[Flatbed]

EDITED VERSION

Sounds like you are a family man, so here are some family-oriented thoughts:

1) Virgin's Velocity programme does not allow you to pool miles with other family members. My wife and I used Virgin to fly Perth-Melbourne-Launceston-Sydney-Perth in the past month to visit scattered offspring. If we wanted to join Velocity, we'd have to do so separately. We'd each be credited with the miles we'd flown. However, we could gift Velocity points to other family members.

This contrasts markedly with what British Airways offered when I was working in New York a few years ago. Up to four family members could pool their miles, in a fashion analogous to the American Express Ascent programme. For example, I was able to fly my daughter from Los Angeles to New York using miles I'd accumulated on Perth-New York-Perth trips. Like Velocity, there was no cost to join the British Airways programme.

2) Qantas charges $82.50 for membership of its frequent flyer programme, and that's each - you and your better half are both up for the tariff (don't know about children). Qantas, like Velocity, allows limited mileage transfer between family members.

In theory, because Qantas is a member of the OneWorld alliance, I should have been able to use the miles I'd accumulated with Cathay Pacific to get Qantas flights when I was working in New York. In fact, it was never possible to get any Qantas flight Perth-New York-Perth using frequent flyer miles. Since I prefer Cathay to Qantas that didn't bother me, but it's worth keeping in mind that airlines are businesses, not charities, and run their frequent flyer programmes accordingly.

3) If my wife and I have to fly domestically, we care about earning points to save money, and we want those points to be usable, where "usable" means we can actually get a flight, and membership is cost-effective. We don't care about lounges, movies and meals. For these reasons, we've just joined Velocity rather than Qantas. If we were still flying trans-Pacific several times a year, I would care about upgrades to business class - but that's beyond the scope of this reply.