Will you still earn/retain Velocity status beyond 2025?

[MEL_Traveller]

Chasing lifetime Status is aspirational ..... MANY people yearn to do that, and SAVVY massive global hotel and Airline programs all have such programs, so they and those happily participating disagree with you, that it is a 'mugs' game'.

You are entitled to your negative view on it, as you have probably never qualified.

Virgin had a brain fart to roll out a mere 'Lifetime Gold' latter 2024, and predictably stuffed that up badly, with such convoluted and wackadoodle rules, that 6 months on, even now THEY are still trying to work out themselves who qualifies.

All it achieved was to p!ss off many very loyal past flyers for the past 10 or 15 years.

I flew near 2 million real miles (not Kms) with United on my own dime to achieve Lifetime Star Alliance Gold (and for a nominated partner as well) and it has paid off most handsomely.

It was not a 'mugs' game' in my view. Indeed, right now it gives me, without spending a cent on past Virgin flights, priority check-in. priority boarding, free lounge access, and free bag. Not only with Virgin, but with EVERY Star Alliance carrier globally.

Not a 'mug's game' that huge benefit that I've used endlessly, since earning it a decade or two back.

Why do you care so much if VA has created a situation where you can fly lite, but still get all the benefits?

Seems win win for you. Why the complaint?

 

[ozstamps]

The 64% of the very many posting on this thread who say they will lose status, can and probably will often do exactly the same thing. As will 100,000 others most likely, who were once loyal Virgin flyers.

WIN-WIN for all of them .. but LOSE-LOSE for Virgin.

You are correct, I do not care at ALL if Bain lose mega millions on that reality. I will not be buying shares in them, that is for CERTAIN.

Virgin staff do read boards, and like Trump, now and again, a tiny glimmer of common sense occurs when they fine tune the things that they later see were a big mistake in the first place. This is calling 'reading the room'.

We will ALL benefit in varying degrees if that occurs. Some folks in life roll over and accept these sort of things as inevitable, and some do not.

'Lifetime Gold' WILL be tweaked, you can bet on it before they roll it out. The more support there is for that, the better. We see it EVERY day in politics, and companies do it too if it makes sense.

 

[RooFlyer]

those happily participating disagree with you, that it is a 'mugs' game'.

Yair... the operative word was chasing not participating or getting the benefit from, - chasing. It was one of the four words I quoted.

As I set up thread, I expected to get WP on Virgin this year but find now that I will not because there’s a destination I used to go to regularly that I’m not now. So, do I do a status run? No. I think I'd be a mug if I spent extra money just to obtain extra SCs so I could get WP.

You are entitled to your negative view on it, as you have probably never qualified.

Sure

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The 64% of the very many posting on this thread who say they will lose status, can and probably will often do exactly the same thing. As will 100,000 others most likely, who were once loyal Virgin flyers.

WIN-WIN for all of them .. but LOSE-LOSE for Virgin.

You are correct, I do not care at ALL if Bain lose mega millions on that reality. I will not be buying shares in them, that is for CERTAIN.

Virgin staff do read boards, and like Trump, now and again, a tiny glimmer of common sense occurs when they fine tune the things that they later see were a big mistake in the first place. This is calling 'reading the room'.

We will ALL benefit in varying degrees if that occurs. Some folks in life roll over and accept these sort of things as inevitable, and some do not.

'Lifetime Gold' WILL be tweaked, you can bet on it before they roll it out. The more support there is for that, the better. We see it EVERY day in politics, and companies do it too if it makes sense.

Then I would argue they were never loyal flyers.

They flew VA for the price, and happened to gain status along the way.

A loyal flyer wouod fly VA regardless of any changes and any circumstances. Like they do with Qantas. (And qantas has very good reasons why people are loyal to them.)

 

[SCM]

Loyalty goes both ways.

Look, the idea in principle is not so bad, just that VA has zero international routes to destinations that matter, and we're stuck with overpriced codeshares, where booking directly is significantly cheaper. You could literally achieve the same effect of just going with Qatar for loyalty program for example, you'd get much the same benefits on VA.... there's just no point.

You can be as loyal as you like, but at the end of the day you either have common sense or you don't.

 

[MarkD]

.

'Lifetime Gold' WILL be tweaked, you can bet on it before they roll it out. The more support there is for that, the better. We see it EVERY day in politics, and companies do it too if it makes sense.

