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

[Vic]

More access for families? VFF is generous enough with people guesting other airline pax into the lounge without flying VA. They should tighten this up like QF are doing.

It's total mayhem in the lounge when delay and disrupts hit and I wonder how many people in the lounge at those times are guests of a SG/WP or have been guested in prior and make it their home.

All my family members are adults, so no not generous. You might be getting confused with the child policy, which is also generous on Qantas.

You may also miss the point that VA lounge are almost all domestic. Qantas also allow guess who are flying on other airlines in domestic lounges.

 

[jase05]

All my family members are adults, so no not generous. You might be getting confused with the child policy, which is also generous on Qantas.

You may also miss the point that VA lounge are almost all domestic. Qantas also allow guess who are flying on other airlines in domestic lounges.

As a Platinum member I think 3 adult guests is very reasonable For domestic lounges

 

[Vic]

As a Platinum member I think 3 adult guests is very reasonable For domestic lounges

I agree 3 is reasonable. doesn't help me when I travel with 4 people. Being able to pool to have a platinum and a gold to allow access on that rare occasion is very, very helpful.

Note my comment is a reply to the suggestion to remove family pooling because of all the people getting platinum, gold and 2x silver using pooling.

 

[jase05]

I agree 3 is reasonable. doesn't help me when I travel with 4 people. Being able to pool to have a platinum and a gold to allow access on that rare occasion is very, very helpful.

Note my comment is a reply to the suggestion to remove family pooling because of all the people getting platinum, gold and 2x silver using pooling.

I do agree the lounges can be a zoo at times and that status is far too easy to earn. VA needs to not lose sight of the people who spend the most with them either

 

[ols]

Or give the platinum more guess access for family members so they don't have to use pooling to make sure there is enough combines status so that the 4 or 5th family member can use the lounge for holidays.

Then again, imagine the potential for family Lord of Flies action. Maybe VA should set up a fish bowl in the airport terminal where a series of hunger games are used to weed out the family member who gets to sit in the food court.
It could also provide entertainment to the security queues... some people might even diverge away from security screening to watch.
May the odds be ever in your favour...

Three guests with platinum is more than generous

 

[Vic]

Three guests with platinum is more than generous

not when i have 4 guests

 

[Milefest]

More access for families? VFF is generous enough with people guesting other airline pax into the lounge without flying VA. They should tighten this up like QF are doing.

It's total mayhem in the lounge when delay and disrupts hit and I wonder how many people in the lounge at those times are guests of a SG/WP or have been guested in prior and make it their home.

You could also argue that it's the families putting a bigger strain on the lounge than the guested non-VA pax

 

[ols]

not when i have 4 guests

You get two lounge passes as well so that's twice you can get four guests into the lounge.

 

[odysseus]

not when i have 4 guests

Just because you want even more doesn't mean it is not generous.

 

[MollyJones]

Does anyone know how many Platinum, Gold and Silver members there are?
We don’t have the benefit of family pooling with all adult kids (2 of whom who earn gold in their own right anyway).
As for points to raise at your lunch, can you suggest they look at the current issues re booking reward and revenue flights with SQ. It is virtually impossible - I even tried to search MEL-SIN-MEL the other day on the Virgin website and all it offered was flights via Doha on Qatar

 

[QF WP]

Had an email over the weekend, a phone call this morning (which I missed) and then an SMS chat with VFF to confirm tomorrow. I'll be going through the posts here tonight and putting together the list of questions. As I'll be signing an NDA (Non Disclosre Agreement), I may not be able to give you all an immediate response, other than I've asked the questions and they're considering it.

 

[pauly7]

Had an email over the weekend, a phone call this morning (which I missed) and then an SMS chat with VFF to confirm tomorrow. I'll be going through the posts here tonight and putting together the list of questions. As I'll be signing an NDA (Non Disclosre Agreement), I may not be able to give you all an immediate response, other than I've asked the questions and they're considering it.

They won’t tell you anything they don’t want leaked anyway

 

[QF WP]

Well that was an eye opening session.

There were 11 of us (4 from GC, 1 from MKY and 6 from BNE), 1 from VA & 2 from VAFF. All multi-year Platinum members and a diverse group of ages, employed, retired and 2 females. The majority were over 55.

We introduced ourselves and gave one example or what we liked and what we disliked about the VAFF program. We then workshopped some ideas.

Nick joined us for lunch. Wrapped up at 1:30pm

On my BCC bus back to my office with my sack of goodies.

I had a list of questions from here (more than a page) and we didn’t get to them all so they asked for the list which I gave them.

We got asked whether we’d like to participate in further focus groups. Pretty sure there were 11 names on the list.



They had one focus group of Gold members last week in Sydney and another for Platinum members next week.

 

[QF WP]

The goodies sack contained:

B777-300 model plane
PJ’s
Visa $50 Gift card
Travel wallet/compendium
Amenities kit
Pad

We all got a Virgin pen and the participant next to me left his so I picked it up

Thought they might have personalised the sack with VA logo, as everything else was (apart from Visacard)

I’m going to use the Visa card for flights I’ve got coming up.

 

[SydneySwan]

Did you ''out'' yourself as an AFF member?

 

[QF WP]

Yes, he already knew one of the group was an AFF Moderator as he’d spent time at the VA Launch last week with @AFF Editor. I introduced myself at the end.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sooooo… if they have amenity kits and PJs… any thought of offering those on overnight DPS flights!!? (rhetorical question)

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes, he already knew one of the group was an AFF Moderator as he’d spent time at the VA Launch last week with @AFF Editor. I introduced myself at the end.

Well, maybe this thread will have at least one extra guest reader for a while (not necessarily Nicky).

 

[HS-TQE]

Sooooo… if they have amenity kits and PJs… any thought of offering those on overnight DPS flights!!? (rhetorical question)

At least complimentary in J and BoB in Y if they got enough supplies going around.

 

[QF WP]

Ah, just remembered the goodies sack was actually a repurposed FA skirt. My wife picked up on it as she looked through the goodies.