Email received from VA - Share your thoughts, and lunch with our Velocity CEO

[QF WP]

I've just received an email from Virgin Community Support:

Thank you for sharing your feedback through one of our surveys last month on what’s most important to you when it comes to your Velocity Tier benefits. We were excited by the feedback and would like to invite you to share further insights in person.

We will be hosting a small group discussion, followed by lunch with our Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO, Nick Rohrlach, in Brisbane on Tuesday 6th June. We hope you can join to make your voice heard.

This will take place from approximately 9:00am-1:00pm in person in Brisbane and you must be willing and able to travel to a location within the city. Places will be limited. If you would be interested in joining please click here for more details

So of course I said yes (cleared my diary ). Went to answer the 2 minute survey which was prefaced with the following message:

We will be hosting a small group discussion, followed by lunch with our Velocity Frequent Flyer CEO, Nick Rohrlach, in Brisbane on Tuesday 6th June. We hope you can join to make your voice heard.

This will take place from approximately 9:00am-1:00pm in person in Brisbane and attendees must be willing and able to travel to a location within the city. To compensate you for any local travel expenses incurred you will receive a $50 Visa gift card for participating on the day, and lunch will be provided.

Please note that you may be requested to sign a confidentiality agreement if you are invited to participate.

Needless to say, I responded to their question sand got the following response:

Thank you. If you are selected for this activity the Velocity team will be in touch over the coming few days with next steps.

If you are not contacted, this means that on this occasion the activity was full, but we really appreciate your interest and will be sure to include you in any future initiatives

By completing this survey, you are automatically entered into this month's prize draw to win one of two $100 Giftpay Vouchers.

So knowing that I won't be able to share our discussions if I am chosen, what questions would you like to ask Nick Rohrlach (specifically about your Velocity Tier benefits) if you were there. It may help them change the program to suit your issues. I'll take the top 10 issues with me if chosen, otherwise I'll send them to him (I know some people who know some people ).

 

[Gold Member]

Sounds interesting (checks inbox). I think they left a 0 out of the Visa gift card if they truly intended to “cover” your travel expenses. Nice gesture nonetheless.

 

[SydneySwan]

Checked my spam folder - still nothing.

 

[Human]

Haven't received anything.

Not sure I should raise this because it's not so much about "tier benefits" but about the value of Velocity in general. But here goes:

My number one issue with Velocity (and what I consider to be by far it's greatest weakness) concerns New Zealand. NZ is by far the most popular overseas destination for Australians, and as things stand we can only use Velocity points to redeem flights to Queenstown (and availability is not exactly fantastic).

Yes, I know that we can transfer 20,925 Velocity points to 13,500 KrisFlyer points and redeem an Air NZ economy flight, but that's not good value compared with Qantas' 18,000 points (from the east coast).

So I'd ask him about that: what can Velocity do to facilitate redemptions to Australia's number #1 tourist destination?

 

[QF WP]

Sounds interesting (checks inbox). I think they left a 0 out of the Visa gift card if they truly intended to “cover” your travel expenses. Nice gesture nonetheless.

My travel expenses will likely be a Brisbane City Council bus both ways - so about $10 including one way including peak travel time on inbound. Maybe a train if I feel I want to go home after he lunch and not do any work

 

[Gold Member]

My travel expenses will likely be a Brisbane City Council bus both ways - so about $10 including one way including peak travel time on inbound. Maybe a train if I feel I want to go home after he lunch and not do any work

Good for you, WP. All of that public transport might go some way to offset your carbon footprint spent flying!

 

[Bagpuss]

So knowing that I won't be able to share our discussions if I am chosen, what questions would you like to ask Nick Rohrlach (specifically about your Velocity Tier benefits) if you were there. It may help them change the program to suit your issues. I'll take the top 10 issues with me if chosen, otherwise I'll send them to him (I know some people who know some people ).

I'd be asking about a business reward redemption availability for Platinum's.
They have the economy option, but I think it would be nice to consider at least a benefit of a guaranteed business reward redemption for the member and 1 guest. Even if this was limited to domestic travel.

