Say what you will about Rex but they actually had some of the best domestic lounges in Australia aside from QF First. Good selection of food and beverages plus ultra exclusive. You didn’t find the riff raff coming in.
Question for all these people disappointed with the changes: what are you going to do?
Nothing! I had Gold status last year (matched over from QFF Gold) and never ended up using the status. What I will tell Virgin members disappointed by the enhancements to frequent flyer status is the same thing my colleague told me when United Airlines went from a strictly milage flown status accrual scheme to a $$$ spent status scheme: "these changes will probably be the best thing that ever happened to you with respect to flying. You are now a free agent and can look around, trying new airlines and frequent flyer programs." In my case it meant switching over to QF via a status match (which actually made a lot of sense given the difficulty in flying United whilst here). So I'd say take a look around. Maybe Singapore, Air Canada or Qatar's program is better in terms of earning status and you'll end up ahead in terms of benefits not just on Virgin but other partners too.
Move back to Qantas where cash fares are higher, points redemptions are higher, status requirements are equal if not higher?
Again that's up for debate. Qantas has the lowest fares in Australia for domestic flights when departing looking for flights departing Sydney Terminal 3 or Melbourne Terminal 1. Joking aside, the difference with QF is that there are more opportunities to earn status credits flying partners than with VA, with particularly good accrual on US domestic flights in premium cabin as Qantas cannot figure out how US geography works.
Award redemptions on Qantas not only cost more points, but also incur considerable carrier surcharges, particularly when flying Emirates. Sure Virgin has them too but they seem to be a token amount by comparison. One nice thing about Qantas though is that you can often book classic award flights with them cheaply with their partner frequent flyer programs such as using BA Avios to book SYD > PER for 11,000 Avios.
Start flying Jetstar? Stop flying altogether? They're typically already the BFOD outside of Jetstar so that won't change a whole lot.
JétStar is obviously an option for accruing status credits but even there, it's not as appealing as it once was given the scrapping of Max fares which would earn status credits at the Flex rate. I remember earning 100 status credits on a SYD > DRW run for ~$300 on such a fare.
You think Virgin Australia could not have done worse than ~10% award price devaluation? lmao this is just too funny. Virgin Atlantic is on their third 10% deval of this year.
Oh they certainly could have done worse here. I think one need only look to Delta Airways to see how bad it could get: 1,000,000 SkyPesos for a flight between Sydney and LA? You betcha!
I do plan my flights on VA metal around the DSC times tbh on J. So i am guilty of the Status run. So let's say QF and VA did a DSC, i'd imagine doing a flight with QF would provide a better $/SC ratio, depending on the destination.
One thing that is unclear is how DSCs will work. Will they simply lower the number dollar amount required to earn a status credit (i.e. from $12 per SC to $6 per SC), or do something else? Virgin will no doubt make adjustments to the program to soften the blow here. Yes they do want to thin the herd but they don't want the ranks to shrink to nothing.
I may be wrong tho, happy to be corrected! But based on my current flight patterns, i'm losing more than 50% of my SC with the new changes.
I think at this point you'll want to consider other options. Either crediting the flights elsewhere or choosing a different strategy for earning status. Now is an excellent time to re-evaluate, as I did when United fired me as an elite.
I wonder if 100 SCs will still be on offer for $50k annual spend? And how that would fit in with the SC requirement for flying on VA metal.
That's always a possibility and something other frequent flyer programs do. For instance, AA allows you to earn status without setting foot on an airplane with its loyalty points scheme for earning status. Heck, you could earn AA Platinum Status by staying 100 nights a year at Hyatt properties globally.
Overall, still processing these changes but it's likely a net loss for me. Got plenty of my SCs from partner airlines and booking J in DSC etc. I can understand why they've done it from the commercial perspective, though, it was kind of silly that I was WP at one point with the amount of flying I did - certainly not the $10k per annum that it will cost now on the new calculation.
With any overhaul of a frequent flyer program there will be winners and losers. And while yes this seems like a net loss for many frequent flyers there are new opportunities that have come along, including the possibility of finally being able to construct itineraries that are 20,000 miles in length.
These changes will help trim the current self-important riff-raff numbers in the lounge.
Do you know who I am? No seriously, I'm asking! My full name doesn't appear on my frequent flyer card and I don't know who I am!
VA has been generous here in the past but they are now making profits, courting exotic types from way off sandy places and generally growing up. Harder decisions need to be made.
The real question will be what their exit strategy will be. Will they float on the stock market or sell out to sovereign wealth funds? Only time will tell!
Having status is a choice and these changes will not disadvantage me terribly.
Spot on! And like I always say, elite status has no value unless it is used regularly. If you fly once or twice a year, status just ain't for you. You'll get all the benefits (and more) on a business ticket and not have to do the mental gymnastics of trying to qualify for status you'll never use!
USA have these devaluations yet have plenty competition.
I wouldn't say that. The US has less competition than Australia with there being only a couple of airlines serving a market which is much larger geographically and population wise than Australia. What is different, however, is the government over there is starting to crack down on devaluations with bills being discussed that would hold airlines accountable for devaluations. What impact that has no frequent flyer awards remains to be seen.
