Since I was lucky enough to win Gold Status with Virgin Australia in a ProBlogger competition this summer I have been reaping the rewards of having airline status for the first time in my life. As I had no idea what exactly Gold Status with Virgin Australia entailed before now I thought I would spell out in layman’s terms how it has changed my travels.
Note: this post is not sponsored or endorsed by Virgin Australia/Velocity Frequent Flyer in any way. If you want to know the full list of status benefits click here.
What Do You Get For Gold?
On Virgin Australia Flights
- Gold status entitles you to Premium Check-In. I haven’t had to queue for more than 3 minutes to check into any Virgin Australia flights since going gold.
- Your luggage also gets priority and therefore comes out first the other end.
- You can enter the Priority Screening Lane at security.
- When I fly from Sydney on a domestic Virgin Australia flight there is a Premium Entry that takes you straight to the lounge from the drop off without having to enter the main terminal. (Carry on baggage only – if you’ve got checked baggage you’ll need to take that to the priority check-in lane.)
- Lounge entry to all Virgin Australia lounges. In Australian domestic terminals these tend to be spacious areas with a wide range of booze (there’s often far more alcohol than food!). There are a range of snacks on offer according to the time of day. My favourite time is breakfast when you can choose from crumpets, raisin toast and pancakes. There’s also fruit, salads, yoghurt and coffee by Grinders (available all day). There are newspapers in the lounges but no magazines that you can take away with you (strangely). There’s free and fast wifi though that is pretty reliable.
- Gold members also get Priority Boarding – there’s a separate lane as well as being called forward first.
- One of my favourite benefits is that you get a 75% Points bonus when earning airmiles with Virgin Australia and some travel partners – making it much easier to save enough points for upgrades and reward redemptions.
On Partner Airlines
You also get many of the above benefits when flying with Virgin Australia’s global partners. I recently flew with Singapore Airlines (on an economy ticket) and noted the following benefits:
- Gold partners can use the Premium Check-In and Premium Security lane on the outbound leg of their journey. My final destination was Bangkok where I discovered I wasn’t granted access to the premium security lane coming in or out of that location.
- You get priority luggage and extra allowance.
- You also get entry to the Singapore Airline lounges. I checked these out at Sydney, Singapore and Bangkok airports and found a decent spread of food – including Asian dishes and Western dishes such as lasagne, sandwiches and cakes – and drinks including local beer and fresh coconut water.
- You get Priority Boarding although on a large long haul flight I like to hang back and board last!
- I didn’t get the 75% points bonus on the Singapore Airline flights.
I’m yet to check out the benefits on other airlines but the Virgin Australia partners include: Air New Zealand, Delta, Etihad, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, Hawaiian Airlines and Air Berlin.
Find out more about Velocity Frequent Flyer here.
Do you have Gold status with an airline? How does this compare?
