How to earn Velocity Points without flying

Most Velocity Points held by Australians are never earned in the air. The clever flyer treats flights as the reward and earns the points on the ground — through groceries, the right credit card, a well-timed sign-up bonus and a handful of shopping partners. This guide walks the main levers in priority order, with the strategy that ties them together: route your existing spend, don't manufacture new spend. Velocity is Virgin Australia's program; for the full picture of what your points can do, see our Velocity program guide.

Start with the supermarket: Flybuys and Coles

This is the single biggest reason Velocity is so easy to grow from everyday life. Flybuys — the loyalty program behind Coles and a rotating set of retail partners — lets you convert Flybuys points into Velocity Points. For most households the weekly grocery shop is already happening, so this is points for spending you can't avoid.

A few habits make the difference:

• Scan your Flybuys every shop. Unscanned spend earns nothing.
• Watch the bonus-points offers in the Flybuys app and load the ones that match what you'd buy anyway. Targeted offers are where the real volume comes from.
• Link Velocity as your nominated program so your Flybuys points have somewhere to go instead of sitting idle. Conversion settings and ratios can change, so confirm the current arrangement in your Flybuys account before you rely on it.

The Qantas equivalent runs through Woolworths/Everyday Rewards; Velocity's runs through Coles/Flybuys. If you're picking sides, see Qantas vs Velocity — but there's nothing stopping you from running both ecosystems in parallel.

Credit cards: the heavy lifting

Cards do two jobs, and it's worth separating them.

Cards that earn Velocity directly

Some Australian cards earn Velocity Points on every dollar, or are co-branded with Virgin Australia. These suit people who want points landing in their Velocity account automatically with no transfer step. Earn rates, caps and annual fees move constantly, so rather than quote a figure that will drift, see the current line-up on best cards for Velocity.

Flexible cards that transfer in

The more powerful approach for many people is a card earning a flexible bank rewards currency that you can move to an airline program when you need it. Flexibility is the advantage: you keep options open and only commit points once you've found a seat. Which currencies actually transfer to Velocity — and at what ratio, with any active transfer bonus — changes over time and isn't always cleanly documented, so don't assume a relationship exists until you've confirmed it. Check the live position on our transfer hub before you move anything, and browse the full field on the cards page.

A simple way to compare a card's real worth — earn rate, fee, sign-up bonus and all — is the card value tool.

Sign-up bonuses: the biggest year-one haul

Nothing on this list earns faster than a sign-up (welcome) bonus. A single bonus can dwarf a year of grocery and card-spend points combined, which makes it the centrepiece of any ground-earning plan. But chase them responsibly:

1. Only apply if you'll clear the minimum spend on normal expenses — never buy things you don't need to hit a target.
2. Mind the fine print: eligibility often excludes recent or existing cardholders, and bonuses can be time-limited.
3. Protect your credit file. Space applications out; too many in a short window can hurt approvals.
4. Plan the exit. Know the second-year fee and whether you'll keep, downgrade or cancel before it bites.

Because bonus sizes and conditions change frequently, we don't publish a static number here — the current offers live on the Velocity cards page.

Shopping and dining partners

Velocity has an online shopping mall and dining program that pay bonus points when you click through before buying, or register your everyday card at participating restaurants. The points per dollar are modest next to a sign-up bonus, but they're genuinely free if you were going to make the purchase anyway. Two rules:

• Always start at the Velocity Shopping portal for any online purchase — the bonus only tracks if you enter the retailer through the click-through link.
• Stack where you can: portal bonus + your points-earning credit card + any Flybuys offer on the same transaction can layer up nicely.

Putting it together: a simple strategy

The whole game is redirecting money you're already spending, not spending more to chase points.

A sensible sequence for a year: open one card with a strong welcome bonus and meet the spend on real expenses; route groceries through Flybuys; point recurring bills at a card that earns Velocity or a flexible currency; and use partners opportunistically. Stack channels on the same dollar wherever the rules allow.

What earning is actually for

Earning is only half the equation — value is created when you redeem well. Velocity Reward Seats on Virgin Australia's own metal use published zone tables, while standout partner redemptions (think Qatar Airways business class) are priced on partner tables and are typically best value at the front of the plane. To see what your balance could actually book from MEL, SYD, BNE, PER, ADL, OOL or CNS, browse the award-flight pages. Two realities to keep front of mind: taxes, fees and any carrier/fuel surcharges are paid in cash on top of your points, and award availability — not the points price — is usually the real constraint. Earn steadily so you're ready when a seat appears, rather than scrambling once you've found one.

Programs, charts, ratios and partners change. Confirm current details with each program before you rely on them — see our methodology.