Customer Service for Red member compared to Gold

[rmh]

Hey all, just thought I would share this story to see if it's the norm or not.
Very new, Qantas to Virgin convert here.

So I had booked a MEL-PER Flexi flight for this weekend and upgraded from Flexi to Business using points and also had a flexi booked for the return flight. Unfortunately I had to change the plans and ring Virgin to get the flights changed to +1 month (it didn't allow me online). I thought this would be straightforward enough request but it took more 2 separate phone calls, talking to 5 different people and waiting over an hour on the phone to get it done and they slugged me with a $35 change fee (because of the business flight change).

Interestingly my college was in the exact same boat except he is a gold level member (I am red). He rang the same number, spoke to one person and was all done in 7 minutes and with no mention of a fee.

To the people here, do you suspect that he happened to get lucky to speak to someone who knew or was able to do it themselves, or do different level members get different departments with different capabilities?

Rich

 

[jackthomas]

Gold members get sent to a Special department of 'Velocity Gold' as do platinums. The service they offer is intentionally higher than others... However as a VA gold I've still been slugged change fees etc for similar things you've describe, and sometimes I haven't.. Depends on who you get on the phone.

 

[Rotation]

Yah it's definitely different at gold and above. I remember calling Velocity as a gold for the first time and yeah - leaps and bounds over the standard call centre. Not to mention I'm sure I called New Year's Eve or New Year's Day in the evening, and yeah great service. As for fees I don't recall anything being waived, but I don't recall needing anything waived either.

 

[i_hate_the_tulla_freeway]

I started out red at Virgin before I did the status match and shifted my business over. There's a hundred miles of daylight between red and gold. I was lucky to get a stale muffin as a red, as a gold, VA were very good to me. So I keep on with VA and worked my way up to plat. Personally, other than the comp annual upgrades, there's not a huge amount of difference between plat and gold on VA.

Is pilot gold an option for you ? Or a status match ?