Top tips - Virgin Velocity

[andye]

For erewards just answer no if you don't want to waste time or just need some points to keep your VFF account alive.
Low income or not fitting criteria comes up too, or they have gotten enough from your demographics.
There are some surveys that can take half an hour.
Also some surveys are harder than others.
Also you just can't join erewards willy nilly, have to be referred to it.
I joined via an Accor hotel stay.
Will put some erewards points to Accor and some to VFF.

The Velocity erewards signup is on the Lifestyle & Entertainment section on the Earn tab of the VFF site. 750 points for first survey currently.

The erewards that credits to a variety of partners ( AA IHG BA HH etc) is trickier to get onto I think

 

[Denali]

Sorry if this is a silly question, but how many Velocity points is an ereward point worth?

1200 erewards = 250 Velocity rewards
2000 erewards = 500 Velocity
3500 erewards = 1000 Velocity
6000 erewards = 2000 Velocity

I only redeem when I get 6000 erewards.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

The Velocity erewards signup is on the Lifestyle & Entertainment section on the Earn tab of the VFF site. 750 points for first survey currently.

The erewards that credits to a variety of partners ( AA IHG BA HH etc) is trickier to get onto I think

I've a plethora of offers of surveys from the likes of AA, QF etc. Are they all e-rewards and if so, can you have more than one going?

 

[andye]

I've a plethora of offers of surveys from the likes of AA, QF etc. Are they all e-rewards and if so, can you have more than one going?

AA is likely to be erewards. AA transfer at 1 pt per 4 erewards. Suspect that the AA version will give multiple redemption partners
QF dont participate in erewards. They have Red Planet. Not bad return per survey but very few of them

 

[woodborer]

QF dont participate in erewards. They have Red Planet. Not bad return per survey but very few of them

You can get erewards points to QF, but you need to launder them trhough, say, the Accor program.

 

[andye]

.... if so, can you have more than one going?

T&Cs say only one. In practice it is one per email address. Presumably you can only have one erewards per redemption partner

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

One erewards account per referring organisation, more so.
If you eg, fly Etihad a lot, and your partner who travels with you also stay a lot at Accor hotels, in that one family, you can have several.
If your kids are above 18, or over say 25 and travel with you, or not, you can get them to check into the Accor hotel and have it set up via them in their name. With an Accor hotel stay, they will ask if you want to join LeClub, say yes, provide email address, and then, in a few weeks, you will start to get erewards email to start with them.
Then once the erewards points are amassed, in the partner/kids account, transfer to VA in their name, then family pool. Mind you, I have not done the moving of erewards points from partner account to VA then family pool, and erewards/VA might not agree with it, but presupposedly, its possible.
I travel alone, so can't do the trick, but for people with significant others, the amassment castle door is wide open.
For Andyye: noted for that one, I joined erewards via Accor about 12 months or so ago, so would not get that 750 signup.
But as mentioned, am churning half to VFF and half to Accor, to keep both alive even if I don't fly or hotel stay that year.
Some of the erewards surveys are so hard though (apart where I pick no at Q1).
Good on those of you that can breeze through it. 5 mins??? My foot! Eg, how many places do you regularly shop at, pick Coles, are you the main grocery buyer, don't expand the width too wide, or you will spend the whole night on the computer/laptop.
Er, ...

 

[Jurahn]

I do the e-rewards surveys as well and like others, only redeem when it reaches 6000 e-rewards points as it's a better return rate for VA points. At least you get some points even if you don't qualify, unlike some others (such as Your Voice) where sometimes you fill in numerous questions and then suddenly get "nope, you don't qualify and you don't get any points either". At least with e-rewards if you're going to screen out, it usually happens fairly quickly. I find I'm qualifying for less surveys these days - not having a smartphone seems to be a big black mark against me as does being a middle-aged (for want of a better term!) female living in WA LOL.

 

[Jurahn]

Then once the erewards points are amassed, in the partner/kids account, transfer to VA in their name, then family pool. Mind you, I have not done the moving of erewards points from partner account to VA then family pool, and erewards/VA might not agree with it, but presupposedly, its possible.