Dont be so sure. The arrogance at virgin believes they are the ducks guts. Its a “ take it or leave it” attitude and they will screw whoever they want.
Its a loyalty program that does not reward loyolty to the program. Lets forget about virgin australia airlines. The velocity program is its own beast and makes more for virgin than flying ( well did until recently). Why change something so drastically thats raking in coughloads of cash, just in the name of change.
Blind freddy can see that its a bad choice but hey, this “ new world” “ value carrier” ( aka low cost carrier) knows best.
Will revisit this in 12 months and see what has changed, however my thoughts are more devaluation and no back downs. They are a lost cause.
Dont get me wrong, i hope virgin stick around, we need them to keep the others honest, but to treat customers with such contempt is aweful.
As a side note, i havnt booked a single VA flight since they announced these changes, havnt set foot an a VA aircraft since November ( which was booked before the changes announced). Im kot deliberately avoiding them, but i fly when and how I want, rather than when they want it. I used to pretty much book VA in preference to all others as it was a mutual loyaly program, now its a selfish oneway greedy offering.
For reference, my domestic flying pattern has not changed, with between 60- 100 sectors anjually and between 6-10 international sectors. So if this volume of flights does not matter to them thats fine.
I still fly singapore for international where i can, as i love their proflduct, but now credit the KF.

Also just waiting for the right opportunity to transfer my 1.2 million VFF points to KF.

Im not bitter with VA , actually grateful that my eyes are opened to the fact that there is no loyalty.

 

[clifford]

You could literally achieve the same effect of just going with Qatar for loyalty program for example, you'd get much the same benefits on VA....

Not to mention that you'd also get One World status thrown in for free. VA is on a loser with this...

 

[jase05]

Not to mention that you'd also get One World status thrown in for free. VA is on a loser with this...

QR status isn’t easy to earn for the vast majority of Australians though.

 

[pauldab]

For me, because of the devaluation of partner status credits (no more than 50% of the 800 to re-qualify) I'll probably get my softlanding to Gold next Feb, then if I can't be coughd to continue with VA past that I'll go the star alliance Gold route through HSBC to SQ, which I can easily retain with my normal travel spend every year.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

The only really valuable thing from status for me is lounge access:

- if I'm flying VA's international partners I'll credit to QF/DL/SQ to qualify / maintain respective alliance status
- if I flew regularly with VA domestically, I'd get their Amex which gets you lounge access anyway.

Domestically I already get lounge access through QF LTG, and chasing VA status to earn more points when globally programs are turning points into 'cents equivalents' does not make economic sense to me, especially with the VA program changes

 

[ozstamps]

Dont be so sure. The arrogance at virgin believes they are the ducks guts. Its a “ take it or leave it” attitude and they will screw whoever they want.
Its a loyalty program that does not reward loyolty to the program. Why change something so drastically thats raking in coughloads of cash, just in the name of change.

Blind freddy can see that its a bad choice but hey, this “ new world” “ value carrier” ( aka low cost carrier) knows best.
Will revisit this in 12 months and see what has changed, however my thoughts are more devaluation and no back downs. They are a lost cause.

For reference, my domestic flying pattern has not changed, with between 60- 100 sectors anjually and between 6-10 international sectors. So if this volume of flights does not matter to them thats fine.
I still fly singapore for international where i can, as i love their proflduct, but now credit the KF.

Also just waiting for the right opportunity to transfer my 1.2 million VFF points to KF.

Im not bitter with VA , actually grateful that my eyes are opened to the fact that there is no loyalty.

Yes, agree these dramatic program changes were not wise at all in this of all years - I suspect Virgin are already seeing significant blow-back from many once loyal flyers. I was talking to a lounge staffer on Wednesday, and she said they'd had masses of negative feedback even at that level since the 'penny dropped' with many this month, the changes were so large and negative.

The new lower SC regime I also agree will not change - too much loss of face to backtrack on that, but they are Americans, so plenty of that going on lately there.

The Lifetime Gold they are still floundering around working out the final details themselves some 6 months on - I really feel they will tweak that to be a lot more friendly in the end, as the annoyance from loyal flyers filters through.

 

[jad01]

Well these new changes are now making more sense.
I just completed one of the Community Virgin Australia surveys where they were testing the waters of selling annual subscription that allows to to have premium benefits such as priority check in/boarding, Economy X seats and lounge access.

So it seems making it a little harder for some to maintain status is clearing space for them to sell user pays access to premium products.

JASON

 

[simmomelb]

Well these new changes are now making more sense.
I just completed one of the Community Virgin Australia surveys where they were testing the waters of selling annual subscription that allows to to have premium benefits such as priority check in/boarding, Economy X seats and lounge access.

So it seems making it a little harder for some to maintain status is clearing space for them to sell user pays access to premium products.

JASON

It's just a survey, many of them don't become anything more than that, as has been the case on the last 2 in the last 12 months.

