Additional Benefit on Velocity Earning Cards: 40K Points, 6 Months Gold or $300 Travel Bank

[Mr H]

They caught me out. I'm flying again on Tuesday. I ordinarily would have flown Qantas as I'm WP, but went Virgin on the assumption I would have lounge access, so i could test out their product. Looks like I've paid for a virgin flight which will not contribute to the challenge and I won't have lounge access.

I do feel there was enough uncertainty surrounding the timing of the trial gold offer set out on these pages that it was always a risk to book travel on the assumption that it would have come through.

 

[AussiePom]

I do feel there was enough uncertainty surrounding the timing of the trial gold offer set out on these pages that it was always a risk to book travel on the assumption that it would have come through.

That's a fair comment. Also, in fairness to them, they may even make the service level they promise.

 

[HSB44]

Update on my situation: Applied in May (selected gold), got CC in May (Westpac Plat - 75k points), met spend criteria in first month, got credited with credit card promotion points on 19th Jun but did not get the VA promotion gold. Emailed virgin with screenshots, called their team. Was told that i need to wait 30 days for it to be activated according to the terms and conditions. Something tells me I'll be calling them after 30 days.

They caught me out. I'm flying again on Tuesday. I ordinarily would have flown Qantas as I'm WP, but went Virgin on the assumption I would have lounge access, so i could test out their product. Looks like I've paid for a virgin flight which will not contribute to the challenge and I won't have lounge access. As much as I sound (and feel while writing this) like such an appallingly entitled *expletive deleted*; it gets me thinking about Matt's latest podcast with Mark Ross-Smith. It seems that Virgin's processes are so poor that they miss the opportunity to convert frequent flyer. Their service desk team have been trained to cite Ts and Cs instead of trying to solve the problem for the prospective frequent flyer... Looks like the loyalty team could do a better job of interacting with the the customer service team.

Its worth mentioning that VA was the cheaper flight ($100 cheaper).

In the meantime can anyone guest me into Virgin lounge this coming Tuesday (12th July) morning VA909 and / or Tuesday (12th July) evening VA978?

Sorry to hear that your status won't kick in on time.
In the tandc's I think it does state 30 days after bonus achieved - but as you said, need to see if they meet their commitment.

Just to clarify - did you achieve the $1500 spend, or the full$6000?

In relation to lounge access - your card doesn't come with any complimentary guest lounge passes?

 

[AussiePom]

Sorry to hear that your status won't kick in on time.
In the tandc's I think it does state 30 days after bonus achieved - but as you said, need to see if they meet their commitment.

Just to clarify - did you achieve the $1500 spend, or the full$6000?

In relation to lounge access - your card doesn't come with any complimentary guest lounge passes?

I took out the Westpac platinum. Are you thinking about the Virgin card that required spend over 4 months? If so, I didn't have one of those.

 

[featheast]

I’m well into my 3rd month now with this card, the first month had the points as well as the 40k posted into my velocity account promptly (1 day after statement), but the 2nd month nothing happened so far (6th/Jul).
Is it normal to have this kind of delay?

 

[Mr H]

I’m well into my 3rd month now with this card, the first month had the points as well as the 40k posted into my velocity account promptly (1 day after statement), but the 2nd month nothing happened so far (6th/Jul).
Is it normal to have this kind of delay?

Hi Featheast - no this is not normal in my experience. You can go into your Virgin Money account and look at the rewards section and see whether points have been sent - it tends to show up a day ahead of showing in your Velocity account. I would wonder whether you had made a mistake and some of your monthly spend was not eligible, but then you would have received your regular allocation without a monthly bonus. If you have received nothing then you're probably still good to receive the whole package, even if it has been delayed.

 

[featheast]

Hi Featheast - no this is not normal in my experience. You can go into your Virgin Money account and look at the rewards section and see whether points have been sent - it tends to show up a day ahead of showing in your Velocity account. I would wonder whether you had made a mistake and some of your monthly spend was not eligible, but then you would have received your regular allocation without a monthly bonus. If you have received nothing then you're probably still good to receive the whole package, even if it has been delayed.

