Velocity changes: Changes to status credits

[markis10]

Etihad does that:

Family Guest Benefits

so it is possible for others to do likewise.

Not the same, the miles are transferable, not their version of SCs though, same with VS although they wont let any SCs accrue for family members!

Family Guests enrolled in a Family Membership continue to receive 100% of the Etihad Guest Tier Miles they earn and carry on receiving all their personal tier benefits - so they'll also be eligible for promotion to Etihad Guest Silver and Etihad Guest Gold, and all the benefits of membership of these exclusive premium tiers

 

[notzac]

What I would really like to see is when booking flights for whole family at once that you have the choice as to who to allocate the SC's to.

Sorry, but I (respectfully!) disagree. Earning status should be about your own personal bum in a seat on a plane several times over; what you're suggesting amounts to buying status.

 

[oz_mark]

What I would really like to see is when booking flights for whole family at once that you have the choice as to who to allocate the SC's to.

We had an interesting discussion yesterday about the tradeoff between elegance and simplicity in the design of a frequent flyer scheme. One of the stated aims was trying to keep the scheme relatively simple. While what you are suggesting sounds good on one level, it does strike me that it would add a whole layer of unnecessary complexity to the program (i.e. creditting somewhere other than the traveller).

What's to stop, for example, a business from directing everything to a pooled account, away from individual accounts? We say where a thread on that topic went:shock:

 

[CBR001]

Status credits NOT earned on sector basis

A word of caution to anyone contemplating a status run on virgin - status credits are NOT credited on a sector by sector basis, but on an origin-destination basis. I have had three phone calls with the contact centre to try and get status credits sorted out, agent was unaware of what the website said about flight numbers and the query had to be "escalated" for a response which tok 4 days. Final answer is that it is origin to destination earning, so going on multiple flights on a through booking does NOT result in extra credits. Ie a CBR-SYD-CNS journey (on a single booking, with a change of flight in SYD) earns status credits based on the distance of a single flight CBR-CNS. So doing this journey on a Premium fare results not in 100 credits, but in 60.The call centre operator advised they have now updated their website to reflect this, and lo and behold, they have. A third explanation on earning status credits has appeared in less than a week -not a great start!

 

[Saab34]

I knew it was too good to be true. Well they have lost my business then, quite disappointing actually.

Quite pissed. I booked a few MEL-BNE-NTL, NTL-MEL runs, with the last sector being on points. Points down the drain. No silver for me next month

 

[LiamR]

Re: Status credits NOT earned on sector basis

A word of caution to anyone contemplating a status run on virgin - status credits are NOT credited on a sector by sector basis, but on an origin-destination basis. I have had three phone calls with the contact centre to try and get status credits sorted out, agent was unaware of what the website said about flight numbers and the query had to be "escalated" for a response which tok 4 days. Final answer is that it is origin to destination earning, so going on multiple flights on a through booking does NOT result in extra credits. Ie a CBR-SYD-CNS journey (on a single booking, with a change of flight in SYD) earns status credits based on the distance of a single flight CBR-CNS. So doing this journey on a Premium fare results not in 100 credits, but in 60.The call centre operator advised they have now updated their website to reflect this, and lo and behold, they have. A third explanation on earning status credits has appeared in less than a week -not a great start!

Interesting.... I thought this had been discussed already?

The way I see it, its a fair system. It stops people abusing the system (NAN Runs?), as unpopular as it may be.

I'm sure others will disagree with me.

 

[Misha]

I knew it was too good to be true. Well they have lost my business then, quite disappointing actually.