You can't family pool points after they're earned, you'd have to have the family pooling in place before you did the transfer from e-rewards to Velocity. You can however transfer points from one Velocity account to another of an eligible family member up to 4 times a year (per account) with a minimum of 5000 points and a maximum of 100,000 points each time (free to do online, a fee is charged if you go through the call centre). The Velocity Ts & Cs state:

Eligible Family Member means any person a Member can demonstrate is related to that Member in any of the ways described as follows: husband/wife/domestic partner/de facto, parent/child, brother/sister, grandparent/grandchild, son/daughter-in-law, brother/sister-in-law, father/mother-in-law, uncle/aunt, nephew/niece, first cousin, or any foster, step or adopted relationship in any of these categories.

​I shouldn't think Velocity or e-rewards for that matter would be too concerned about what happens to the points once they're transferred from e-rewards to Velocity - it's then up to the Velocity member to decide what to do with them as they please (within the Ts & Cs of course!)

 

[ScottO]

So I am a Velocity Gold member nearing Platinum after switching from Qantas in 2014. I have recently embarked on a European trip with Virgin Australia in which through the VA system I was only able to fly to Europe via Etihad as a code share partner but with a VA flight number. As stated in the Gold level benefits, we are entitled to select seats on flights upon booking. I was given both a Virgin AND an Etihad booking reference and was told to select seats through Etihad's website which I did. I received confirmation from both Etihad and VA with seat numbers right up to the day of travel. However when I arrived at the Eitihad desk to check in I had been moved to the back of the plane, against the bulkhead art the rear. When questioning the move and shpwing the ground staff the emails confirming seats, the printed bookings showing the seats and the online booking results I was met with shrugs and was told that was impossible as the systems are not linked or matched and there was no record of my booking with seat selection. In the end I had to concede and when I complained to VA was told that their system cant handle such requests and despite booking with Etihad, all bookings are subject to change .....so bad luck. Lesson learned = Virgin's relationship with partner airlines is tentative and reluctant at best. No where near what is promised in the status benefits and I wont be flying with them internationally again.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

However when I arrived at the Eitihad desk to check in I had been moved to the back of the plane, against the bulkhead art the rear.

So did they move you somewhere better thn there (even if not back to your original selected seats)? Pretty unacceptable situation.

 

[clipped_wings]

Just signed up with erewards from the Velocity website. Phew! They asked for everything but the soul of our first born child.

 

[RAM]

However when I arrived at the Eitihad desk to check in I had been moved to the back of the plane, against the bulkhead art the rear. When questioning the move and shpwing the ground staff the emails confirming seats, the printed bookings showing the seats and the online booking results I was met with shrugs and was told that was impossible as the systems are not linked or matched and there was no record of my booking with seat selection. In the end I had to concede and when I complained to VA was told that their system cant handle such requests and despite booking with Etihad, all bookings are subject to change .....so bad luck. Lesson learned = Virgin's relationship with partner airlines is tentative and reluctant at best. No where near what is promised in the status benefits and I wont be flying with them internationally again.

Same exact deal happened with us. Except that we selected our seats 8 months ahead of time and when total tickets sold was under 20 (4 of us).

Expecting the worst, took printout of EY system report that had "confirmed" for the 4 legs seating allocations. Our seating allocations were wiped exactly 3 weeks before the flight.

Got them out of Syd (3 minute discussion only needed)
Got them out of Abu (45+ minute discussion at gate lounge before I asked to see the EY airport duty manager who looked at the page and turned to the gate staff asking why they had not fixed it up for me).
Near miss out of LHR (75-90 minutes before getting 2 rows back - not so good as aircraft narrowed but much better than new ones)
Family complained about my 'discussions' without raising voice etc, so did not fight in middle of plane (the 4 of 3 4 3) with babies at all 4 corners who cried lots and German backpackers in front who did not stop reclining even during meals except the one in front of me).

This time around I am calling EY direct in advance once I have the docs and emailing EY operations centre in Abu Dhabi to ensure not again.

 

[ScottO]

So did they move you somewhere better thn there (even if not back to your original selected seats)? Pretty unacceptable situation.

No teh flight was full and whilst they apologized, we were not moved.