Many thanks @Mr H , that is very helpful information. I logged into Virgin Money, and navigated to the Rewards Status section. I can see the 2 entries for June were showing status of Fulfilled while the 2 entries for this month are Active. So at least this can tell me my points are not lost, and not posted to my Velocity yet.
I guess it's just a matter of wait now, after noticing the following words on the Rewards Home page "Allow up to 15 days for your Points to reflect on your Velocity Frequent Flyer account.".

 

[GSP]

Many thanks @Mr H , that is very helpful information. I logged into Virgin Money, and navigated to the Rewards Status section. I can see the 2 entries for June were showing status of Fulfilled while the 2 entries for this month are Active. So at least this can tell me my points are not lost, and not posted to my Velocity yet.
I guess it's just a matter of wait now, after noticing the following words on the Rewards Home page "Allow up to 15 days for your Points to reflect on your Velocity Frequent Flyer account.".

Your statement should confirm whether you met the threshold or not as it provides a points summary including the bonus points. If the Bonus points aren't there then that would be an issue..

 

[piratematerial]

My trial gold email came through today (via the Flyer card), a couple of days after my second statement. Both sets of 25k bonus points have come through fine too.

 

[featheast]

Many thanks @Mr H , that is very helpful information. I logged into Virgin Money, and navigated to the Rewards Status section. I can see the 2 entries for June were showing status of Fulfilled while the 2 entries for this month are Active. So at least this can tell me my points are not lost, and not posted to my Velocity yet.
I guess it's just a matter of wait now, after noticing the following words on the Rewards Home page "Allow up to 15 days for your Points to reflect on your Velocity Frequent Flyer account.".

points posted yesterday! better late than never..

 

[HSB44]

My trial gold email came through today (via the Flyer card), a couple of days after my second statement. Both sets of 25k bonus points have come through fine too.

Well done

 

[AussiePom]

Update on my situation. I applied for Trial gold and took a Westpac Platinum card (75k points for 4k spend over 3 months). I met the criteria in month 1 and was credited the points on the 16th June. No upgrade to gold however.

I sent two emails to red@velocityfrequentflyer and have called three times. The first two calls were before the 16th July and they told me that the Ts and Cs provided for a Service Level of 30 days. Today I called the third time and they have put a ticket into a queue to get it resolved for me ... no more T's and C's to cite as an excuse.

I got caught out by the 30 days as i'd booked a SYD - BNE flight on the 12th with Virgin.

(As an aside, I had a strange experience with the first call center operator, after her first escalation, instead of coming back to me with a solution she asked if i could call back later as they were busy (i didn't have to wait in a queue). When i said no, she put me on hold and when she came back she said that she couldn't hear me properly (i was using Telstra Wifi Calling). After numerious attempts to try to talk to her and her not hearing me I hung up and called back. Next I spoke to an agent, went through security and so forth just fine, then find out its the same agent and the same line issues occurred. I immediately hang up and call again, speak with someone else this time who didn't seem to have the same 'line issues'.)

In any case, I took a stab at emailing what might be the CEO's email address and he replied earlier this evening saying FF and he's going to have his team investigate.

I'll update if / when there's a resolution

 

[RaRa]

Received a nice surprise today, my trial gold email (virgin flyer card) arrived this morning about 10 days ahead of my second statement!

I was a little sceptical about this whole thing after reading stories on Citi/NAB/velocity. I must admit this whole experience from application to approval to rewards have been seamless and trouble free. Even the promised travel voucher was received promptly

I was able to use the valuable info few pages back from @MooTime and @Monya Meow Meow to request my travel voucher. Thanks all for the valuable info you guys provide here

I will certainly provide my positive feedback to velocity

Time to book some flights within six months and make the most of this opportunity!

 

[MooTime]

Received a nice surprise today, my trial gold email (virgin flyer card) arrived this morning about 10 days ahead of my second statement!