Quite pissed. I booked a few MEL-BNE-NTL, NTL-MEL runs, with the last sector being on points. Points down the drain. No silver for me next month

They seriously have to reassess this as I fear they have just lost a bunch of potential crossovers from QF. I noticed the new wording on the website. I was going to book some MEL-NTL runs tomorrow so thanks for putting up this note. Shame....

and I was so looking forward to some communal DJ status runs

 

[concorde71]

Re: Status credits NOT earned on sector basis

A word of caution to anyone contemplating a status run on virgin - status credits are NOT credited on a sector by sector basis, but on an origin-destination basis. I have had three phone calls with the contact centre to try and get status credits sorted out, agent was unaware of what the website said about flight numbers and the query had to be "escalated" for a response which tok 4 days. Final answer is that it is origin to destination earning, so going on multiple flights on a through booking does NOT result in extra credits. Ie a CBR-SYD-CNS journey (on a single booking, with a change of flight in SYD) earns status credits based on the distance of a single flight CBR-CNS. So doing this journey on a Premium fare results not in 100 credits, but in 60.The call centre operator advised they have now updated their website to reflect this, and lo and behold, they have. A third explanation on earning status credits has appeared in less than a week -not a great start!

They really need to get their **** together. This ameteurish change everything every week wont cut it. Qantas might be cutting the cough out of benefits, but at least they are consistent......Having said that, I think that it will make gold/platinum the elite levels that they are supposed to be, we had people looking at getting gold on $1400 spends, so honestly, this has just kept our benifits a bit exclusive as golds. Virgin need to think things out before releasing, FFS they have had enough time to think about it grrrrrrrrr

 

[oz_mark]

Re: Status credits NOT earned on sector basis

Interesting.... I thought this had been discussed already?

The way I see it, its a fair system. It stops people abusing the system (NAN Runs?), as unpopular as it may be.

I'm sure others will disagree with me.

It's a shame really. The analyst in me had been wondering how they were going to implement it. Having points calculated on the whole fare (using their example BNE-SYD-ABX), and Status credits on the individual components seemed awkward to me! Both from a calculation and a presentation perspective. I was looking forward to see how they presented it.

 

[loobloke]

Hah. You've got to be joking.

I was about to upgrade all my fares to PE 2 days ago as I was already doing stupid routing already, so it would have only been for the SC's due to an upcoming overseas trip.
Then the ash thing happened, so I thought I might wait a bit as I was going to upgrade old fares, so I had intended to call up VA to confirm that the new SC earning even on old fares as reported by others was correct.

If I had spent the $1k+ upgrading to PE ... and then this happened ......... well ... ridiculously pissed off would be an understatement.

I feel for those for have already booked the NTL run. Honestly I hope VA can get their **** together and fix up this issue which they bought amongst themselves and resolve it for anyone who has already booked fares with SC's in mind.

I do see how the system was flawed, but that is why there are multiple levels of quality assurance when a product is released, i.e: exactly not what is going on here.

But honestly, at least QF has the courtesy of announcing that they have changed anything, and have their act together when releasing information making sure it's correct.

Speaks a lot for an airline trying to improve it's professionalism. Quite disappointing.

 

[777]

Obviously this change is in effect going forward but I really think for those who have done SC runs VA should honour the conditions as published at the time. I'm not sure whether they are legally obliged to but it will sure go a long way to smoothing the impact.

 

[Hilius]

Well that's pretty poor. I realise that we're not actually entitled to anything more than what they decide at their own discretion to provide within the FF program, but the flip-flopping between explanations is incredibly unprofessional. Poor form, Virgin.

I note that the new explanation is as follows-

When you purchase a single fare with Virgin Australia, Pacific Blue or Polynesian Blue and there is a via point which does not involve a stopover, the Status Credits are awarded on the mileage from origin to destination, e.g. ABX-BNE via SYD will receive the Status Credits for the distance and fare type flown based on ABX-BNE.

That would imply that V Australia and the international partner airlines still earn on a sector-by-sector basis, but the exact same wording (just saying "Virgin Australia, Pacific Blue or Polynesian Blue" and the ABX-BNE example) is also used for the separate Virgin Atlantic SCs table. Who knows what the hell it all means.

 

[loobloke]

And they also really need to display some information about what they deem as full fare and discount fares.
eg: On Etihad .. no idea at all, on VA .. is V Flexi the only full economy fare?

