How lenient is Virgin with hitting Platinum

[madmouse58]

Hi All,

I have a couple of flights booked ahead, which I originally thought for some reason that I would hit the 1000 point requirement. Turns out, I won't be hitting the requirement as 80SC points will expire (oversight on my part), which would see me at 35 points shy of the 1000 point requirement.

Has anyone had any experiences in just being either shy of the requirement SC wise, or out a few days?

 

[andye]

Im sure its not impossible but rare.
Suspect the VA advice would be to earn 35 SCs before your next ones expire
The rolling VA SCs are less punishing of near misses than QF's fixed year

 

[williamsf1]

If you were going to maintain and were close they are flexible, however if this is your first time highly unlikely. As andye mentioned, VA works on a rolling window so all is not lost... Just do a return flight . There has been many reports of here of members being upgraded at 980-990 SC so you could get lucky

 

[Milefest]

35 SCs is a bit too short, I'd be pretty comfortable with retaining/attaining 10SCs short.

 

[Comoman]

I was at 1400 SC's but only had 6 ~ flights as I'm mostly international and I got dropped so make sure you have the 8 ~ flights.

I no longer fly VA as a consequence.

 

[penegal]

No harm in asking, but wouldn't expect anything.

Virgin do seem to manually review WP members (whereas other status is granted by the computer). Not sure if this translates to any ability to actually get special treatment or it's just the process.

 

[Pleb Status]

I was at 1400 SC's but only had 6 ~ flights as I'm mostly international and I got dropped so make sure you have the 8 ~ flights.

I no longer fly VA as a consequence.

For interest, why do you believe that you should be exempt from the clearly defined qualification criteria that the rest of us must meet?

 

[williamsf1]

For interest, why do you believe that you should be exempt from the clearly defined qualification criteria that the rest of us must meet?

Agree - It is Marketed as the Loyalty program of Virgin Australia, 6 flights is hardly loyalty. There is enough tricks on here or as you appear to fly overseas a bit just one more return flight with a VA codeshare would have been enough.

 

[deepblerg]

I would LOVE to know how VFF/VA determine this. Mostly because I'm a total data geek. I was upgraded to WP with 20 SC's short but I'm sure there are many factors at play here. I had future travel booked too. They could also be looking at things like total revenue earned over time, fare class normally booked, routes travelled, travel behaviour etc. I find this fascinating but I acknowledge I am weird.

 

[madmouse58]

For all those playing at home, I called VA but was told nothing they can/want to do. Will need a flight to Launceston to make up the status.

 

[Comoman]

Agree - It is Marketed as the Loyalty program of Virgin Australia, 6 flights is hardly loyalty. There is enough tricks on here or as you appear to fly overseas a bit just one more return flight with a VA codeshare would have been enough.

My decision was based upon:

1 - VA cancel all international flights ex-Perth.
2 - Can't book seats on VA codeshares on SQ without hassle. Don't need hassle. I fly overseas approx 10-12 per year, domestic 2 times approx.
3 - VA codeshares always seemed to be more expensive than direct with SQ/EY. QF/EK usually the same situation though....

Therefore my Loyalty went to SQ. Star Alliance works well - already SQ*G and PPS. I had been a VA Platinum for many years with often many more than 8 ~ flights and 2400+ SC's. One year missed by 2 ~ and boom. No loyalty there to me.

Decision made. No regrets at all. Everyone's situation is different. If you're flying long haul ex-Perth VA is probably not the right program - wasn't for me.

Anyway - as always YMMV

 

[williamsf1]

I would LOVE to know how VFF/VA determine this. Mostly because I'm a total data geek. I was upgraded to WP with 20 SC's short but I'm sure there are many factors at play here. I had future travel booked too. They could also be looking at things like total revenue earned over time, fare class normally booked, routes travelled, travel behaviour etc. I find this fascinating but I acknowledge I am weird.

don't think that much into it .... ..

 

[williamsf1]

My decision was based upon:

1 - VA cancel all international flights ex-Perth.
2 - Can't book seats on VA codeshares on SQ without hassle. Don't need hassle. I fly overseas approx 10-12 per year, domestic 2 times approx.
3 - VA codeshares always seemed to be more expensive than direct with SQ/EY. QF/EK usually the same situation though....

Therefore my Loyalty went to SQ. Star Alliance works well - already SQ*G and PPS. I had been a VA Platinum for many years with often many more than 8 ~ flights and 2400+ SC's. One year missed by 2 ~ and boom. No loyalty there to me.

Decision made. No regrets at all. Everyone's situation is different. If you're flying long haul ex-Perth VA is probably not the right program - wasn't for me.

