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?

​

 

[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.

 

[Deon]

Thanks guys. Gave it a go, but looks like they are playing it by the book!

Hi Deon
Thank you for reaching out to us.

We understand that you wanted to upgrade your account and we really thank you for staying with us for almost 16 years.

As per checking on your account it seems that your account did not meet the required earning of Status Credits and Eligible sector. Currently your account still needs 3 Eligible Sectors and 65 Status Credits to be upgraded to Platinum tier.

As much as we wanted to upgrade your account and give consideration we have no way to override our system as all accounts are automatically accessed by our system.

Since we need to abide with the Velocity terms and conditions and to be fair as well to other Velocity members, we have to decline your request.

We're sorry if this is not the resolution you're looking for and we hope you understand why we're unable to proceed with your request.

The Velocity Frequent Flyer program has a minimum number of Status Credits and eligible Virgin Australia flight sectors that you need to earn to be upgraded to the next tier level – we consider both of these components to be of equal importance. These terms and conditions are in place to ensure we treat all our members equally and fairly

You can activate family pooling with points and status credits and turn on Flybuys auto sweep as another great way to fast track your status

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

If there’s anything else we can do for you, please visit velocityfrequentflyer.com or call the Membership Contact Centre on the number below.


Kind Regards,

 

[SeaWolf]

Thanks guys. Gave it a go, but looks like they are playing it by the book!

On the upside, at least you've got the rolling status qualification period, so it's not like Qantas where you suddenly get reset to zero. As long as you've still got 1000 status credits in the past twelve months you could just take another flight to hit the eight sectors and you'd go up to Platinum.

 

[ozstamps]

You told us you had '7/8 eligible sectors flown' and Virgin tells you it was half that at 5 segments - just enough for Gold at 4 segments.

Big difference. Only 8 sectors are needed to qualify for Plat, and you got just over half way.

A SYD-MEL-ADL return etc, etc is 4 segments. With a partner, family pooling is your 8 segments right there - pretty easy to do in one year, to reach a 'Frequent Flyer' high tier!

 

[Bagpuss]

You told us you had '7/8 eligible sectors flown' and Virgin tells you it was half that at 5 segments - just enough for Gold at 4 segments.

Big difference. Only 8 sectors are needed to qualify for Plat, and you got just over half way.

A SYD-MEL-ADL return etc, etc is 4 segments. With a partner, family pooling is your 8 segments right there - pretty easy to do in one year, to reach a 'Frequent Flyer' high tier!

You can't pool sectors.

But 8 sectors is easy to achieve for a frequent flyer.

 

[Deon]

You told us you had '7/8 eligible sectors flown' and Virgin tells you it was half that at 5 segments - just enough for Gold at 4 segments.

Big difference. Only 8 sectors are needed to qualify for Plat, and you got just over half way.

A SYD-MEL-ADL return etc, etc is 4 segments. With a partner, family pooling is your 8 segments right there - pretty easy to do in one year, to reach a 'Frequent Flyer' high tier!

I didn't mislead - I had indeed flown 7/8 eligible sectors. See screenshot below taken just before my review date.

That was end of Feb, and it's now start of April - 2 sectors have fallen off since then (as they were flown 12 months ago)

 

[Deon]

On the upside, at least you've got the rolling status qualification period, so it's not like Qantas where you suddenly get reset to zero. As long as you've still got 1000 status credits in the past twelve months you could just take another flight to hit the eight sectors and you'd go up to Platinum.

Yep, looks like I'm off on another status run (just not a Lite fare this time! )