The Velocity Status Run Master thread

[Ade]

Hi new member here

Welcome to AFF

wife and I are pooling status & points and on the next flight will finally make Gold status.

Good idea. Assuming that the pooling will take you to exactly 500 SC (however, depending on how many SC you have now and how many the SC your next flight will award you), you'll need another 500 more to become Platinum

to help us in our quest to hit Platinum with the comp Gold for my wife and then maintaining both?

I'd first ask - is your travel for work/work funded/mix? or purely personal funded?

If it's work funded/mix - then great you can always sneak in an extra sector here and there to get more SC's and with pooling you'll get SC's for two passengers into your account

If the travel is purely self-funded - Assuming these are essential trips to make and are made often, then a platinum would make sense otherwise, a Gold is always a sweet spot to be in in terms of airline FF programs

Any initial advice for us being Perth based

Perth is interesting, because of it's distance from other major hubs, a return business class (J) ticket on the discounted fare (class I, D) to SYD or MEL will give you 180SC/passenger. Add another leg to AKL (Auckland) or CHC (Christchurch), you will get another 120SC/passenger return. So all in all a return fare from PER-MEL-AKL will give 300SC/passenger for roughly about A$1300 (fares might wary depending on day/date of travel)

Now, there are many other routes that you can try to get more SC and always as thumb rule - more stopover, more SC's

So next time you book your Virgin flight, try and add a stopover (if it's not costing you too much) and get more SC's

Also, another key thing to note is SC/$ value - it's always valuable to check how many SC's you are going to for every $ spent. Try and keep this ratio as little as possible to get maximum gains. This factor brings us to the Double Status Credit (DSC) promos run by airlines. Virgin, typically has one every February and might have one later in the calendar year. Have a look out for these promos, as basically, you'd be getting SC for every eligible flight taken and in your case, with the pooling, 4 times SC

You may also try the classic Hobart/Launceston to Dunedin return in J on a class I/D fare and net roughly 360SC/passenger during normal times and 720SC/passenger during the aforementioned DSC.

I am slowly trying to get through the 106 pages but thought an expert may be able to give some quick pointers.

Hope I've given you some information to get started with. If you've got any follow up questions you are always welcome to post and as always happy to help

Note : I'm kinda new too, it's only been 2 years since I got into this whole airline status thingy and some other members in this forum might have a better suggestion to mine and if that's the case, I'd be happy to hear those suggestions as it will help me (& others) up my/our game

 

[knagelli]

Welcome to AFF


Good idea. Assuming that the pooling will take you to exactly 500 SC (however, depending on how many SC you have now and how many the SC your next flight will award you), you'll need another 500 more to become Platinum



I'd first ask - is your travel for work/work funded/mix? or purely personal funded?

If it's work funded/mix - then great you can always sneak in an extra sector here and there to get more SC's and with pooling you'll get SC's for two passengers into your account

If the travel is purely self-funded - Assuming these are essential trips to make and are made often, then a platinum would make sense otherwise, a Gold is always a sweet spot to be in in terms of airline FF programs



Perth is interesting, because of it's distance from other major hubs, a return business class (J) ticket on the discounted fare (class I, D) to SYD or MEL will give you 180SC/passenger. Add another leg to AKL (Auckland) or CHC (Christchurch), you will get another 120SC/passenger return. So all in all a return fare from PER-MEL-AKL will give 300SC/passenger for roughly about A$1300 (fares might wary depending on day/date of travel)

Now, there are many other routes that you can try to get more SC and always as thumb rule - more stopover, more SC's

So next time you book your Virgin flight, try and add a stopover (if it's not costing you too much) and get more SC's

Also, another key thing to note is SC/$ value - it's always valuable to check how many SC's you are going to for every $ spent. Try and keep this ratio as little as possible to get maximum gains. This factor brings us to the Double Status Credit (DSC) promos run by airlines. Virgin, typically has one every February and might have one later in the calendar year. Have a look out for these promos, as basically, you'd be getting SC for every eligible flight taken and in your case, with the pooling, 4 times SC

You may also try the classic Hobart/Launceston to Dunedin return in J on a class I/D fare and net roughly 360SC/passenger during normal times and 720SC/passenger during the aforementioned DSC.



Hope I've given you some information to get started with. If you've got any follow up questions you are always welcome to post and as always happy to help

Note : I'm kinda new too, it's only been 2 years since I got into this whole airline status thingy and some other members in this forum might have a better suggestion to mine and if that's the case, I'd be happy to hear those suggestions as it will help me (& others) up my/our game

That's indeed some detail in there. Efforts and information like these inspire me to come here everyday

 

[Ade]

That's indeed some detail in there. Efforts and information like these inspire me to come here everyday

Thank you @knagelli

 

[westsurf]

@Ade thank you for the very comprehensive reply.

My travel is almost exclusively personal. Luckily though usually with my wife.

I’ve obviously got to s more time researching as I have no idea what fare class codes you used above albeit I do know the differences between the saver and full fare variants.

