Owners of growing businesses know the feeling. The financial year ticks over, the travel budget resets, and somehow it feels smaller than it did 12 months ago. Airfares have gone up, teams are back on the road, and finance managers are being asked to do more with the same money, sometimes less.
For the smaller operator, opportunity doesn’t wait. If it means catching a plane, the bags get packed, and finding a good deal along the way is a real bonus.
The lockdown years taught us something too: face-to-face still matters. You can build a relationship over zoom, but you can’t always close a deal, win a client or bring a team together the same way you can in person. For plenty of small and medium businesses, travel isn’t optional anymore. It’s mission critical.
For Australia’s SMEs, travel is how deals get closed, how teams get built and how businesses show up for clients when it counts. The real question every year isn’t whether you need to travel, it’s whether you’re getting a good bang for your budget’s bucks.
The team at Virgin Australia get it, and they’ve built the Virgin Australia Business Flyer (VABF) program to make business travel a positive contributor to what you’re trying to achieve.
Here’s what the team at Virgin believes a smarter approach to business travel looks like as the new financial year gets rapidly underway.
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Fares built for the way SMEs actually travel
Travel policies written for big enterprises rarely fit a business that needs to book a flight today, not next quarter. Our experience with SMEs means we’ve built fare structures around flexibility first: Flex Fares that let you change a booking without being penalised into a worse deal. And there’s also Fly Ahead, which lets you jump on an earlier service on the same day if your meeting wraps up sooner than planned. Full change-fee terms and conditions for Flex Fares and Fly Ahead are available at virginaustralia.com
We’ve also unbundled the extras. Wifi, food and other add-ons are priced separately rather than baked into the fare, so you’re only paying for what your trip actually needs. This is a small thing that protects the budget over a year of travel.
Booking is built around how SMEs actually work too, through va.com.au, via the VABF portal once you’re signed up, or through your existing travel management company (TMC) if that’s how your business already operates.
An airline that understands what your business actually needs is worth having in your corner. That’s what Virgin Australia has created.
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Loyalty and points that work for the business, not just the traveller
Here’s the core idea: one trip, twice the benefits. The points earned on every trip should flow back into the business, not just into the frequent flyer account of whoever happened to book the flight. Better still, these business Points stack on top of the traveller’s own personal Velocity Frequent Flyer points and status credits, so nobody misses out.
VABF’s tiered rewards system means the more your business flies, the more it unlocks. Join VABF and spend $2,000 in eligible spend within your first three months, and your business earns two Pilot Gold memberships, ready to redeem for anyone in the business or team. From there, the tiered rewards system kicks in: reach tier two or three and unlock full 12-month Gold memberships across your travel program, on top of any Pilot Golds you’ve already earned.
It turns everyday travel spend into real, bankable value: priority benefits, upgrades and savings on future travel for the business, not just the individual who happened to be travelling. You can see the full Priority Benefits terms at virginaustralia.com
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Discounts that add up over a financial year
Beyond fares and points, VABF members get a straightforward discount on top: up to 6% off domestic fares and up to 10% off international fares, applied automatically once your business is signed up.
It’s not a one-off promotional rate but a standing member discount that compounds every time someone in your business books a flight, which is exactly the kind of saving that adds up quietly across a full financial year without anyone having to chase it. And you can see the full Member Discounts terms at virginaustralia.com.
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A team that treats your business like a partner, not a booking number
Successful SMEs learn early that growth comes from turning frustrations into systems and by doing that, cutting out the things that distract from the main game of running a profitable business and looking after the people who matter.
Travel shouldn’t mean ad hoc bookings and call centre queues. VABF members get access to dedicated account management, built specifically around SME needs rather than enterprise-scale contracts. This means a business can access a team that gets to know how your business travels and helps you get the most out of every dollar you spend doing it.
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A network that covers where business actually happens
The best fares and points in the world won’t help if they don’t get your team where the client, the conference or the site visit actually is. Virgin Australia operates around 293 flights a day across its domestic network, built around the routes business travellers fly most, capital city to capital city, plus the regional links that matter to industries like resources, agriculture and professional services. (Figure based on Virgin Australia’s scheduled domestic services; current at time of writing.)
Make your budget work harder
The businesses that get the most from their travel budget this year won’t be the ones that simply spend less. They’ll be the ones that choose a partner whose fares, loyalty program, discounts and network are built around how SMEs actually operate. Virgin Australia Business Flyer (VABF) is designed to do exactly that. And the best part is that signing up costs nothing and takes minutes. If you want to lift your game this financial year, Virgin Australia wants to help you do it.
Here’s the bottom line
The great businesses of the world all learned the same lesson: their founders stuck to what they were good at and trusted the right experts to handle the rest. That trust only works when those experts are genuinely best-of-breed. And it’s often what frees a founder up to focus on growth, rather than getting bogged down in the details. Managing your travel budget is one of those areas where the right partner makes all the difference, and Virgin Australia wants to be part of your team as you build a successful financial year this year and beyond.
Ready to make your travel budget go further? Sign up to VABF today: www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/fly-for-business/business-flyer
Terms and conditions
Fly Ahead is available to eligible guests who have purchased an Economy Flex fare (excluding group or team travel bookings), and up to three accompanying guests travelling on the same booking, on eligible domestic Virgin Australia marketed and operated flights. Fly Ahead requests may only be made on the day of travel via the Virgin Australia app or at the airport and are subject to seat availability and operational requirements. The requested earlier flight must be on the same route and same day as the guest’s original ticketed domestic Virgin Australia marketed and operated flight. Requests via the Virgin Australia app must be made at least 60 minutes before scheduled departure of the desired earlier flight, while the flight is still open for check-in. For flights between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, eligible guests may request a flight departing up to 2 hours prior to their booked flight. For all other eligible domestic Virgin Australia flights, guests may request the first available flight prior to their booked flight. Requests at the airport must be made at least 40 minutes before scheduled departure of the desired earlier flight, while the flight is still open for check-in. Guests cannot request Fly Ahead if they have already checked in their baggage. If a Fly Ahead request is granted, and the guest and any accompanying guests (if applicable) are moved to an earlier Virgin Australia flight and select a seat of a lower value than originally purchased, no refund will be provided (unless they are entitled to a refund under Australian Consumer Law). Standard Economy Flex fare conditions continue to apply to all other booking changes and cancellations. See the Fly Ahead on Flex Terms and Conditions for more information.
