Latest VA member survey to plan future "enhancements"

[shuuy]

Thought I'd spend 10 minutes on Virgin's "member enhancements" survey, and wanted to share questions.

Looking at credit cards - some interesting offers some interesting ideas of "minimum spend for benefits", "status credits for international charges". The flight pass looks interesting for those who have weekend holiday homes up the coast.

What do you think?

 

[RooFlyer]

What do you think?

No.

Credit card - $99 fee and $100 credit. Other benefits not much more than my current card.

Debit card. $5 account keeping fee/month? 3% international transaction fee?

Others - tell me about the number available etc.

 

[henrus]

Credit card - essentially the annual fee is cancelled out by the credit but you do need to spend $30k per year on the card to get the benefits (which might be worth it if the insurance is good and doesn't require prior spend - looking at you CBA).

Debit card - the monthly fee needs to be scraped or the international fee needs to go (or in an ideal world both). Any international points earned are effectively cancelled by the fee.

Hmm fight club sounds good... fight it out for the limited $40 fares that month - although I find the concept interesting.

 

[ols]

Well, Perth misses out and the credit card offers are lame.

 

[ThatMrBlake]

The flight club sounds good but I doubt commercially viable. Especially the $40 dollar return fares listed as example between the east coast and perth.

 

[oz_mark]

They don't immediately inspire me, but maybe the right bonus offer on the credit card, and I'd get it for a year.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Lots of banks have no fee Visa/Mastercard debit cards.
Even the Velocity Global Wallet didn't have a monthly fee.
What I see from the 2 cards, (offers) if they do come to fruition, is a money making venture to add to the(ir) new buyers profit line/profits.
Am not eligible for true credit cards, and the $5 a month puts me off it.

 

[Bagpuss]

Too little, too late.

Most probably these are NAB (ex Citibank) white label credit card and possibly NAB backed debit card.

They should just rebrand Virgin Money credit and debit cards as Virgin Australia, otherwise it's confusing.

 

[Happy Dude]

The flight club would wind up like the 1 point promo. Generated more anger and disappointment than anything else.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The flight club sounds good but I doubt commercially viable. Especially the $40 dollar return fares listed as example between the east coast and perth.

Hmmm.

I suspect it might be along the lines of the 1 point promo?

They’d release one or two seats, at a random time, maybe once a week, and you’d have to beat everyone else with ‘exclusive access’ to get a look in.

Undoubtedly the $40 seats will be similar to award inventory… seats they couldn’t sell anyway, so at less than pleasant flight times.

Might be ok for solo travellers, but I didn’t you’d be able to take the family with you all for the same $40.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Virgin Money debit card do earn Virgin Money points, (in their own card points system), that is in that Virgin cards system, but these/they cannot be transferred to VFF as any benefits.
I rang Virgin Money up a while back and asked, they said no transfers.
Was sure 1000% that when I rang, it was Virgin Money, and not VFF.
Virgin Money credit cards, yes, those points can be transferred to VFF.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

Another survey out to members today:

"Today, we're interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on cancellation flexibility for airline tickets."

Basically, are you happy to pay an amount for an add-on to a Lite or Choice fare to allow for 80% of the airfare to be refunded if you choose to cancel.

For basic (~$200) fares it was $26-30 for the add on, increasing based (I think) on fare cost.

I panned it completely. Zero interest in paying 10-15% extra for the chance that I might want 80% back if I have to cancel.

Just another example of private equity trying to squeeze some more income I guess.

 

[odysseus]

Another survey out to members today:

"Today, we're interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on cancellation flexibility for airline tickets."

Basically, are you happy to pay an amount for an add-on to a Lite or Choice fare to allow for 80% of the airfare to be refunded if you choose to cancel.

For basic (~$200) fares it was $26-30 for the add on, increasing based (I think) on fare cost.

I panned it completely. Zero interest in paying 10-15% extra for the chance that I might want 80% back if I have to cancel.

Just another example of private equity trying to squeeze some more income I guess.

Amusingly and sadly enough, you would actually be financially worse off in the scenarios I was testing purchasing that product if you needed to cancel, rather than just using the existing cancellation terms.

And that's on top of the majority of situations where you don't cancel but still pay for the extra add-on that's not required.

Pay more, and get less - what a deal!

 

[Must...Fly!]

It would sound good on paper to some, I am sure...not to me...

 

[Phoenix-1]

That credit card offer smells like a CBA card offer to me. $2.5k/month spend and 40k points on sign up is very similar to their Smart Awards card.

 

[SheikYerbouti]

I don't get any of these surveys

 

[newmarket]

If they want to charge for a refund they should refund 100%. I was really disappointed that they even suggested this.

 

[Jurahn]

Another survey out to members today:

"Today, we're interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on cancellation flexibility for airline tickets."

Basically, are you happy to pay an amount for an add-on to a Lite or Choice fare to allow for 80% of the airfare to be refunded if you choose to cancel.

For basic (~$200) fares it was $26-30 for the add on, increasing based (I think) on fare cost.

I panned it completely. Zero interest in paying 10-15% extra for the chance that I might want 80% back if I have to cancel.

Just another example of private equity trying to squeeze some more income I guess.

I received that one as well. Completed the survey, telling them at every opportunity in every free text field what an appalling money-grab of an idea it is.

 

[BRIS_VA_HAWK]

If they want to charge for a refund they should refund 100%. I was really disappointed that they even suggested this.

Disappointed, definitely. Surprised, definitely not. Someone's obviously thrown it up as a potential income earner without considering the potential backlash.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

There are quite a few airlines - LCCs - and OTAs with similar options in place… pay $xx for an 75-100% refund. Not all of them are 100%.

I was almost tempted on trip.dotcom as their Rex business class fare was $120 cheaper than Rex’s website, and they wanted $75 to offset the cancellation fees.

Didn’t get it in the end, but made me appreciate the full flexibility of business class fares in VA and ZL.