 

[RooFlyer]

This will be the week following the 1 June 'Milestone announcement'; I wonder if they are doing other cities as well.

As far as questions about tier benefits, I'm still pretty new to VA Plat - I don't think that have any timing priority for Plats for release of reward seats, do they? That would be something worth having if not.

 

[SYD]

Consistent lounge benefits for status PAX flying on VAi and partners in whY?

But that would probably mean joining a proper alliance.

 

[kerfuffle]

Why no bacon in the lounge on a constant basis?

(I may or may not be joking with this question)

 

[JK1964]

Perhaps doing something about the complimentary upgrades from flexi. Currently they don’t represent much value. Usually the difference in flexi fare vs business fare is minimal, on domestic anyway. The last time I redeemed them was when you could use them from a choice fare.

 

[Budbrian]

Ask them if they really want to service Perth ? We feel forgotten here.
No international flights ex Perth.
No J redemption availability
No staff at airport to assist check ins.
More capacity needed.

 

[QF WP]

Perhaps doing something about the complimentary upgrades from flexi. Currently they don’t represent much value. Usually the difference in flexi fare vs business fare is minimal, on domestic anyway. The last time I redeemed them was when you could use them from a choice fare.

You’ll be pleased to know that is one of my points I wrote down this afternoon. That’s definitely going to be asked

 

[Bundy Bear]

Virgin need to offer lounge passes so that friends can enjoy the lounge, even if they can’t travel with you.

Love economy X lomg flights especially to and from Perth

Brisbane back flights to Auckland

 

[jase05]

Ask them to get rid of the garbage Y only aircraft ex ADL.
My constant requests have fallen on deaf ears

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is not so much a question as a possible additional benefit…

As platinums (and gold) we have the ability to ‘fly forward’ which is great. But the other day I was stuck in traffic on the way to the airport (road works and highway down to a single lane) and as we were crawling along I was in real danger of missing my flight. The option was to cancel, or hope i made it in time.

I just made it. But the benefit I’d like to see - and this could be limited to just one or two ‘passes’ - would the be ability to fly later. (or alternatively be able to ‘travel bank’ the missed flight.)

That is, if you are running late for a flight and happen to miss it, you can move to a later flight for no extra charge. It certainly would have taken out the stress on that journey!

 

[Princess Fiona]

1. Can you join *A and VA Plat get *A G benefits ?
2. Can you introduce lifetime Status ?
3. What can you do that would differentiate you from the Australian competition? I know you do family pooling but for the truly frequent flyer that’s a detractor not something that would draw them in.

 

[Gold Member]

Ask them to get rid of the garbage Y only aircraft ex ADL.
My constant requests have fallen on deaf ears

Oh c’mon Jase, off your high horse, we all know that “people” from Adelaide don’t deserve premium treatment

 

[encryptededdy]

My number one issue with Velocity (and what I consider to be by far it's greatest weakness) concerns New Zealand. NZ is by far the most popular overseas destination for Australians, and as things stand we can only use Velocity points to redeem flights to Queenstown (and availability is not exactly fantastic).

Yeah, I agree with this. I visit New Zealand often (family), and it's not just redemptions - I can't earn Velocity Points or SC on any trips to NZ (and unlike redeeming, there is no workaround to this). This is one of the major reasons I stick with QFF.

 

[HS-TQE]

1. Can you join *A and VA Plat get *A G benefits ?

A lot of CapEx and stumping up money for fees is required to apply for/join *A (plus the drawn-out application process and approval). Bain indirectly has kept CapEx on partnerships to a minimum, thus it may require scenarios like (for example) UA buying a VA stake during a IPO and then paying for VA's application themselves with their own coin.

Though saying that, UA buying a VA stake is very unlikely (Better chance of QR getting involved with a stake) but who knows

On NZ's end would still be people from the Luxon era in NZ who were still wary of the past VA drama during the Luxon vs Borghetti/Hogan/SQ. Although how much influence they may have now may vary.

Although like with QR, NZ could benefit from 'VA pocket change' with the minimum 'interline' and 'FF reciprocation' requirements in *A. Just like how QR and QF allow interline and FF reciprocation as part of Oneworld.