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The American Express Velocity Platinum Card is our top pick of Velocity cards in Australia, delivering a range of valuable benefits including a very strong points earn rate on spend, a complimentary Virgin Australia domestic return flight each year, lounge entries and complimentary travel insurance.
Right now, new American Express Card Members can also pick up 50,000 bonus Velocity Points with this card, which is a great opportunity to boost your Velocity Points balance and bring your next holiday within reach.
Here’s an overview of the card benefits you can enjoy, with more details and a mobile-friendly application form available via our Amex partner link, here.
1. Earn piles of points on everyday spend
You’ll quickly build your Velocity Points balance by earning 1.25 points per $1 spent on everyday purchases: one of the highest Velocity Points earn rates in Australia.
You’ll earn 2.25 Velocity Points per $1 spent with Virgin Australia, and 0.5 Velocity Points per $1 spent with government bodies.
Hundreds of thousands of merchants accept Amex in Australia, and that number is growing, so there’s no shortage of places where you can earn points with this card.
There’s also no cap on how many points you can earn.
2. Take off with a complimentary domestic return flight each year
After your first card purchase, you’ll be entitled to a complimentary Virgin Australia domestic economy return flight between selected cities.
This benefit is available on each anniversary of your card membership, helping offset most or even all of the $375 annual card fee.
There are many routes to choose from, as you can see in the table below.
| Departure City | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Adelaide | Alice Springs, Brisbane, Canberra, Coolangatta (Gold Coast), Melbourne, Sydney |
| Brisbane | Adelaide, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Emerald, Hamilton Island, Hobart, Mackay, Melbourne, Newcastle, Proserpine, Rockhampton, Sydney, Townsville |
| Hobart | Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney |
| Melbourne | Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Coolangatta (Gold Coast), Hamilton Island, Hobart, Launceston, Mildura, Maroochydore (Sunshine Coast), Newcastle, Sydney |
| Perth | Adelaide, Geraldton, Kalgoorlie, Melbourne, Sydney |
| Sydney | Adelaide, Albury, Ayers Rock (Uluru), Ballina/Byron, Brisbane, Canberra, Cairns, Coffs Harbour, Coolangatta (Gold Coast), Hamilton Island, Hervey Bay, Hobart, Launceston, Maroochydore (Sunshine Coast), Melbourne, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Townsville |
| Other cities | Click here to see the routes from other cities. |
It’s easy to reserve the flight online or over the phone, and you can book it for yourself or any person you choose.
3. Enjoy four airport lounge entries each year
Relax before your next flight in style, even if you’re flying economy.
Each year, you’ll receive two passes to a Virgin Australia lounge, which gives you access to some very stylish spaces to kick back in. The passes will be loaded onto your Velocity membership card.
On top of that, you’ll get two entries each year to the exclusive American Express Lounge at Sydney Airport international or Melbourne Airport international. Simply show your American Express Velocity Platinum Card at the door to get in.
Relax in a lounge before you fly
If you’re travelling with a partner, they can use one of the passes to enter with you.
We’d value these lounge passes at more than $50 each – so there’s over $200 of value here each year.
4. Earn 100 Velocity Status Credits when you spend $50,000 in a year
Attain elite status with Virgin Australia faster by receiving 100 Status Credits when you reach $50,000 of eligible spend on your card within a membership year.
Eligible spend is all spend made by you and additional card members, except cash type purchases like travellers’ cheques and foreign currencies, and interest, fees and charges on the account.
This is a very useful perk for frequent flyers chasing status, as you only need 250 Status Credits to attain Silver (200 to keep it in subsequent years) or 500 Status Credits to attain Gold (400 to keep it in later years).
The higher your status, the more perks you enjoy – like extra Virgin Australia lounge passes when you hit Silver and unlimited lounge access when you reach Gold.
5. Travel securely with domestic and overseas travel insurance
You’ll receive comprehensive travel insurance cover when you pay for a return trip with your card or use Velocity Points to book.
The insurance covers you, your partner and dependent children 22 years of age or younger for:
- inconvenience (flight delays, cancellations or missed connections, and delayed luggage)
- medical emergency expenses up to $2,500,000
- damaged, destroyed, lost or stolen baggage, money or documents
- travel cancellation costs
- personal liability.
The full insurance T&Cs are available to view here.
6. Earn more points, save money and enjoy other lifestyle benefits
There are many other perks to enjoy with this card, including:
- up to 4 complimentary additional cards for family members over 18 years of age – an easy way for your household to earn points faster
- up to 55 days interest-free on purchases (the interest rate thereafter is 20.74%)
- a 0% p.a. balance transfer for 12 months, with a one-off establishment fee of 1% (T&Cs apply)
- Refund and Purchase Protection
- Amex Offers: save money with regular discount offers, like the recent $50 back on spend with David Jones and small merchants
- Amex Invites: access sought-after events like music, theatre and film, including via pre-sale tickets, and enjoy exclusive lounges at selected events.
Plus 50,000 bonus Velocity Points
Receive 50,000 bonus Velocity Points when you apply online , are approved and spend $3,000 on your new card within the first 3 months.
You could use these bonus points together with the points earned on spend to fly overseas with Virgin Australia or one of its partners. For example, you could fly from Melbourne or Sydney to Hong Kong with Virgin Australia in economy return (55,600 points plus taxes) or one way in stylish business class (59,500 points plus taxes).
Use your points to enjoy Virgin Australia business class
This offer is only available to new American Express Card Members. That means you must not have held a card issued directly by American Express Australia in the last 18 months. However, you are eligible for this offer if you’ve held an Amex card issued by a bank (i.e. Westpac, ANZ, CBA or NAB) or if you’re an additional card member on someone else’s account.
The minimum income to qualify is $65,000.
This is a great opportunity to pick up a top-quality card with many travel and lifestyle benefits, while also giving your Velocity Points account a big boost.
To read more and apply, click here (mobile friendly).
Important: This article is not intended to suggest that you should apply for a credit card. You should seek independent, professional advice and consider your personal circumstances before deciding to apply for a credit card.
If you apply for a card via a link in this article, we may receive a commission from Amex. This income helps keep our site running, and we thank you for your support.
Read more in our Credit Cards Disclosure.
Do you know if both yourself any your partner can apply separately and both receive the 100,000 points. Furthermore, whether you could be additional cardholders on each other’s account to manage the minimum $1000 monthly spend? Many thanks!
Hi Kylie, yes you and your partner can each open an account to get 100k points each. As for then getting additional cards for each other’s accounts – I’m not sure, but I think that should be ok, as I’ve tried something similar in the past (but it was a few years ago).
Hi, thanks for this, great tip. I had applied before 4 April expecting a 100k point bonus but notice that the marketing now says bonus is only 50k points. I was approved a couple of weeks back and I ust received my card so I haven’t yet had the bonus credited. Should I expect the full 100k bonus points?
Hi, yes if you applied via our link for the 100k offer that amount will be credited to your account once you meet the minimum spend 🙂