going into administration, the company has frozen the accounts of around 10 million Velocity Frequent Flyers.

Velocity members effectively become unsecured creditors, so they along with people who have flight credits, or have existing bookings face an uncertain future.

The Velocity redemptions website reportedly crashed on Monday afternoon under the weight of people trying to redeem their points before the company went into administration.

Astute Velocity members would have seen the writing on the wall some time ago when other restrictions were placed on redemptions. Even smarter members would have transferred their points to another program like Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at the first hint of difficulty.

For more detail, access the Velocity statement here.

2PAXfly Takeout

Velocity members should brace themselves to lose all their frequent flyer points, and possibly any advance bookings, or booked redemptions. That’s the worst-case scenario. If the airline is saved, then you may hold on to your points.

‘Velocity has a trustee in place to look after the interests of members. We will continue to assess a range of options for the program and we want that to include a continuation of our long-standing partnership with Virgin Australia.’

Statement on the Velocity website

If that makes you angry and frustrated, think what it must feel like to be one of the 16,000 employees and contractors who could potentially lose their livelihoods if no rescue package or purchaser can be found.