Velocity Awarded Asia Pacific’s Best

MEDIA RELEASE

VELOCITY AWARDED ASIA PACIFIC’S BEST

Tuesday 29 April 2008: Velocity’s hugely popular ‘any seat, any time’ redemption promise has won Pacific Blue’s Frequent Flyer program the ‘Best Award Redemption’ title among all airlines in the Asia Pacific region in the 2008 global frequent flyer awards, the Freddies.

It’s the third consecutive time Velocity has won the award and this year the program was also awarded the ‘Rising Star’ accolade in the ‘Industry Impact Awards’ which honour the programs or individuals that have had, or will have, the biggest impact on the industry in coming years, as well being named a runner up for the ‘Program of the Year’.

The prestigious awards were announced at the recent 20th annual global frequent flyer Freddie Awards in the United States which acknowledge excellence among frequent travel programs in the airline, hotel and credit card industries.

Recognised as the premier consumer-generated awards in the industry, the Freddies allow frequent flyers from 164 countries and regions to rank their favourite travel programs according to merit. The voting is focused on the quality and value derived from the programs, not just on the number of votes received and winners are determined based on the overall merits of each program as reflected in a "Value Vote."

Over 600,000 travellers from the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa, Japan, Pacific, Asia and Australia voted in this year’s awards.

Virgin Blue Group Chief Executive, Brett Godfrey, said, “We’ve put a lot of time and effort into designing a loyalty program that gives travellers what they really want such as rewards on every seat, our any seat redemption option and greater flexibility for Members to use their Points, and there is simply no greater accolade than receiving the global frequent flyer Freddie Award ‘hat trick’, as voted by the very people who use our program”.

Velocity, launched in November 2005, revolutionised the way Members redeem Points by offering an ‘any seat’ redemption policy with Virgin Blue, a first by an Australian airline. Now Members can redeem ‘any seat, any time’ with any of Velocity’s airline partners.

New Zealand Velocity Members can earn and redeem Velocity Points on all domestic and international Pacific Blue flights as well as all flights with Virgin Blue, Polynesian Blue, and a range of other airline and travel partners.

Velocity Partners now include:

Airlines: Pacific Blue, Virgin Blue, Polynesian Blue, V Australia, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, Malaysia Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, and Skywest

Car Hire: Europcar, Brunel Worldwide Chauffeur, Airport Parking

Hotels: Hilton, Mantra Hotel Group, IGH (including Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and more), Choice Hotels Australasia (including Comfort, Quality and Clarion), Toga Hospitality (including Medina, Vibe and Travelodge) and hotel and last minute deals through Octopus Travel.

Holidays: Blue Holidays and any cruise through Cruisepilot

Please visit www.velocityrewards.co.nz for further information on Velocity.
Please visit www.freddieawards.com for further information on the Freddies.

* Velocity is operated by Velocity Rewards Pty Ltd as trustee of the Loyalty Trust. Membership is governed by the member terms and conditions, as amended from time to time. V Australia flights are subject to regulatory approval.

ENDS

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