Virgin Blue's Velocity Rewards members can now earn points on Air New Zealand Flights by booking AirNZ flights with Virgin Atlantic flight numbers.Velocity members have fully reciprocal earn-and-redeem arrangements with Virgin Atlantic, but have yet to hear what the Air New Zealand-Virgin Blue trans-Tasman alliance will mean for them.Velocity members flying on Air New Zealand should use the frequent flyer insider tip of buying their NZ tickets through Virgin Atlantic, choosing flights with a VS number, so they can earn Velocity points.

Virgin Atlantic passengers can now flight to New Zealand on a single Virgin Atlantic booking via Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sydney on the following flights:

* Los Angeles-Rarotonga
* San Francisco-Auckland
* Sydney-Auckland
* Sydney-Christchurch
* Auckland-Wellington
* Auckland-Christchurch
* Auckland-Queenstown
* Auckland-Rarotonga

For their part Air New Zealand customers can book onto Virgin Atlantic Heathrow-San Francisco and Sydney-Hong Kong flights with NZ codes.Virgin Atlantic is jointly owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group (with a 51% majority holding) and Singapore Airlines (49%), although Singapore Airlines has flagged its willingness to sell that stake in what it has called an underperforming investment.Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue are also gearing up for a trans Tasman alliance to codeshare Australia-New Zealand and connecting domestic flights, as well as offering reciprocal access to lounges and their respective Velocity and Airpoints frequent flyer programs.