Booking Complimentary Fare Upgrades for Platinum Velocity members

[smit0847]

I think I've worked out whats happened - I believe they blocked ALL reward seats on certain legs over Easter as I've tried various routes:

MEL - PER, CNS, OOL - no availability on any flights in Y or J any days.
MEL - SYD, BNE, ADL, NTL - availability on every flight in Y and J on every day.

Is this enough evidence to lodge a formal complaint?

 

[smit0847]

That's pretty strong evidence that it's simply VA deliberately blocking Easter from redemptions (as is their business right to do so if they think they can sell all the seats). No idea if emailing VA would be successful.

Perhaps you should go the day before/return the day after which is when Virgin clearly want you to travel.

They think they can sell J seats to leisure destinations on public holidays?!?

 

[MichaelD]

MEL - PER, CNS, OOL - no availability on any flights in Y or J any days.
MEL - SYD, BNE, ADL, NTL - availability on every flight in Y and J on every day.

Is this enough evidence to lodge a formal complaint?

It would be interesting to see what they had to say. I also had a look at CNS and OOL using Expert Flyer and all the planes are empty in J.

I suggest sugar rather than pepper though;
"I can't seem to book award seats on these days - is there some sort of glitch in the system?"
vs
"gimme the free seat you're cheating me out of"

 

[greenfish]

Can you try requesting the "guaranteed" once a year reward holiday seats that is a Platinum perk?
****
Ignore - I forgot that is guaranteed Y seats only..

 

[smit0847]

It would be interesting to see what they had to say. I also had a look at CNS and OOL using Expert Flyer and all the planes are empty in J.

I suggest sugar rather than pepper though;
"I can't seem to book award seats on these days - is there some sort of glitch in the system?"
vs
"gimme the free seat you're cheating me out of"

I've lodged a formal but polite enquiry on their website, along the lines of 'am I too early? When will these seats be released?'

 

[ms1]

I'm trying to book a complimentary upgrade with VA over the phone.

My account is currently in review since the 6th of October. I have clearly met the requirements to maintain platinum status as I have exceeded 800 status credits and flown much more then the 8 required sectors.

VA is currently telling me that I have no comp upgrades available and I'll have to wait until my membership review is complete before I can use them.

In previous years the status review always takes up to 1 month.. so they're basically saying that comp upgrades are off limits for 1 month every year.. where in the T&C does it mention this?

 

[MichaelD]

In previous years the status review always takes up to 1 month..

1. Use points.
2. My last review (end of September) took about a week (vs a month last year). You could wait a bit longer and see if it comes through.

 

[ms1]

1. Use points.
2. My last review (end of September) took about a week (vs a month last year). You could wait a bit longer and see if it comes through.

I don't want to use points.

This is the message in my Velocity account: We are currently assessing your activity over your membership year. You will still have access to your current benefits until 06 Nov 2013. Your new card will be with you shortly.

They are clearly not giving me access to my current benefits.

 

[MichaelD]

You will still have access to your current benefits until 06 Nov 2013. Your new card will be with you shortly.

They are clearly not giving me access to my current benefits.

Your current benefits (last year's free upgrades) are all used up. If you had any left, you could have used them despite them technically being expired.

Your new benefits have not yet been granted. It's a darn shame that Virgin can't instantly give you something for free, but that's the way it is.

You could always actually PAY for the flight in J if you don't want to use points.

 

[ms1]

Just spent 45 minutes on the phone with VA and common sense has prevailed. They've decided to honour the comp upgrade as it is obvious I have met the requirements to maintain platinum status. Once my review is complete they will go back and deduct 1 comp upgrade.

 

[smit0847]

I would like to use my 4 x comp upgrades to go MEL-PER for Easter next year (which is 7.5 months away). I would like to fly to PER either the night of Easter Thurs, or the morning of Good Friday and back on Easter Monday. I recognise this is a peak travel period so I rang VFF today to ask about availability.

They advised me there is absolutely nothing on any of the 3 days I referred to above. She said thinks the availability hasn't been loaded yet and I should call up closer to the date (she suggested 3 months out) and enquire then. She did however say that the day before Easter Thurs and the day after Easter Monday there was availability on every single flight (she seemed a little odd to me).

Needless to say, I'm confused! I need to book the Flexis before Dec 1 before I flush my Virgin Flyer card down the toilet but only want to book them if I can use my comp upgrades (Im willing to use points to upgrade on 1 of the legs if absolutely necessary, but if there is no comp upgrade availability does that mean there is also no points upgrade availability?).

Am I too early, or too late? Given its A330 routes is there usually loads of availability?

A nice conclusion to this problem. I checked this week and for some reason they have loaded availability for every single MEL-PER flight over Easter so I've now booked the exact flights I wanted using my 2-4-1 CC offer and upgraded to J with my comp upgrades. The very kind CC woman commented 'gosh, you're getting a good deal here!' $4,600 of flying for $950. Looking forward to the A330 product.

 

[pshepvic]

A nice conclusion to this problem. I checked this week and for some reason they have loaded availability for every single MEL-PER flight over Easter so I've now booked the exact flights I wanted using my 2-4-1 CC offer and upgraded to J with my comp upgrades. The very kind CC woman commented 'gosh, you're getting a good deal here!' $4,600 of flying for $950. Looking forward to the A330 product.

I thought as of this month the 2-for-1 can only be used for saver fares? This is listed on the Virgin Money T&Cs for the card and additionally I received a new card recently for paywave (despite having one already anyway) and it also indicated it is only for saver fares.

 

[pat25d]

I thought as of this month the 2-for-1 can only be used for saver fares? This is listed on the Virgin Money T&Cs for the card and additionally I received a new card recently for paywave (despite having one already anyway) and it also indicated it is only for saver fares.

From Dec 1

 

[pshepvic]

From Dec 1

Ah cool thanks - I'd better get in quick then. We did have a couple of call centre people tell us recently that you can't use an upgrade on two for one fares as you can't have a "promotion on a promotion" but we hung up and rang back. I don't believe the upgrades are a promotion anyway - they are available on any flexi fare, doesn't matter the cost.