We’ve been reasonable successful with our points earnings having accumulated nearly 375k in just 10 months. Hence my desire to get moved up to a gold status to gain the bonus points.

One of my greatest frustrations is that even with all the above I never seem to be able to source the reward / points flights at the lower levels that some seem to get. The best I’ve done so far was a PER SYD return business class for approx 75000.

We’re really hoping to organise a round the world business / first class trip. Hence, my research here.

 

[Ade]

@Ade thank you for the very comprehensive reply.

You are welcome and apologies for the delay in my response to this post. I'm between countries and haven't had time to sit down to type in my response

My travel is almost exclusively personal. Luckily though usually with my wife.

Good on ya so is mine. Although sometimes I do travel domestically for work meetings, all of my international travel so far has been personal.

In fact, I'm right now in India on personal work and I can smell the aroma of freshly made filter coffee that my mum's kindly making for me

I’ve obviously got to s more time researching as I have no idea what fare class codes you used above albeit I do know the differences between the saver and full fare variants.

I see. It is always helpful to know the differences between Sale, Saver and Flex fare (these are the categories that QF uses). Virgin uses something slightly different (Getaway, Elevate, Freedom, Business Saver, Business) to categorize fares into classes.

You can know more about which classes fall under which categories in this page : Status Earn Fare Class| Velocity Frequent Flyer

It's not a pretty page, but gives the information that is helpful

To see how many SC you'd earn, you first need to know the distance in miles between origin and destination.
You can visit this page to to calculate the distance : https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Earn/Airlines/mileage-calculator/

and then the number of SC's you'd earn from the tables on this page :

Virgin Australia

Earn Points with Virgin Australia and Partners, also earn status credit when travelling with eligible fare types. Offering include trans tasman flights, short haul and long haul flights and international long haul flights

experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com

We’ve been reasonable successful with our points earnings having accumulated nearly 375k in just 10 months. Hence my desire to get moved up to a gold status to gain the bonus points.

Nice work accumulating 375K points in 10 months and good luck with your quest for Gold

We’re really hoping to organise a round the world business / first class trip.

I can understand your desire here. However, I have not done a RTW booking on Virgin so far. I'd guess that it's not that different from booking a RTW from OW/QF. To that effect, I can tell you that ;

1. Try and fly out of a less famous city - this is called "positioning". You fly from your home city to another city that isn't that busy in terms of finding award seats. As an example, if you're planning to do a reward booking to Europe, it helps to have the reward booking originating from Asia (Jakarta or Manila) as some cities in Asia have cheaper redemption options

2. Try and be as flexible as you can - this will help you sneak in a segment/city to your plan. You may consider doing a segment on road/rail/cruise. Gives you an opportunity to experience a the city on an alternate mode of transport to flying. Someone I know, chose to try the Euro Rail on their trip to Europe. Saved them some $$ and also got to spend some quality time

As always, the community here at AFF is vibrant and buzzing with knowledge and suggestions. Keep posting your questions and someone will help you with their thoughts

 

[Saab34]

Premium Economy price war across the Atlantic
Travel: Jan-March 2020
Price $950-990 return
180SC
Carrier: DL, VS.
Go for the VS A350 if you can

Premium Select Delta
PVG-LAX return
Travel Nov-March
Price: $1100
240SC

Premium Econ Singapore A350
SIN-LAX return
$1400
Travel: 2020
300SC

 

[Flyinfish]

Premium Economy price war across the Atlantic
Travel: Jan-March 2020
Price $950-990 return
180SC
Carrier: DL, VS.
Go for the VS A350 if you can

Any cheap fares from Australia?

 

[Must...Fly!]

The trans Atlantic fare is tempting... Any idea when it expires?

 

[exceladdict]

Hello VA flyers (or cardholders); I have a couple of legs to book in the US and can either go by using QF points to fly AA F, or using cash to fly DL (presumably F for best $/SC). I'm approaching gold with VA so tempted to pursue the latter.
Wondering if:
- DL is good value when it comes to VA status runs;
- There are any good places to start in terms of good city pairs in the 1500+ mile sweet spot - broadly speaking I need to get from Seattle to New York, and then from the east coast back to SFO or LAX a few weeks later
- If so, best way to search and book?
Thanks in advance!

Edit, spent some time in ITA matrix. Best I can find so far west-east is $3.99AUD/sc, SEA-LAX-CVG-ATL-LGA. removing the red eye bumps it to $4.20/sc in F; $4.23 in W (comfort+).

 

[knagelli]

Hello VA Experts - Are there any domestic legs that I can do in a day to achieve 200 SCs in the cheapest way. Will need around 220 SCs to be precise by Nov 15th to hit gold before my international travel in Dec 2019.

Thanks for your time.

 

[jase05]

Hello VA Experts - Are there any domestic legs that I can do in a day to achieve 200 SCs in the cheapest way. Will need around 220 SCs to be precise by Nov 15th to hit gold before my international travel in Dec 2019.

Thanks for your time.

Where are you based?

