Pilot Gold

[rockplat]

I was looking through the terms and conditions and noticed Pilot Gold membership. Not sure if its new or not, but couldnt find any reference to it on AFF.
Pilot Gold
11.7 Selected Members who have not earned sufficient Status Credits to upgrade to Gold Membership may be offered Pilot Gold Membership by VRPL for a three month trial period (“Pilot Gold Membership”).
11.8 These Terms and Conditions will apply to Members who have received an offer of Pilot Gold Membership from VRPL. If you accept the offer, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
11.9 In these Terms and Conditions, ‘Pilot Gold Review Date' means the date three months after the date on which you are upgraded to Pilot Gold Membership.
11.10 Members who are offered Pilot Gold Membership will be given Gold Membership for a three month period (“Pilot Gold Membership Period”) and will receive all of the benefits of Gold Membership during this time, other then those Gold Membership benefits set out in clause 11.11 of these Terms and Conditions.
11.11 The following Gold Membership benefits are excluded from Pilot Gold Membership:

11.11.1 Complimentary Partner Memberships;
11.11.2 Guaranteed Reward Seats for an Annual Family Trip;
11.11.3 Membership Pause for Parental Leave; and
11.11.4 The ability to benefit from a Family Pool.
​

11.12. VRPL may offer Pilot Gold Membership to Members in its sole discretion.
11.13 Pilot Gold Members are bound by the Velocity Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions for the duration of their Pilot Gold Membership.
11.14 Members who accept Pilot Gold Membership will continue to earn Status Credits, Points and Eligible Sectors in the same way as other Members during the Pilot Gold Membership Period.
11.15 During the Pilot Gold Membership Period, the Member’s Status Credit balance will reflect the number of Status Credits, Points and Eligible Sectors earned since their Pilot Gold Review Date. Following the Pilot Gold Review Period, any valid Status Credits, Points and Eligible Sectors earned prior to Pilot Gold Membership will be reinstated.
11.16 Members will maintain Gold Membership for a further 12 month period following the Pilot Gold Review Date if they meet the criteria set out in clause 11.17 of these Terms and Conditions. The Member’s Review Date will then be set to 12 months following the Pilot Gold Review Date.
11.17 To maintain Gold Membership after the Pilot Gold Review Date, Members must:

11.17.1 earn 80 Status Credits; and
11.17.2 fly at least one Eligible Sector during the Pilot Gold Membership Period
​

11.18 Members who maintain Gold Membership following their Pilot Gold Review Date will be subject to the Velocity Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions relating to maintaining Gold Membership.
11.19 If Members do not meet the criteria set out in clause 11.17 during the Pilot Gold Membership Period, Membership will be renewed at the Silver Membership level for a period of 12 months. The Member’s Review Date will then be set to 12 months following the Pilot Gold Review Date.
11.20 The Velocity Frequent Flyer Terms and Conditions will continue to apply to your Velocity Frequent Flyer Membership Account, other than as expressly stated in this clause 11.
11.21 If participating in Pilot Gold Membership, members will not be entitled to a refund or extension of any paid membership to the Virgin Australia lounge.

 

[MarkD]

Hmmm interesting .... Kids, we are going to do one round trip flexi to Perth over the next couple of weeks
Edit::: upon searching and finding the subject, I think the key word is at section 11.10 of the conditions, "offered", I would think implies it's targetted, and not an advertised public offer. Seems a sweetener to get businesses to try before they buy. IMO a far better option than a status match

Excuse the typos, this was sent from my iPhone using Fat fingers

 

[mavrick9]

I thought Pilot Gold
was the 6mth gold membership that's given to a couple of employees if firms with Virgin corporate discounts.
There is info on the VA website about firms that spend $20,000 plusPA getting this
from memory.

 

[wingspan]

I remember I got one of the first pilot gold memberships which was basically the first status match program around the time of the rebrand - before the full status match program came out.

