Velocity changes: Changes to status credits

[777]

New Velocity site is up and VA have moved to a model a lot more similar to QF for calculating status credits:

Program Update | Velocity Rewards

Excuse me while i duck off and quickly calculate what this means for me personally before passing judgement

 

[Mal]

Well they've stuffed up the upgrade (at least for my account).

I need - xx_X SC to reach Silver (yep, negative).





I'm also told I need 200 SC to reach Silver. ( I have more than 0 flights, so this is impossible under their "* Until 31 December 2011, you will need 200 Status Credits to upgrade to Silver membership." offer.

How on earth did I earn 4SC for a couple of flights? (lowest SC earn is 10).

My general view on the change is still open though. Need to analyse it a bit more and see what I think.

PS - Is there anything in the T&Cs of the Velocity program that allows changes like this to over a weekend with no notice to members?

 

[777]

I have gone back and looked at it and it appears that in order to calculate my current SC's they have simply gone back over the previous 12 months and given me 1 Status credit for every 100 velocity points or part part thereof that i have earned.

My old balance was 29,000 SC's (roughly) and my current balance is 293. I am actually better off for two reasons: 1. they've effectively rounded up my SC's so that a flight that earned 540 SC's is now six new SC's. 2. They've lowered the threshold to re-qualify for Gold to 400 and i am not much closer to that than to the 50,000 points i needed before.

However, still haven't done the maths on how this will hit me with future spend. Although i have a couple of International J flights coming up on Etihad that will net me 560 SC's and til the of October left in my membership year so i should be pretty fine for Gold or new plat - assuming it's set at a reasonable level.

 

[Mal]

I have gone back and looked at it and it appears that in order to calculate my current SC's they have simply gone back over the previous 12 months and given me 1 Status credit for every 100 velocity points or part part thereof that i have earned.

Where is this explained? I see it myself ... but can't find any explanation anywhere why it was calculated this way rather than using the new earning scheme.

 

[777]

It is explained in the FAQ on the status credits page i linked to above. However it's explained pretty poorly (i think my explanation was clearer). VA have said that:

2. How did you calculate my new Status Credit balance?

On 6 June 2011, we have changed the way we assess you for an upgrade with the Daily Status Review. The Daily Status Review now assesses your Status Credit balance daily for an upgrade based on the number of Status Credits earned in the previous 12 months.

Therefore, on 6 June, we calculated the number of Status Credits you earned during the previous 12 months and updated your balance to reflect this. This may have resulted in an increase to your Status Credit balance.

Remember, on 6 June we also updated your Status Credit balance to represent the way in which Status Credits are now earned by wiping off a couple of zeros.

To see how your Status Credit balance has been calculated, see the example below.

Example
Step 1: Your Status Credit balance prior to 6 June was 7,000.
Step 2: Based on the Daily Status Review, the amount of Status Credits you have earned in the previous 12 months is 10,000.
Step 3: After adjusting to the new earn rate, your balance is now 100.

 

[notzac]

What's somewhat maddening for me right this second:

Status Credit balance 965

Assuming the Platinum tier will be somewhere around 1000 SCs to earn, I'm ridiculously close right now (but probably won't be when the changes are launched)

Hi Velocity Rewards, any consideration for me here?

EDIT: the earning table also neglects to offer SC earn rates for flighting in F with a carrier that earns SCs (VX, EY, MH)

 

[Misha]

I'm a little confused to be honest, but will get there. Am pretty
Sure I'll qualify for gold again.

My concern is that my review date has been brought back significantly!!!! Very different to previous (and what's on my card)... As in different years!!!

Have to run off to meeting before flying back home but will need to PM Velocity Rewards some stage - bet they'll have a full inbox today

Hmmm... So qantas-like

 

[antycbr]

For domestic flights the old adage "why go direct when you can connect" now applies... Looks like I will be doing lots of CBR-SYD-MEL vv rather than CBR-MEL

 

[777]

EDIT: the earning table also neglects to offer SC earn rates for flighting in F with a carrier that earns SCs (VX, EY, MH)

I did notice that and meant to post that. A bit of an obvious oversight - or perhaps it maxes out at the J level?

 

[Gremlin]

A couple of other changes I've noticed...

Virgin Australia, including Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue
Members earn 5 Points per $1 spent.
Points bonus available for Silver and Gold members:
Silver members earn 25% bonus Velocity Points
Gold members earn 50% bonus Velocity Points

So as a Gold I now earn 7.5 points per $ on domestic flights, up from 7 and Silvers 6.25 points up from 6.

...and this...

Priority boardingBoard when you like through our exclusive boarding lane at major domestic airports

Whilst I've seen priority boarding as a benefit before, this refers to an exclusive boarding lane, which I like the idea of...

The Gold benefits also talk about priority screening at MEL. For a month or two there was a priority screening queue at BNE, but I didn't notice it the last couple of times I've travelled. Question for CrazyDave or Virgin Australia as to whether that's coming back once the refurb is done?

