Tips for a newbie coming over from QF

[MarkyMarkOZ]

Hi all,

I have been QF silver/gold FF for some 15 years, and because of our business credit card points alignment and my SQ Kris flyer membership I have made the switch to Virgin for domestic and USA trips.

I have already booked and paid $$ for 3 interstate domestic flights and 1 x BNE/LAX/San Jose and 1 x BNE/LAX/Nashville to be taken over the next 2 months with Virgin. I also dropped 200K points into my Velocity account. However it appears until I hit gold there will be very little use for the points in using for upgrades on the long haul flights, which is disappointing. Any suggestions?

Also just looking for any tips and tricks on Velocity given I am coming from QF?

In my first pass looking at points only for USA bound flights, the rate seemed quite expensive.

 

[OzEire]

I suggest asking VA for a Pilot Gold challenge. If they agree you get some gold benefits (main ones) then have 3 months to reach a lower SC threshold to keep gold for the year, after that you qual or requal as normal. In essence if you can accumulate SC quickly you can skip the noob and silver levels.

 

[SuzieQ68]

I suggest asking VA for a Pilot Gold challenge. If they agree you get some gold benefits (main ones) then have 3 months to reach a lower SC threshold to keep gold for the year, after that you qual or requal as normal. In essence if you can accumulate SC quickly you can skip the noob and silver levels.

+1 for this option. We had a small business and took up the offer. Didn't look back and have managed to maintain WP (partner) and SG (me) even though we've now sold the business and don't travel as often.

 

[MarkyMarkOZ]

Update: Not a good outcome.

Spoke to the Velocity call centre, they asked me to send an email with the request and my information to [email protected] and with the specific request for the Pilot Gold Challenge. Short story is they Advised "At this stage, Virgin Australia does not offer status match with our Velocity Frequent Flyer loyalty program. Guests can achieve the Gold Status after reaching 500 status credits and once four eligible sectors have been flown."

I also gave them my company's details and in response I got the following - "Virgin Australia does offer two Pilot Gold membership for three months as part of our corporate accelerate program for small to medium sized businesses. Please advise if your company is part of our corporate program?"

I would have hoped that they would have been able to tell me if the company was part of any program given all the information provided?

Oh well, looks like it will be back to QF Gold for me in that case as I am not going through the long wait to get status and not be able to use the points I have in the mean time for upgrades. Lost opportunity.

 

[Mattg]

If your business is eligible, why not just sign up to Accelerate? The Pilot Gold offer generally is only offered to Accelerate members, but it is free to join...

They'll probably ask you to show that you've spent $2,000 on flights since joining - hopefully the flights you've already booked will be taken into consideration.