I was a little sceptical about this whole thing after reading stories on Citi/NAB/velocity. I must admit this whole experience from application to approval to rewards have been seamless and trouble free. Even the promised travel voucher was received promptly

I was able to use the valuable info few pages back from @MooTime and @Monya Meow Meow to request my travel voucher. Thanks all for the valuable info you guys provide here

I will certainly provide my positive feedback to velocity

Time to book some flights within six months and make the most of this opportunity!

Great to hear. Even better to hear things worked out.
Enjoy your flights & the Virgin lounge experience.

 

[AustSerbKor]

I applied for the Westpac Altitude black. I got my Westpac bonus points on Saturday but had opted for trial gold. I achieved velocity gold last Friday independently but read in the T&Cs "Platinum and Gold members who select this option will be allocated 40,000 bonus Velocity Points" and wonder if I will receive the points or if I lost out due to my choice.

EDIT: Update the 40000 points arrived last night. Now back to more pedestrian methods to earn the points for our European adventure.

 

[GSP]

I hit the 4k spend on the WBC card in the 2nd month and received the 75k bonus points at same time along with the 40k points. Time to close it down now.

 

[AussiePom]

Update on my situation. I applied for Trial gold and took a Westpac Platinum card (75k points for 4k spend over 3 months). I met the criteria in month 1 and was credited the points on the 16th June. No upgrade to gold however.

I sent two emails to red@velocityfrequentflyer and have called three times. The first two calls were before the 16th July and they told me that the Ts and Cs provided for a Service Level of 30 days. Today I called the third time and they have put a ticket into a queue to get it resolved for me ... no more T's and C's to cite as an excuse.

I got caught out by the 30 days as i'd booked a SYD - BNE flight on the 12th with Virgin.

(As an aside, I had a strange experience with the first call center operator, after her first escalation, instead of coming back to me with a solution she asked if i could call back later as they were busy (i didn't have to wait in a queue). When i said no, she put me on hold and when she came back she said that she couldn't hear me properly (i was using Telstra Wifi Calling). After numerious attempts to try to talk to her and her not hearing me I hung up and called back. Next I spoke to an agent, went through security and so forth just fine, then find out its the same agent and the same line issues occurred. I immediately hang up and call again, speak with someone else this time who didn't seem to have the same 'line issues'.)

In any case, I took a stab at emailing what might be the CEO's email address and he replied earlier this evening saying FF and he's going to have his team investigate.

I'll update if / when there's a resolution

Resolution was that the CEO of Velocity responded to my email apologising, suggesting that it was a new promotion type. He said that they are working through some teething issues and undertake to improve things for future. Prior to that email, I received Gold - not sure whether it was through his doing or whether the system just kicked in.

I was surprised to get direct engagement from the CEO. This is far more than I would anticipate getting from Qantas, who have yet to respond to my complaint made 6 months ago after their handling of tickets that couldn't be used due to covid.

Very impressed and look forward to using Virgin for my forthcoming interstate business trips.

 

[Ktan89]

I applied for the Westpac Platinum card which had a minimum spend of $4k to get the bonus 70k points.
I did +4k within the first month but only 2200 points came through the first month. When did everyone get their bonus from Westpac and from velocity?

 

[MooTime]

I applied for the Westpac Platinum card which had a minimum spend of $4k to get the bonus 70k points.
I did +4k within the first month but only 2200 points came through the first month. When did everyone get their bonus from Westpac and from velocity?

same card same deal with me & received the as it was at the time 75k points day after 1st statement & Velocity bonus 40k points couple days later.

Did you just scrape over the line, some payments pending & may count in following month, well prob not as you got 2200 points. No gov payments etc. Looks like a call to westpac could be the go.

 

[Ktan89]

same card same deal with me & received the as it was at the time 75k points day after 1st statement & Velocity bonus 40k points couple days later.

Did you just scrape over the line, some payments pending & may count in following month, well prob not as you got 2200 points. No gov payments etc. Looks like a call to westpac could be the go.

No gov payments..
That Authorization Sydney Aus is an accommodation booking through Expedia