In an email sent to customers, Virgin Velocity said Virgin Australia domestic Reward Seat and Any Seat bookings have re-opened for travel from 1 September 2020.

"Like you, we’re hoping that travel restrictions and State and Territory border lockdowns will have eased by September and for many of us, a local holiday and catching up with interstate family and friends will be well overdue," the Airline's Points division said. 

So for the bold customer who wants to take a punt on domestic flights being open by September (and there's a good chance they will be), then Virgin has a list of locations available for redemption on its website, that includes the usual suspects like: 

  • Most major capital cities
  • Cairns 
  • Broome 
  • Gold Coast 
  • Mackay and Rockhampton 
  • Townsville 

Rewards flights to and from Tasmania and the Northern Territory currently remain unavailable. 

This should come as welcome news to Virgin Velocity members, as there was a lot of doubt hovering over the company's future as it went into voluntary administration in April. 

This, in-turn, left dark clouds over the safety of existing Velocity Points and travel credits.

The announcement by Virgin to unfreeze redemptions for flights is the first positive step it has made since then, although other redemptions for things like upgrades and in-store products remain unavailable. 

"While redemptions were paused, your Points remained in your account and we extended the expiration period and your Points haven’t expired. Now that the pause on domestic redemptions has been lifted, we’ll revert to our standard terms and conditions on expiry," Virgin said. 

"Virgin Australia continues to operate through its period of voluntary administration. 

"At this stage, it is expected that the administration process will be finalised by, at the latest, mid-August 2020, although that date may change."

For those concerned about future coronavirus restrictions coming back into play and domestic flights being cancelled again, Virgin Australia has also announced two security measures for wary customers: 

  • It will waive fees for any changes or cancellations you make until 1 September 2020; and
  • If you or Virgin Australia cancel your flight before 1 September 2020, it will refund your Points/cash in full to the original form of payment

Cancellations usually cost either $35 or 4,500 Velocity Points per passenger, so it may come as a relief to would-be travellers looking for security around their travel bookings. 

One-way domestic flights meanwhile begin at 7,800 Velocity Points (economy), plus fees, charges and taxes.