Still trying to work out if I'm a net winner or loser from status changes, but think that'll depend on where they pitch the Platinum threshold.

 

[oz_mark]

My concern is that my review date has been brought back significantly!!!! Very different to previous (and what's on my card)... As in different years!!!

According to the FAQ, review dates were adjusted to 12 months from your upgrade date.

(I think this change has improved my chances of getting some sort of status - on my initial number crunch)

My interpretation of the FAQ is that they have moved to a rolling 12 month calculation for checking whether you go up in status.

 

[markis10]

I like it, much more fun with some creative routings possible!

 

[777]

On the whole i think this is a net plus for me for now.

1. My Current SCs have been rounded up relative to the new thresholds.
2. My threshold for re-qualifying as gold has been lowered from 500(00) to 400(00)
3. My foreseeable current travel plans will (mostly) earn more status credits than they did under the old system -- from running through a small number of examples.
4. My gold earning rate on FF points has increased slightly from 7 points per dollar to 7.5 points per dollar.
5. I'm almost certainly in striking range to platinum by the end of the year assuming it is no more than double gold.

Pretty happy with all this.

Oh, and my review date has stayed the same. Not sure why that it is.

 

[notzac]

Hrm I've done a few calculations and I'm not entirely sure it's a step forward now. One thing I don't like -- this now makes the program even more of a carbon copy of QFF. Really, couldn't they have been a little moar unique?

Pro's

• Rolling 12 month period to upgrade your status tier -- frustrating for me right now (due to what I posted above), but v clever as it rewards your last 12 months of flying (irrespective of when your previous qualification period was)
• The above will also mean that qualification periods will change -- I don't see this as a bad thing, just a thing to be aware of
• As much as I moan that it's too similar to QFF, at least now it's easier to work out whether you'll get anywhere near qualifying for the next level up based on planned travel.

Hi someone-from-VA, is there going to be a decent points calculator so that we can see what a given flight will earn (in both points and SCs)? If there is, please make sure it will also calculate earn rates for flights with partner carriers -- this is something that has been a source of frustration for me with the QFF points calculators.

Con's

• Some long haul flights don't earn as much as they used to. Case in point: DUB-AUH. I previously earnt 56 SCs (under the converted calculation rate), I will now earn 30 SCs. I suspect this is fairer, but there's nothing that says I'm required to like it..!

 

[notzac]

Oh, and my review date has stayed the same. Not sure why that it is.

At least for me, I requalified about 3 days prior to the next qualification period -- so it makes sense that mine stayed the same.

 

[777]

One thing that occurs to me:

If the SC's are calculated on a rolling 12 month period it is absolutely imperative that VA get their act together with promptly posting points and SCs from partner airlines. Otherwise we are going to have an awful lot of people complaining that the 2 months they waited for an Etihad flight to post has cost them two months of Gold/Silver/Platinum status.

At least for me, I requalified about 3 days prior to the next qualification period -- so it makes sense that mine stayed the same.

I don't remember exactly when i re-qualled last year but from memory it was well before the due date. I remember that i ended up on about 75000 for the year so it must have been at least a few months before the due date for me to clock up half as many SC's again.

 

[pshepvic]

Re: Coming to Velocity...

Have we all missed something else???

Just logged in and the SC's have all CHANGED!!!

View attachment 2450

Have to run to a meeting, but will be looking in detail at what's changed when I get back to my desk!

 

[serfty]

Interesting; I was comped DG late last year. I have head four flights since then.

Status Credit balance                            21     
Review date                                      30 Sep 2012
Status Credits earned since last review date     0
Additional Status Credits required to
maintain Gold by review date                     400

I guess the 400 will not start ticking down until after 30th September this year.

 

[777]

Cost of silver going up

Not sure whether anyone saw it in the fine print but after the end of this year it will require 250 SC's to reach silver and 200 SC's to maintain. On the old figures it was 200 to reach and 200 to maintain.

Can't say it bothers me but silver will be harder to get next year.

 

[allitsab]

Being based on miles flown, the SC now makes it much easier to requal for gold (and I'm assuming Platinum), but I can't say I'm a fan of the implementation. In fact, I'd say that I've been ripped off with the way they've recalculated pre-existing status points.

I fly lots of Syd-Mel and Syd-Bne legs, almost all on the cheap fares, which had been accumulating between 350 and say 700 SC's. The recalculation seems to have rounded up to the next even hundred, then divided by 100 - so I've got plenty of 4,5,6 & 7 SC buckets in there now. However, under the new miles based system, these should all be worth 10 SC's; with the occassional full-fare flight worth 20 points.

For me, the net effect is that I feel as though I've been short changed.

Congrats Virgin, you've just treated me like Qantas does. I guess that's what you wanted though, isn't it.