TBH, I think the entire SC change was very poorly planned and executed .. and it wasn't even drip fed to us!!

 

[drfs]

This is completely ridiculous. How much thought went into designing the new SC system in the first place?? I personally spent hundreds on more expensive fares for upcoming travel to hit gold, relying the explanation that each flight number was a separate SC-earning sector.

This epic confusion is really testing my loyalty to DJ. Not happy.

After writing a post re my own SC accrual in this thread on the 9th, Velocity Rewards (Dean) sent me a PM asking me to send details to velocity.team @virginaustralia.com (space added). I did straight away. No reply. Followed up this morning. Still nothing. Poor form.

I suspect whoever posted that explanation of earning per flight number is in a bit of trouble now.

I agree that the current explanation makes more sense going forward in terms of not making it too easy to reach the elite tiers, overcrowding lounges etc, but I reasonably relied on the explanation on the Velocity site and fully expect it to be honoured for flights I have already booked. Is this unreasonable?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I reasonably relied on the explanation on the Velocity site and fully expect it to be honoured for flights I have already booked. Is this unreasonable?

No, not unreasonable.

I believe DJ may honour their committments, but not across the board (many flights will have been booked by people unaware of what a status run even is). Send a complaint and follow up with a PM to the reps here on AFF and I think they will have the ability to credit the SCs at their discretion or at least perhaps offer flight credits (or something similar) in lieu.

As I've previously said, I like the uncrowded Lounges and was concerned by such a low ask for gold. I was resigned to remaining silver previously, but these latest changes (12 month rolling period) certainly puts gold within my reach, albeit at a slightly higher spend than if sectors were credited individually.

Here's to uncrowded Lounges (The bright side, I guess)

 

[leemin]

I'm really disappointed in this change. Not so much what it's changed to - I'm in two minds about that - but the fact that this is the third incarnation of a SC policy that is only days old.

I agree, it shows DJ really need to get their s*** together. First the changes were announced. Then, after AFF highlighted some queries there was (presumably) internal discussion and the website was changed for the purposes of clarity.

Now, the website has been changed again (very quietly, which is another issue) after presumably more internal discussion and a change of policy.

It's making me wonder what we can believe

Either that, or far too many people have authority to change the website.

 

[StevePER]

Maybe the latest incarnation was the intent all along, but they never managed to get it worded quite right? I agree it isn't good enough to be moving the goal posts continuously and it really shouldn't have been that difficult to get it right the first time.

 

[medhead]

I agree with the comments on shifting goal posts. But I would really recommend that we all need to look at the bigger picture. Even without the extra SC from connecting flights the new SC system is a significant "improvement". I do regular flying and I'll always keep in mind the significance of the "improvement". You all mind like to do you own sums on the level of "improvement"

As for the comparison with qantas. They have done this sort of thing as well. Most recently with arrival access following ATA removal. Maybe no one complained about those moving goal posts because it benefitted them.

[see I didn't need to call everyone selfish whingers ]

 

[oz_mark]

Maybe the latest incarnation was the intent all along, but they never managed to get it worded quite right? I agree it isn't good enough to be moving the goal posts continuously and it really shouldn't have been that difficult to get it right the first time.

I agree that the stated goal posts shouldn't keep moving (although I tend to think that the original wording reflected the intention - the lates wording reflects what they implemented!). I also think that for people that made bookings based on the previous wording should have that honoured.

 

[notzac]

I agree with the comments on shifting goal posts.

As do I -- comes across as quite amateurish, changing things multiple times (and not announcing the outcome of those changes). If the T&C's change, I expect official notification by e-mail or otherwise -- which I certainly haven't been the recipient of.

Assuming VA settle on this version without making unannounced changes again, I dislike that it's now quite complicated to work out what you'll actually earn -- unlike practically every other frequent flyer program on the planet, where it's reasonably well established that a single sector = a single line item on the frequent flyer statement.

Given one of the stated aims of these changes was to make things easier, why has it been done this way? :-|