 

[ScottO]

Thanks RAM, pretty much the same deal however we did not get moved even after asking to see the EY supervisor and showing them the documentation. I had even called the EY operations weeks before to get the seat allocation in the first place. Both systems at that time had registered the allocation as it was done first on YE then I received confirmation emails through VA showing the same seat numbers. Now they say that the systems cannot technically be linked. They are now covering up the issue with mumbo jumbo. You cant trust these guys.

 

[RAM]

Thanks RAM, pretty much the same deal however we did not get moved even after asking to see the EY supervisor and showing them the documentation. I had even called the EY operations weeks before to get the seat allocation in the first place. Both systems at that time had registered the allocation as it was done first on YE then I received confirmation emails through VA showing the same seat numbers. Now they say that the systems cannot technically be linked. They are now covering up the issue with mumbo jumbo. You cant trust these guys.

Went through a 'productive' seat allocation today for end-of-year Eur flights. Will report on ultimate outcome BUT some things have changed.

• Can no longer get seat allocation for international VA code share flights from "Manage My Booking" on VA web site (worked 3 years back) nor can TA allocate seats (worked last year).
• New way - you have to ring VA CC to get them to give you an Etihad booking ref that corresponds to your VA booking ref provided.

1. Calling 1300 532 215 is not straight forward as many options inform you to go use our web site
2. If follow instructions you find that you cannot use the EY web site to allocate seating for VA codeshare seating.
3. Back to 1300
4. Choose "Book a new flight"
5. Explain to CC person that you want to get your seats allocated and web site will not let you, ID yourself and choose the seating.

EY then sends you an email with seating confirmation and 10 minutes or so later both the EY online and VA online show the seats as confirmed.

Let's see them weasel out this December, or rather let's see them try!

 

[PLANT]

This is non reward seats.. Right?

 

[RAM]

This is non reward seats.. Right?

Correct.

The process should be the same with Reward seats as EY use different codes to VA. Talking for a while (with the very informative Manchester based CC operator reached at 3pm AEST) revealed some interesting and useful additional information - all Y related:

1. Exit rows 90% of the time will cost extra if a code-share with VA, but not always - so ask.
2. Certain rows are virtually never available to VA code share but are available to Y EY bookings. Such as rows 20-27 on B777.
3. Centre (4 seat block) front of each Y cabin section seats are only available (90%+) at airport as held for potential baby use - so do come available at last minute so does not hurt to ask if you want to swap around even though already checked-in. <Explains the 4 German backpackers from LHR to SYD in Row 19 on last trip>

 

[ScottO]

Went through a 'productive' seat allocation today for end-of-year Eur flights. Will report on ultimate outcome BUT some things have changed.

• Can no longer get seat allocation for international VA code share flights from "Manage My Booking" on VA web site (worked 3 years back) nor can TA allocate seats (worked last year).
• New way - you have to ring VA CC to get them to give you an Etihad booking ref that corresponds to your VA booking ref provided.

1. Calling 1300 532 215 is not straight forward as many options inform you to go use our web site
2. If follow instructions you find that you cannot use the EY web site to allocate seating for VA codeshare seating.
3. Back to 1300
4. Choose "Book a new flight"
5. Explain to CC person that you want to get your seats allocated and web site will not let you, ID yourself and choose the seating.

EY then sends you an email with seating confirmation and 10 minutes or so later both the EY online and VA online show the seats as confirmed.

Let's see them weasel out this December, or rather let's see them try!

Hi RAM

Sorry to say this is exactly what happened. I was given an EY booking number and told to contact Etihad to sort out booking seats. This was done and confirmed by Etihad. Also when I checked the VA siute is also had the seat details booked. Prior to I received a reminder and on the day of travel i received emails conforming flight details and the d=seats were still on these emails from VA. It was not until I arrived at the booking counter that things went south. I showed both the check in counter team and their supervisor on the Etihad counter the emails and was told that it was simply not possible that the seats could have been booked even though it was in writing and I had done it with Etihad itself! So believe it when you get on the flight but I would warn all people trying to work with the two airlines together.... they are loosely linked and poorly connected and their communication between system and staff is simply HOPELESS.