Anyway - as always YMMV

OK now knowing more information , I agree you were very hard done by and you did show significant past loyalty.

being PER based, and traveling international, SQ PPS would offer almost he same benefit as a VA status ( lounge/ check in etc) and if you really wanted to upgrade a VA flight with points you could transfer to VA from SQ and go from there.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

I would LOVE to know how VFF/VA determine this. Mostly because I'm a total data geek. I was upgraded to WP with 20 SC's short but I'm sure there are many factors at play here. I had future travel booked too. They could also be looking at things like total revenue earned over time, fare class normally booked, routes travelled, travel behaviour etc. I find this fascinating but I acknowledge I am weird.

I too find this absolutely fascinating. You're not weird at all!

 

[andye]

I too find this absolutely fascinating. You're not weird at all!

First statement being true doesn't necessarily imply the second is

 

[Fiches Mouser]

First statement being true doesn't necessarily imply the second is

Very true. Perhaps they're even conflicting...

 

[aaronm]

Just by way of adding another data point - I was bumped to gold at 490 SC. But that was after the outbound leg of a trip to Tokyo, and I had additional upcoming travel booked as well.

 

[RAM]

The digging into required segments to be counted is even unclear to VA Gold VFF customer service staff.

Even a mistake (TA missed one 0 in VFF number AND VA stopped sending email statements coincidentally at that time) saw even though 1710 status credits and 2 'flight segments' short (which TA error would have seen covered) - no dice with VA VFF people.

Here is the interesting part. It is only on about the 3rd level of following the link chain to track down why number of flight segments was insufficient that the info on being a code share flight booking with a VA flight number is required for the 'segment' to be counted.

You still get the status credits and miles just not the segments.

Two VA Gold VFF staff did not know this and just kept repeating, "You can see on the screen you need more segments." when I asked why aren't 2 x 4 segments return flights to Europe and 1 x 2 segments rtn flights to Singapore sufficient?

Twice bitten, thrice shy - SQ flight numbers earn no 'segment' count.

Sting in the tail - although all 3 flights (mentioned above) had correct VFF number attached to every leg (as eticket clearly showed) - NOT ONE was credited to the VFF account. Each had to be followed up subsequently. The first Eur rtn was booked directly with VA btw.

So after all the issues with no recognition of VFF earnings for those 3 flights, issues with staff not knowing why the segments weren't recognised - was there a 'good will' gesture?

No, just a "You'll know how to do it in the future now."

No sorry for the inconvenience of none of your flights, even the one we booked and sold you, being correctly recognised for VFF. No sorry for the incomplete knowledge of the two previous VFF staff you spoke with. Not a thing.

Goodwill to VA running close to empty.

So rtn AMEX Veleocity card 'complementary' rtn flight and cheap SYD/OOL rtn to get the segments - then gift Gold to another family member...

 

[Mattg]

My decision was based upon:

1 - VA cancel all international flights ex-Perth.
2 - Can't book seats on VA codeshares on SQ without hassle. Don't need hassle. I fly overseas approx 10-12 per year, domestic 2 times approx.
3 - VA codeshares always seemed to be more expensive than direct with SQ/EY. QF/EK usually the same situation though....

Therefore my Loyalty went to SQ. Star Alliance works well - already SQ*G and PPS. I had been a VA Platinum for many years with often many more than 8 ~ flights and 2400+ SC's. One year missed by 2 ~ and boom. No loyalty there to me.

Decision made. No regrets at all. Everyone's situation is different. If you're flying long haul ex-Perth VA is probably not the right program - wasn't for me.

Anyway - as always YMMV

FWIW, I have spoken to another Perth-based AFFer who failed to meet the ~ requirement despite earning well over 1000 status credits in their membership year. Their reasons for not making the ~ were very similar to yours. They also mentioned that a simple status run from PER is not feasible as they would need to fly either to ADL (or MEL), or a super-expensive regional WA destination. (We have it much easier on the east coast.) VA were not interested in comping them Platinum.

It looks to me like VA need to do a lot more to keep their WA flyers loyal...

 

[JohnK]

For interest, why do you believe that you should be exempt from the clearly defined qualification criteria that the rest of us must meet?

For argument sakes one can do 4 BNE-ROK or 4 MEL-LST returns and earn 900 SCs flying partner airlines and be granted Virgin Platinum status but someone earning 1400 SCs but only 6 Virgin flights would be refused. What gives?

And Qantas grants people status even though they are nowhere near qualifying for that statys, nor do they remotely look like qualifyibg for that status and plan to do as much travel the year after.

So, clearly defined qualification criteria is a myth but for sure if you want that status then take the necessary flights to get there.