 

[knagelli]

Where are you based?

Apologies , I should have mentioned that in earlier post.

Im based out of Melbourne.

 

[serfty]

Flexi out of MEL via CBR/SYD to OOL round trip for $600 will earn 100 SC.

Discount Business to AKL via OOL each way will earn 280 SC for about $950. Can be done in a weekend.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Premium Economy price war across the Atlantic
Travel: Jan-March 2020
Price $950-990 return
180SC
Carrier: DL, VS.
Go for the VS A350 if you can

The trans Atlantic fare is tempting... Any idea when it expires?

I took advantage of this fare to book an open jaw LHR-JFK/IAD-LHR for next year. Pretty good value, first flight is on the A350 too which I'm excited to fly for the first time. Thanks for posting @Saab34

Anyway - for anyone on the fence, this sale ends 24 September (i.e. today) in the UK.

 

[Inlander]

Hello VA flyers (or cardholders); I have a couple of legs to book in the US and can either go by using QF points to fly AA F, or using cash to fly DL (presumably F for best $/SC). I'm approaching gold with VA so tempted to pursue the latter.
Wondering if:
- DL is good value when it comes to VA status runs;
- There are any good places to start in terms of good city pairs in the 1500+ mile sweet spot - broadly speaking I need to get from Seattle to New York, and then from the east coast back to SFO or LAX a few weeks later
- If so, best way to search and book?
Thanks in advance!

Edit, spent some time in ITA matrix. Best I can find so far west-east is $3.99AUD/sc, SEA-LAX-CVG-ATL-LGA. removing the red eye bumps it to $4.20/sc in F; $4.23 in W (comfort+).

Delta is good value , did it in June 2019 flew MSY-ATL-ORD in First class(Their business class) which wereone hour and two hour legs and got 40 status credits on each leg for a total of 80

 

[westsurf]

I see. It is always helpful to know the differences between Sale, Saver and Flex fare (these are the categories that QF uses). Virgin uses something slightly different (Getaway, Elevate, Freedom, Business Saver, Business) to categorize fares into classes.

You can know more about which classes fall under which categories in this page : Status Earn Fare Class| Velocity Frequent Flyer

It's not a pretty page, but gives the information that is helpful

To see how many SC you'd earn, you first need to know the distance in miles between origin and destination.
You can visit this page to to calculate the distance : https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Earn/Airlines/mileage-calculator/

and then the number of SC's you'd earn from the tables on this page :

Virgin Australia

Earn Points with Virgin Australia and Partners, also earn status credit when travelling with eligible fare types. Offering include trans tasman flights, short haul and long haul flights and international long haul flights

experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Nice work accumulating 375K points in 10 months and good luck with your quest for Gold

Well have been hard at it, AND, with family pooling after our next PER-MEL MEL-SYD-DPS in Business saver in November we'll be well into our gold and 192 points from Platinum.

 

[moffat39]

Hi I currently have 416 status credits. Use Family Pooling with my wife. We are in Brisbane.

Will lose some status credits in early December 2019 before our next flight on 13 December which is only to Sydney.

Would appreciate any suggestions or advice if there are any sweet spots in getting the 84 status credits from Brisbane so we can get to Gold economically or easily - if there is such a thing!

Was even looking at a weekend away in Townsville in early November and that would only bring 60 status credits for around $450 each if booking elevate fares. Adelaide is 80 status credits for around $486 each for elevate fares. Melbourne is same status credits for elevate fares as Adelaide but so much more expensive.

 

[Ade]

suggestions or advice if there are any sweet spots in getting the 84 status credits from Brisbane so we can get to Gold economically

I did a quick search on ITA Matrix and was able to find BNE-DUD return in J VA 17th Nov - 18th Nov for A$938/person. This would give you 160 credits.

Alternatively, can do BNE-DUD in J for A$440 and net 80 credits and do the return in the cheapest economy option , around NZ$300 for 20 SC, netting 100 SC in total

Alternatively, you could do BNE-MEL return in J for A$1000 netting 100 SC per person

Alternatively, you could do BNE-AKL in J for A$940 netting 120 SC per person

 

[moffat39]

I did a quick search on ITA Matrix and was able to find BNE-DUD return in J VA 17th Nov - 18th Nov for A$938/person. This would give you 160 credits.

Alternatively, can do BNE-DUD in J for A$440 and net 80 credits and do the return in the cheapest economy option , around NZ$300 for 20 SC, netting 100 SC in total

Alternatively, you could do BNE-MEL return in J for A$1000 netting 100 SC per person

Alternatively, you could do BNE-AKL in J for A$940 netting 120 SC per person

Ade thanks for going to the trouble of doing the searches. I had been going through previous posts and came across the ITA Matrix. Will have to learn how to use that.

Melbourne in J looks good just for me which will be enough status credits. Don't know how would sell that to the wife!

 

[moffat39]

Now looking at Cairns. Elevate return for around $380 each for 80 status credits for the two of us.

Would then rely on fly buys for the remaining 4 status credits