777
Established Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2009
- Posts
- 2,781
When Virgin started liberally handing out the status matches i was a little disappointed but consoled myself with a few factors:
1. It was the price of getting the airline competitive and in the long term that would benefit me and allow them to offer better services, product etc when they hit critical mass.
2. I was in a better position to take advantage of the new improvements to the program (such as partner benefits) on account of having many SCs in the bank and already being a loyal flyer.
3. They were getting no more than i was while my benefits were being slightly diluted (such as seating prefs) in the end i was where i always had been in relation to other FF'ers in the program.
Point 1 still remains true but points 2 and 3 turned out to be wrong.
As it transpires my rolling YTD SC's were actually effectively wiped when i hit platinum (i thank VA for comping me Partner Gold when i hit 1500 YTD SCs but the point in general remains). All of us that had in excess of 1000 SCs had them wiped and were forced to start again on Aug 25th - no bonus for past loyalty there.
Now, with this promotion, VA are effectively rewarding those who have received the most status with the least effort while actively choosing to exclude their most loyal customers. I think this is wrong. I can understand there may be commercial reasons for targeting people with comped status/ low SCs for this promotion however this so far this has never balanced out by some promotions or benefits that actually reward their most loyal customers. This promotional actively chooses to reward comped status over long and loyal customers. I think that's problematic and i would be concerned if it part of an ongoing pattern.
1. It was the price of getting the airline competitive and in the long term that would benefit me and allow them to offer better services, product etc when they hit critical mass.
2. I was in a better position to take advantage of the new improvements to the program (such as partner benefits) on account of having many SCs in the bank and already being a loyal flyer.
3. They were getting no more than i was while my benefits were being slightly diluted (such as seating prefs) in the end i was where i always had been in relation to other FF'ers in the program.
Point 1 still remains true but points 2 and 3 turned out to be wrong.
As it transpires my rolling YTD SC's were actually effectively wiped when i hit platinum (i thank VA for comping me Partner Gold when i hit 1500 YTD SCs but the point in general remains). All of us that had in excess of 1000 SCs had them wiped and were forced to start again on Aug 25th - no bonus for past loyalty there.
Now, with this promotion, VA are effectively rewarding those who have received the most status with the least effort while actively choosing to exclude their most loyal customers. I think this is wrong. I can understand there may be commercial reasons for targeting people with comped status/ low SCs for this promotion however this so far this has never balanced out by some promotions or benefits that actually reward their most loyal customers. This promotional actively chooses to reward comped status over long and loyal customers. I think that's problematic and i would be concerned if it part of an ongoing pattern.
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