But yes, they are getting info on what services some would like under a subscription, what they would be happy to pay and what services that might include, such as more Velocity Points, more Status Credits, Lounge Access, Econ X, Fly Ahead, food on board, etc etc.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

One can already buy VA lounge membership, and the price of that went up not long ago and they certainly couldn't price themselves significantly above the QF Pub subscription especially given their pitiful lounge network.

I can't imagine many people paying much more for the few additional benefits that Gold and above status offers. I certainly wouldn't, but then again, these changes will see me go from Platinum to nothing over time and they don't seem to care, so.

 

[ozstamps]

It's just a survey, many of them don't become anything more than that, as has been the case on the last 2 in the last 12 months.

Really?

Major 2024-25 Changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer

Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer program announced a major overhaul on 17 October 2024. Our guide explains everything you need to know.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

'In a recent survey, 58% of Velocity Platinum members ranked lifetime Gold status as the most attractive of nine potential new benefits Velocity was considering adding to its program. 82% ranked it in their top three.

Indeed, there has been lots of discussion and speculation on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum over many years about Velocity adding a lifetime Gold tier. Well, Velocity has listened!

Virgin Australia will launch a new “Forever Gold” status tier in October 2025, which you can read all about in our guide to Velocity Forever Gold status.'



We have a thread right here where 64% of respondents advise their Velocity status level will DROP due to their severe new changes.

That is ONE survey they'll be cheerfully ignoring.

 

[simmomelb]

Really?

In a recent survey, 58% of Velocity Platinum members ranked lifetime Gold status as the most attractive of nine potential new benefits Velocity was considering adding to its program. 82% ranked it in their top three.

Indeed, there has been lots of discussion and speculation on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum over many years about Velocity adding a lifetime Gold tier. Well, Velocity has listened!

Virgin Australia will launch a new “Forever Gold” status tier in October 2025, which you can read all about in our guide to Velocity Forever Gold status.

Major 2024-25 Changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer

Virgin Australia's Velocity Frequent Flyer program announced a major overhaul on 17 October 2024. Our guide explains everything you need to know.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Of course, they will implement some changes and some they won't; that's the whole point of genuine surveys.

I've posted a couple of surveys on here, and they have not implemented those possible changes or changes that some thought they might.

As mentioned, this is to put the feelers out to see what people think, who knows what the responses will be like, they don't even know at this point.

A group in their marketing team has come up with this idea, and they simply want to see if it aligns with what their expectations are.
Then a long review process will decide what they want to do, you may never hear anything about this one again, or you may.

Surely you don't take the "Well, Velocity has listened" as 100% verbatim? That's marketing talk that every company uses from the marketing 101 handbook.

I worked in marketing for over 15 years

 

[ozstamps]

Surely you don't take the "Well, Velocity has listened" as 100% verbatim?

If you had clicked the link I posted, you'd realise that was not Virgin's comment, but from one Matt Graham, editor of AFF.

I've worked in marketing for over 50 years, and what I see then doing this year is NOT from 'Marketing #101' if it drives away hoards of once very loyal clients.

What you WILL know from 'Marketing #101' is that it costs you TEN times more to attract a NEW loyal and strong spending client than to retain an existing one.

 

[simmomelb]

If you had clicked the link I posted, you'd realise that was not Virgin's comment, but from one Matt Graham, editor of AFF.

I've worked in marketing for over 50 years, and what I see then doing this year is NOT from 'Marketing #101' if it drives away hoards of once very loyal clients.

What you WILL know from 'Marketing #101' is that it costs you TEN times more to attract a NEW loyal and strong spending client than to retain an existing one.

We all know your views OzStamps, they have been repeated on an almost daily bases for the last 2 months.
But your input is greatly appreciated
All tongue in cheek

 

[ozstamps]

As have yours been.

I at least read relevant links, and do not cheerfully attribute Matt Graham's comments to the Virgin PR spin machine. .

 

[nutwood]

What you WILL know from 'Marketing #101' is that it costs you TEN times more to attract a NEW loyal and strong spending client than to retain an existing one.

Slightly off topic but I'm genuinely intrigued. If this really is basic marketing theory, why do so many businesses get it wrong? Over the years, as a client, I've walked from a number of business relationships due to total indifference to problems. I always play fair, I contact them and explain the concern, I don't want to have to change but in most cases , all I get is more indifference, then I walk. I've always viewed it as a symptom of a deeper malaise. The fish rots from the head; the problems occur because of issues higher up, therefore pursuing the question higher up is futile.
Relevant to this topic, QF was one of the relationships I walked away from. These recent "enhancements " have me re-considering VA. I contacted them a while back, expressing concerns. Apart from the automated acknowledgment, no reply. Not rushing back to QF just yet but the VA loyalty has taken a hit.