 

[MarkD]

And how did you get it? Was it offered, or did you request it. Not for me, but for an 80 SC travel requirement, might as well get the kids gold as well if I can

 

[wingspan]

I was offered it. Went to a wine tasting in a Virgin lounge and they took down my QFF details. A few days later I was offered a Velocity Pilot Gold membership. Not sure how they give them out these days though.

 

[samh004]

Honestly sounds like a better idea than a full status match, give them most of the benefits with a requirement to fly a certain amount to get all of the benefits and extend the status.

 

[mavrick9]

See Pilot gold reference here;

Virgin Australia Accelerate Program | Virgin Australia

 

[tinkybelle]

i got gold for 12 mths on my accelerate program, there was no requirement to meet any Scs then a week later they bought out the status match program- oh well
. it worked for me as I am now PLAT

 

[almelb]

Hi all,
Just wanted to revive this thread and relate a recent experience.

A friend was made pilot gold three months ago, with a review date of August 12. Having flown the required sectors and attained 80 status credits, the review date came round and after logging into the website it said the status was "under review". It has been under review for more than a week now. A phone call to the velocity call centre got the following response - "the review period is 14 days so you will be confirmed as full gold 14 days after the August 12 review date".

How inefficient is Virgin if it takes 14 days after the three-month pilot gold period to confirm if the status can be granted for a full year. It seems with incidents like this, and the status credits "Black hole" that many here have suffered, the Velocity admin system needs a massive overhaul and improvement.

Anyone else with similar experiences? Anyone from Virgin Australia/Velocity care to respond?

 

[Fruitcake]

The VFF rep heard your cries, and posted a response yesterday:

Regarding the process around a members card expiring....

Membership cards have a review date on the front, and on the back it states that the card is valid for one month after review date.
The assessment of the membership happens 14 days after your review date. This allows for retro’s to be processed etc.
On the night of the 14[SUP]th[/SUP] the system looks back over the previous 365 days from your review date and assesses what tier you have qualified for the following year.
Your new card will then be delivered to you before the old one expires.

This has been the process for the last two years.

To the OP, Gremlin, we've replied via PM.

Emphasis mine. VFF has also posted in another thread that partner airline posting frequency has now been improved as well. This should increase the chance that even the most recalcitrant partners have their points processed within fourteen days.

In any case I shouldn't expect your friend will be suffering too much from having their status "under review."

 

[Deleted member 29185]

In any case I shouldn't expect your friend will be suffering too much from having their status "under review."

And to follow on from Fruitcakes' response, this particular irritation has been discussed before and still appears to be an irritation.

TBH, the 14 day spiel to "allow" for retros is absolute rubbish. For a start most anecdotes raised here on AFF state that there are no retros in waiting and the required trip points had been reached long before (in my case, I requaled plat wintin a month of earning it) and secondly, the retros are often taking far longer than 14 days to appear and often are the fault of VFF or their partners......not the FFer and furthermore, the 14 days "under review" time is to be taken with a grain of salt, same as the retros posting! It's a cop out for a cough system which does have the potential to rob some qualified flyers of their status in some circumstances. You don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to figure out what it is and I'm sure there are at least one or two computer programming geeks who could make it work fairly easily.

Actually, I'm just a little bit surprised this was not handballed as "commercial in confidence".

 

[MarkD]

Hi all,
Just wanted to revive this thread and relate a recent experience.

A friend was made pilot gold three months ago, with a review date of August 12. Having flown the required sectors and attained 80 status credits, the review date came round and after logging into the website it said the status was "under review". It has been under review for more than a week now. A phone call to the velocity call centre got the following response - "the review period is 14 days so you will be confirmed as full gold 14 days after the August 12 review date".

How inefficient is Virgin if it takes 14 days after the three-month pilot gold period to confirm if the status can be granted for a full year. It seems with incidents like this, and the status credits "Black hole" that many here have suffered, the Velocity admin system needs a massive overhaul and improvement.

