Why does the Velocity website show a rolling 12 month SC total?

[Warks]

When you open the site your details show on the right hand side with a status credits total which is meaningless. It gives you your 12 month rolling total rather than the total number of SCs you have in your current membership year. That would be much more useful as it's a dashboard of your progress towards requalifying. Is there any purpose whatsoever for the rolling total?

 

[oz_mark]

When you open the site your details show on the right hand side with a status credits total which is meaningless. It gives you your 12 month rolling total rather than the total number of SCs you have in your current membership year. That would be much more useful as it's a dashboard of your progress towards requalifying. Is there any purpose whatsoever for the rolling total?

I guess it is because it is the number that is used to determine if you are going up a level. Obviously, not much use if you are Platinum, but useful for all other levels.

It would be better if the could display both

 

[Bagpuss]

When you open the site your details show on the right hand side with a status credits total which is meaningless. It gives you your 12 month rolling total rather than the total number of SCs you have in your current membership year. That would be much more useful as it's a dashboard of your progress towards requalifying. Is there any purpose whatsoever for the rolling total?

I agree it's pretty meaningless.

 

[ozstamps]

The whole system is totally absurd.

One day someone with a brain will use the USA systems which all carriers there have used for 40 years that I have been part of them, and probably well before that.

The CALENDAR YEAR SYSTEM.

What you fly between Jan 1 and Dec 31 each calendar year is all you need to plan around.

Simple, easy, unambigous, and a cinch to understand.

If the American carriers all woke up tomorrow and announced they were copying this half A$$ed idiot Virgin idea, there would be a riot.

Right now anyone with a partner and trying to synch both persons to a common or even remotely common date on Virgin is impossible unless you both stay Platinum forever. The second your partner hits a new Level their anniversary date changes.

If is the one thing that irks me most about Virgin. And so easily fixed.

 

[Must...Fly!]

You do realise the rolling year works in our favour, and the calendar year does not....

 

[ozstamps]

Speak for your own situation by all means. Do not speak for me.

It does NOT work in my favour, as my partner and I are at times 6 months apart in Review Dates. Depending on whether she has dropped or gained a level in the past year etc. It is a disaster for us, and doubtless for many others.

If this was such a You Beaut system the Americans would be using it and they do NOT. No-one does.

 

[grubbidok]

It does show both - the number needed to maintain is pretty clearly indicated under "Maintain [Level]". I agree with Must...Fly - the rolling level is much a much better system. And FWIW I also prefer the "countdown" style telling me how much more I need than a number I have

It means you can re-qualify any time of year or if you come up short at the end of your requal period you can stumble over again much easier than having to start the count all over again. Mrs G dipped down to Silver this year but was able to top up back to Gold within a month in this system. She'd be stuck most of the year in a QF or US system.

IMO moving to the calendar year is not simple, a cinch to understand or unambiguous. An anniversary date is arbitrary and has its own problems (e.g. the forums re full of people complaining they missed status because a major flight occurred just after the date). With VA, you have to fly a certain amount in a 12mo period - they just allow you to do so in any 12mo period. Honestly, what's so hard to understand? Kudos to VA for actually making the system more user-friendly

 

[ozstamps]

IMO moving to the calendar year is not simple, a cinch to understand or unambiguous.

Well if you feel racking up 800 x SC ANYTIME during Calender 2018 is hard to understand, and is not simple to comprehend, I bet you do not do your own taxes.

 

[Mr Pumblechook]

I'm a huge fan of the rolling 12 months as it's worked in my favour many times (for both achieving and maintaining status) and I don't struggle to keep track of my and my partner's status.

As mentioned above, the running total of status credits is useful for those looking to achieve the next status level.

 

[grubbidok]

IMO moving to the calendar year is not simple, a cinch to understand or unambiguous.

Well if you feel racking up 800 x SC ANYTIME during Calender 2018 is hard to understand, and is not simple to comprehend, I bet you do not do your own taxes.

I do my own taxes as a matter of fact - over a timeframe (financial year) that would result in not achieving status in the Calendar system if all your bookings where done then (i.e. loaded into last 6mo of one calendar year and first 6mo of the next).

I'm genuinely curious as to why inflexible anniversary dates are so important to you. I would have thought if you both fly enough to maintain status the anniversary date shouldn't really matter. Why is it so important to keep them together? If they were together, would she still drop back or move up the same? Mrs G and I always have different anniversary dates, and it's never ever been an issue.

