Goodwill upgrade to Platinum?

[Deon]

Hey all,

I have been a VFF member since 2009, back in the DJ days. Over that time I've flown countless flights, and have maintained either Gold or Platinum for the last 8 years since I was invited to join Explore Gold in 2017. I continued flying where possible during COVID and have not flown domestically with any airline other than Virgin Australia for the last 10 years.

Recently, my status was up for review. I had exceeded the requirements for Gold renew, but was very close to Platinum upgrade - more than 1000 status credits earned and 7/8 eligible sectors flown. I flew a status run flight MEL-LST-MEL but accidentally picked a Lite fare. By the time I realised, it was too close to my review date to book another flight.

Given how incredibly close I came to qualifying, what are my chances at asking VA to honour the upgrade to Platinum as a goodwill just this once?

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[Human]

There’s absolutely no harm in asking. If they say no the first time, I’d even ask if it can be escalated to a supervisor and/or you could try to call again to see if you get a more amenable agent.

Be aware that you’re on more than 1000 SCs which would qualify you for Platinum in its own right, so if you fly one more eligible sector before the SCs and sectors from a year ago start dropping off, you’ll get back to Platinum anyway.

 

[Scarlett]

For making such a rookie mistake as booking a Lite fare I suspect they’ll apply a special downgrade to Red status, just for you.

As for the real question: if you let the computer system handle it for automatic status renewal, you’ve probably got minimal chance. If you call them up, well, you never know your luck in a big city. Probably wouldn’t hurt to be able to show that you have forward VA bookings…

 

[ozstamps]

Sportsbet would give 100 to 1 odds on them letting this slide. No-brainer if you ask the Platinum Email line, I'd say.

Seen many posts where folks did not quite get to 800 to renew Plat and it being auto applied at 770 etc without even asking.

This is a bit different but seeing what a coughed up ugly MESS they have made of the program in recent months, their elite levels will halve pretty fast, so letting a few cases slip thru will not hurt things.

Past loyalty means a ton less to any program these days, but it still works now and again.

I'd stupidly lets 550,000 Hilton points sit in my account, and they expired 6 months back, as we used my wife's HH Diamond card in recent years. Asked the Diamond line nicely to make an exception, and they re-instated all the points last month. Was very pleased.

Booked 4 paid Hilton nights last month on that account as a small Thank You, so it works both ways.

 

[moa999]

aware that you’re on more than 1000 SCs which would qualify you for Platinum in its own right, so if you fly one more eligible sector before the SCs and sectors from a year ago start dropping off,

One advantage of VAs rolling qualification period.