Anyone else with similar experiences? Anyone from Virgin Australia/Velocity care to respond?

Whats the requirement to keep gold. Its 500 to qualify, 400 to requal, if he has done 80 in 3 months, thats only 320 SC for the year. Not being a smartarse, just wondering why its such a low qualifying level

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Whats the requirement to keep gold. Its 500 to qualify, 400 to requal, if he has done 80 in 3 months, thats only 320 SC for the year. Not being a smartarse, just wondering why its such a low qualifying level

Special $20k+ business perk perhaps?

 

[MarkD]

Special $20k+ business perk perhaps?

Thats a fair call provided they actually did the $$$$.

 

[almelb]

Whats the requirement to keep gold. Its 500 to qualify, 400 to requal, if he has done 80 in 3 months, thats only 320 SC for the year. Not being a smartarse, just wondering why its such a low qualifying level

Just wanted to let you all know that if you are on a three-month pilot gold program, any status credits you earn during those three months will not count for requalification once the three-month period ends.
My friend earned 180 status credits during the three-month pilot gold period, and when their membership re-set to full gold their accounts stated they needed 400 status credits to re-qualify. So essentially whatever status credits earned above that 80 will disappear into Velocity's infamous status credits "black hole" and not count for re-qualification.
While to me that doesn't seem quite right, it kinda to be expected with Virgin's FF program isn't it ...

One caveat though, if you are shooting for platinum then of course whatever status credits you earn is reflected in your daily status credits balance.

 

[guerre64]

Can I clarify something here please?

Our company just switched all its flying business to VA from QF and we were offered the Pilot Gold opportunity.

I'm already Silver with VA but decided to take the opportunity to take up this offer.

In the meantime, I have decided to go to the UK and am flying J class with Etihad, which will earn me something like 480SC - I was sitting on 320SC before the Pilot Gold status.

Are you saying that 400 of those SCs earned are just going to disappear, or will they actually still be added to my 320 so that I'm on my way to Platinum??

I'm confused :-(

 

[lobo76]

Can I clarify something here please?

Our company just switched all its flying business to VA from QF and we were offered the Pilot Gold opportunity.

I'm already Silver with VA but decided to take the opportunity to take up this offer.

In the meantime, I have decided to go to the UK and am flying J class with Etihad, which will earn me something like 480SC - I was sitting on 320SC before the Pilot Gold status.

Are you saying that 400 of those SCs earned are just going to disappear, or will they actually still be added to my 320 so that I'm on my way to Platinum??

I'm confused :-(

That's a tricky one! I'd guess your best bet would be to retro claim them (someone would need to confirm that will work) or pool to a partner?

 

[guerre64]

Well, lucky I kept the original offer email I received at work to join Pilot Gold (and thanks to the VFF GOLD Customer Service Team on the phone), becuase I've now confirmed that my existing SCs prior to joining Pilot Gold will be re-instated at the end of the 3 month period, regardles of whether I acheive full Gold by earning 80SC (which I will easily).

In the T&Cs it says:

7. For the duration of the Pilot Gold Review Period, theMember’s Status Credit balance will reflect the number ofStatus Credits, Points and Eligible Sectors earned since thestart of their Pilot Gold membership. Following the Pilot GoldReview Period, any valid Status Credits, Points and EligibleSectors earned prior to Pilot Gold Membership will​

be reinstated.



The VFF CS Team confirmed this is the case - so my 480SC earn on Etihad will qualify me for Gold (which it would have anyway from my Silver status) and my 320 or so SCs will be added back into my account after the 3 month period! I also made sure I had a screenshot of my previous status and SCs before joining, just in case there are any arguments!

Anyway, hope this info is helpful for others and, I'm not so stressed about losing all my SCs earned in the last year

 

[Jeremy Kronk]

This is correct , I confirmed with virgin velocity today