 

[Must...Fly!]

I do my own taxes as a matter of fact - over a timeframe (financial year) that would result in not achieving status in the Calendar system if all your bookings where done then (i.e. loaded into last 6mo of one calendar year and first 6mo of the next).

I'm genuinely curious as to why inflexible anniversary dates are so important to you. I would have thought if you both fly enough to maintain status the anniversary date shouldn't really matter. Why is it so important to keep them together? If they were together, would she still drop back or move up the same? Mrs G and I always have different anniversary dates, and it's never ever been an issue.

Exactly. If you fly enough to maintain, then what's the problem? Whether the review date is split or not doesn't matter...it's not a hard system to understand and while I understand the rolling system does have some drawbacks, for me it outweighs the negatives quite easily.

 

[serfty]

About a decade ago, Hilton introduced a rolling month status model where if in the previous 12 month you had sufficient stays/nights/spend you had that status for at least the next 12 months and the remainder of the calendar year after that.

It could have been easily leveraged to get 24 months status for the cost of 1 years qualifying every two years, end on end.

For me, it was easy to understand, however, going by FT threads it was too confusing for many of our frequent traveler brethren and after 18 months Hilton reverted.

Of course this was worse for me as while you could qualify for up to 27 months, it could only be done once while maintaining a level, going to just every 12 months after that.

Seems the lowest common denominator rules in the USA.

 

[serfty]

As for Velocity it is what it it.

Immediately after log in your main Velocity account is displayed. Both the 12 month earn and re-qualification SC amounts are shown here; the latter only until you "Achieve" it.

 

[ozjuice]

I like the current system and it works perfectly for me and the way I travel. Also gives the option to switch points to spouse when not needing to re-qualify. The chart clearly shows points and dates needed to step up. Of course once WP a lot of points are wasted but this can be worked around in other ways.

 

[Pleb Status]

The rolling year system is far better overall from a customer point of view, with the notable exception that when you first qualify for a new status level, you only get 12 months at that status level with the rolling year system and you could get up to 24 months in a fixed year system.

I would dislike the calendar year system as the 31 December requalification date would not suit my travel patterns at all. An Australian financial year system (01 July to 30 June) would be better for me.

As an aside, I have always said there are two ways to do something, there is the correct way and then there is the American way...

 

[stm1sydney]

I also like the rolling 12 month system.

 

[oz_mark]

For me, it was easy to understand, however, going by FT threads it was too confusing for many of our frequent traveler brethren and after 18 months Hilton reverted.

While all true, the way that Velocity presents the information offers more clarity about what is going on than what Hilton were doing.

 

[Lord_Lenny]

Yeh I quite like the rolling status system as it stands, our recent international travel has been split across the 2017/2018 break, so under a calendar system I would lose half the SC's we accrued going to and from Europe.

This way, even though I wasn't able to scrape over to Platinum in time to roll over, those SC's will add to the domestic travel, and a China trip and probably roll me up to Platinum by the end of the year. As long as you are actually travelling then I don't see the downside.

 

[SuzieQ68]

I too am a fan of the rolling status. Partner & I are both now SG - with our review dates now being almost 6 months apart. This allows us to pool our SC's to ensure both of us maintain our SG status. It's a balancing act, but as we do travel separately at times, both having SG (not one with WP and the other NB) has been worth it.

 

[GSP]

To give an example of how the rolling year has benefited myself:

• My anniversary is 26th October.
• When 26th October 17 clicked over last year, I had earned my required 400 to retain gold so continued for another year. At that point (26/10), my balance wasn't zero.
• At the end of next week, the # of SC I would have earned since 26/10 will be 892.
• My balance however will be 1026, which will kick me into Platinum.
• If it had have been the Qantas program, I would have needed to earn another 108 SC's was my balance at 26/10 would have been wiped out.
• The (as pointed out above) the negative as my anniversary of enjoying Platinum will kick off next week, whereas if I earned the remaining 108 SC's (let say by early June), my first year of Platinum would have been from early June to 26/10/2019 (some 16+ months) whereas I will only have 12 months, but kick off from next week.

That all being said, I'll probably jump onto retaining Gold on QFF now as my balance got wiped to 0 at the end of April, so on the charge to earn 600 SC there. Once that's locked (hopefully before the year is out) then enjoy the (slim) benefits of being Platinum with VFF.

Cheers