Not happy with Velocity...

[Ally&Mike]

First post in the forum and its an unhappy one.. not the way we would have liked to have started off.. but would like some ideas from the knowledgable folks on here

We (partner and I) flew to England (from SYD) on January 24th this year with Virgin Atlantic which enabled us to earn Velocity points so we could use them with Virgin Blue later on. We stand to get approximately 10 000 points each based on fare class and miles travelled. We made sure we had put our Velocity numbers on our bookings before we departed Australia to save the hassle later.

It is now 4 months later and still no points. Their website stipulates that points from partner airlines may take up to 6 weeks.. its now been 16 weeks. In this time I have made 3 phone calls to Velocity and all I get told after giving them details etc is that it can take anywhere from 4-12 weeks. Well why put on the website it takes 6 weeks....

I have also been told each time that the case has been escalated and you will get your points soon. The last phone call was 2 weeks ago (they had asked me to wait around 2 weeks from that point for the points to be given to us).

We are losing patience with Velocity and to be honest do not have much faith at all in the call centre. (I suspect it is not in Australia)

Considering we also flew on opposition airlines as well, we got awarded the points for those flights quite quickly.

If anyone has any suggestions as to what to do next, it would be greatly appreciated. We have thought about contacting Virgin Blue or Virgin Atlantic next but not sure if this the right step to head towards next.

Many thanks

 

[browski]

They have really poor communication with MH and VS.

In fact they should not really be able to call those airlines "partners" because it is encumbent on the traveller to continually press for the ff points to be credited.

The best thing to do is abuse them, and them abuse them some more. This should be followed up by more abuse.

Points delayed are points denied.

 

[markis10]

The Virgin group have some pretty average frequent flyer schemes IMHO, however QF also have issues, there have been reports of issues with LAN flights not crediting and also JQ points etc. At least velocity is free, while many of us paid $85 for the QFF prior to the woolies offer!

 

[Worldtraveller8888]

I had a similar experience trying to get some MH 'partner' points credited. I think it ended up being 6-7 months after the flight that I actually got the points !

Keep trying. Eventually it will happen.

WT

 

[777]

It took me almost no time to get Emirates fares credited last year but the Malaysia fares from the same trip took forever - 4 months or so. I got the impression the issue is with the efficieny of the partners rather than velocity. I don't blame them for that but they really should update the details on their web site to reflect the accurate lengths that things take in the real world and not spin lines to people about when the points are coming through.

The Virgin group have some pretty average frequent flyer schemes IMHO, however QF also have issues, there have been reports of issues with LAN flights not crediting and also JQ points etc.

Yeah, having said that about velocity, it took about 5 months to get JQ Star Class fares credited on QF so they definately have their own problems.

777.

 

[Saab34]

I had the same issue, after they did not credit my VA run. I called about every two weeks and got the same excuse, they will email me problem to someone else or they will look into it. After 5 months I got a operator who wasn't really interested in my story and told me "points will be there within 24hrs", in which they were. Got an extra 5k points seeing she added the wrong class, but they should be giving compensation to you.

 

[Ally&Mike]

Thanks everyone so far..

Just reading the amount of time people have had to wait for their points is nothing short of appalling. 4-7 months is not acceptable and VERY poor customer service. They want people to join their loyalty programs but yet they can't be loyal to their customers and give them the points they are entitled to after paying to fly with whoever.

I also forgot to mention I had also emailed them as requested by one of the call centre staff about it (basically it was a regurg of what has already been hashed out over the phone :-|) Mind you I wrote this thread at quarter to midnight last night..

They havent even bothered replying to it or even a simple "we have received your email and are dealing with it" message.

Its becoming like the proverbial "monkey on one's back" and I hate getting into arguments with people but by god... people need to do their jobs and not us having to chase people..

Im thinking about calling Virgin Atlantic today and seeing whats going on their end.

 

[MrGreg]

I got my MH points credited within 4 weeks. That was about 2 years ago though. Simply gave them a call and sent them my boarding pass. Points were credited.

Generally though, their crediting of points for their partners & shop and earn is terrible. It's been discussed several times in the past.

 

[Fly Geek]

I've had similar experience with Virgin Atlantic.

I would contact Virgin Atlantic as lets face it, it is their responsibility to send the details of the flight you took with them to Velocity. Once I kicked up a bit of fuss with them they sent the details through and I got my Points quickly.

Good luck!

 

[UP4014]

As others have hinted at, Virgin are a bit hopeless when it comes to the reward points. I get the feeling they begrudingly follow it up because of the competivie pressures i.e. QF.

 

[Ally&Mike]

Update for today...

Rang Virgin Atlantic and well they reckon they couldnt do anything cos its not their loyalty program (yes, but Velocity are waiting for you to send details for god sakes!).

Couldnt be bothering trying to reason with the lady from VA.. was like banging your head against a brick wall.

Rang Velocity and went off at them once again, magically got to speak to a supervisor (who I might add was understanding and helpful, but it seems the call centre people arent too keen about putting people through to the higher ups)

Told him the details etc and also asked if they had received the email I sent 2 weeks ago which he said he had no details in my file (no surprises there). He immediately placed another escalation (I was told 2 weeks/4 weeks ago that they had escalated it...hmmmm) and told me that the points would be put in our accounts by Tuesday/Wednesday next week. I also asked him for extra points considering it would be a goodwill gesture on their part after making us wait for so long and placing 5 phone calls etc..

So fingers crossed that the points will be in by early next week... or WWIII will follow.

Im also considering sending an email to Virgin Blue HQ about this experience as Velocity was created by them and Im wondering how much they really know about what is going on and well.. they need to improve it.

 

[jsd]

Ok, this is a long shot but it might be worth a try:


First scan your boarding pass and a copy of your itinerary then attach them to an email with a short note about the flights you took and your velocity number (don't get angry or make threats because you want get anywhere).

Then send it to: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]

See how that goes



Josh

 

[wxxnxs]

I don't have any experience about this case as I never fly with Virgin's partner on international routes. But I still decide to dump the velocity after I accumlated 2 yrs points on it, to compare with its competitors, velocity burn rates are quite poor on most of routes, and even on its shopping store through the web, the redeeming rates are also very poor.

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

My experience is Emirates and VA tend to credit without too much hassle - 2-4 weeks

Compared to QF the earn rate with partner airlines aint crash hot, but then i tend to buy fares on price not points earning.

I do wish they could get you past LA on points. I think that's a pretty big negative for me.

I'm also not happy with the length of time it takes to credit points from Citibank to them. Not really Velocity's fault, but you'd think they'd be pushing their partners to be better.

 

[Ms Lucy]

I know you've spoken with them several times but, if you haven't already done so, I'd second following Josh's advice and send them copies of your e-ticket and boarding passes. That seems to work often for people chasing points in the QF FF program. Your ticket shows all your travel details, and hopefully your class / fare, and the boarding passes prove you did fly. You like to hope Velocity can't be too different?

 

[Ally&Mike]

Update: well we have points.. just the wrong amount... They gave us the amount for a promotional fare when we paid full economy.

*sigh*

Another phone call tomorrow to deal with it ONCE AGAIN. They have all the details... how hard can it seriously be?