Question about companion gold

[MH_fan]

I understand that I have to ring up the GCC to activate the companion gold once I qualify. My question is this... will the companion gold year be the same as mine then? And will my partner only need to earn 400 SCs to requalify or earn the initial 600 to retain?

 

[Ade]

I understand that I have to ring up the GCC to activate the companion gold once I qualify. My question is this... will the companion gold year be the same as mine then? And will my partner only need to earn 400 SCs to requalify or earn the initial 600 to retain?

I didn't have to call anyone. Once I reached Gold, I was able to gift Gold to a mate online. No phone calls made. All that is needed is there Velocity number, first & last names.

re: qualifications - my mate's gold was extended when my Gold was extended. She didn't have any minimum retention criteria. I will need to check this week as I will be dropping to Silver (11 Feb evaluation)

 

[ferntree]

I understand that I have to ring up the GCC to activate the companion gold once I qualify. My question is this... will the companion gold year be the same as mine then? And will my partner only need to earn 400 SCs to requalify or earn the initial 600 to retain?

I gifted my partner platinum earlier this year and it shows up on his Velocity profile that he needs "only" 800 SCs (rather than 1,000) to retain it, so presumably your partner will need only 400 to retain gold.

In my case, I did phone the gift centre to set it up. This was very simple and took about 2 minutes. I guess I could have done it online but I tend to dwell at the technophobic end of the spectrum.

 

[MH_fan]

I tried doing it online but no luck. Will have to ring, I guess. When would the best time to gift? According to their anniversary date?

 

[knagelli]

I understand that I have to ring up the GCC to activate the companion gold once I qualify. My question is this... will the companion gold year be the same as mine then? And will my partner only need to earn 400 SCs to requalify or earn the initial 600 to retain?

I guess you could either do it online or by calling the customer service. I had to call up the customer service to gift gold to my partner earlier this year.

They will need to earn 400SCs to retain their membership tier level and the anniversary or review date is based on when their membership was upgraded to current level. It is not dependent on your anniversary/review date.

Also if they don't achieve the target of 400SCs by their review date , they will soft land to silver.

 

[ferntree]

I tried doing it online but no luck. Will have to ring, I guess. When would the best time to gift? According to their anniversary date?

I would time it to fit in with his/her travel plans.

 

[Matt_01]

When would the best time to gift? According to their anniversary date?

As @ferntree suggested time it to their travel plans. You do not have to gift it straight away and can be at any time during the 12 months of your status period. I have gifted x2 VA SG and x1 VA WP to members on this forum.

 

[servicerequired]

I've gifted companion Platinum to a family member ... does that mean that come 12 months, if they do not have the required status credits to retain Platinum in their own right, but if I still have enough surplus status credits to again gift companion Platinum ... will it automatically gift? Or is it something I have to action annually?

 

[ferntree]

I've gifted companion Platinum to a family member ... does that mean that come 12 months, if they do not have the required status credits to retain Platinum in their own right, but if I still have enough surplus status credits to again gift companion Platinum ... will it automatically gift? Or is it something I have to action annually?

You would have to action annually, but ...

Be aware that if you don't after the first year they'll just get dropped down to Gold for the next year, which ain't too bad either!

 

[8teenWonder]

Sorry, a newbie and need help. I have just achieved Platinum with Virgin and have 1700 status credits, I have been told that, as my anniversary date is now a couple of days ago, I now need to earn 1300 extra status credits, for this period for my wife to get a companion gold. Is this correct? I rang VFF and got an overseas call centre, who said basically there the rules, and then after trying to escalate and being on hold for nearly an hour, the call got dumped.

 

[MH_fan]

Sorry, a newbie and need help. I have just achieved Platinum with Virgin and have 1700 status credits, I have been told that, as my anniversary date is now a couple of days ago, I now need to earn 1300 extra status credits, for this period for my wife to get a companion gold. Is this correct? I rang VFF and got an overseas call centre, who said basically there the rules, and then after trying to escalate and being on hold for nearly an hour, the call got dumped.

If I'm not misreading this, it sounds like you reached or maintained platinum with 1700SCs? If that's the case you can gift companion gold now or anytime up to your next anniversary date. Being able to gift companion gold comes with earning 500SCs above what you needed to earn/maintain platinum.
Anyway, I just successfully gifted companion gold to the other half by calling up the call centre. Easy peasy.