Velocity introduces Forever Gold lifetime status tier

[kevrosmith]

Yeah, just found the T&C fine print on the updates page... it does exclude most of the items I had guessed about (flybuys, credit card bonuses etc.) but no mention of DSCs...

I went back and did some more calcs removing more historical DSCs, and I might be closer to a bit under 12K than I was hoping. So here's fingers crossed for leaving DSCs in.

2. From 1 October 2025, Forever Gold will be introduced as Velocity’s new Status to recognise long-term loyalty. To be eligible for Forever Gold Status, Velocity members must earn a total of 12,000 Status Credits, with at least 9,000 earned on Virgin Australia marketed flights flown by the member. Status Credits earned through Partner Airline marketed flights, Family Pooling, Flybuys and eligible Velocity Points earning credit cards will not count towards the minimum requirement of Status Credits which must be earned on Virgin Australia marketed flights. Status Credits calculated towards Forever Gold will be counted from 1 February 2013 onwards.

 

[ozstamps]

DSC really have to be included in this, or there will be riots in the streets! They offered them, we earned them, and they must count.

Velocity members must earn a total of 12,000 Status Credits, with at least 9,000 earned on Virgin Australia marketed flights

 

[PDog]

DSC really have to be included in this, or there will be riots in the streets! They offered them, we earned them, and they must count.

Velocity members must earn a total of 12,000 Status Credits, with at least 9,000 earned on Virgin Australia marketed flights

Hyperbole, much?!
The AFF article states DSC count, I haven't read the velocity terms in enough detail to cross check.

 

[stm1sydney]

How will the new "SCs based on $ amount" work when flying on partner airlines?

 

[oz_mark]

How will the new "SCs based on $ amount" work when flying on partner airlines?

It doesn't.

 

[stm1sydney]

It doesn't.

OK, thanks, so the old system but a lot fewer SCs earnt than before. This is off-topic for this thread though. Sorry.

 

[justinbrett]

I’ve done the sums carefully and I think I might just have enough SCs to get Forever Red.

 

[AFF Editor]

Question: they state that flights from pooling won’t earn for the recipient, but what about the donor, that did the actual flying?

Or do these just vanish for both the donor and recipient?

I sought clarification on this question from Velocity.

Status credits pooled to a Beneficiary by a Contributor in a Family Pool will count towards the beneficiary's total status credits. But they will not count towards the 9,000 status credits required to be flown by the member on VA marketed flights for the beneficiary, and not for the contributor either.

 

[ozstamps]

So all those status credits just totally 'vanish' under the wonderful new 'enhanced' system that was announced - 'because our customers asked us to do it?'

Seems like one or the other flyer should have them counted for the past 11 years, toward the Forever Gold level.

They really cannot have it both ways. To be consistent, are they going to deduct the 100,000s points she credited to my account as well under Family Pooling? Of course not - they are long spent - on VIRGIN flights. .

In my case alone, that is many, many, 1000s of long ago paid for Status Credits on Virgin Metal over 11 years apparently totally evaporating. My partner flies as much as I have, and has always Family pooled them to me, and she deserves to get those credits under her name, if Virgin weirdly refuse to apply them to my 'Forever Gold' tally.

We paid for them in good faith, and do not approve of Virgin unilaterally voiding half of them.

I'd guess in 99% of cases Family Pooling originators (children in the family etc) would accrue nowhere NEAR 12,000 SC each, over 11 years, so what does Virgin lose by being transparent and open? Virgin ONLY awards Forever Gold IF one clears that very high bar. Cost to them ZERO, to have 1000s of accounts with just a few 1000 SC on them.

Indeed for some, it will be an aspirational target to secure it - earning Virgin $10,000s in EXTRA revenue a person while they try and do just that. WIN-WIN.

 

[antycbr]

I sought clarification on this question from Velocity.

Status credits pooled to a Beneficiary by a Contributor in a Family Pool will count towards the beneficiary's total status credits. But they will not count towards the 9,000 status credits required to be flown by the member on VA marketed flights for the beneficiary, and not for the contributor either.

So i will be penalised for a family pooling arrangement from 2017… thanks VA. Not wonderful.

 

[justinbrett]

I sought clarification on this question from Velocity.

Status credits pooled to a Beneficiary by a Contributor in a Family Pool will count towards the beneficiary's total status credits. But they will not count towards the 9,000 status credits required to be flown by the member on VA marketed flights for the beneficiary, and not for the contributor either.

Double Ouch.

Who comes up with these policies?

 

[antycbr]

The correct answer should be that no pooling transaction should count at all and the SC stay where they were first earned for the purposes of FG.

The pooling transactions are separate negative deductions off the account so can be stripped out easily.

I expect once this becomes more widely known there will be some angry flyers like me.

 

[PDog]

So i will be penalised for a family pooling arrangement from 2017… thanks VA. Not wonderful.

Penalised for FG yes, but did you benefit from the pooling at the time? For example, did family pooling push you from gold to platinum?

I reckon that's the egg that's too hard to unscramble, so am not surprised they are taking this line.

(Appreciating that decisions were made ~7 years ago without all of the future facts & consequences available!)

 

[kamchatsky]

The correct answer should be that no pooling transaction should count at all and the SC stay where they were first earned for the purposes of FG.

The pooling transactions are separate negative deductions off the account so can be stripped out easily.

I expect once this becomes more widely known there will be some angry flyers like me.

Whilst agree in principle, I think what VA wants is for families to still aim for FG, so that the 3000 pooled SCs will help them getting FG, and then share the lounge joy with family when they travel together.

That's why VA has family pooling in the first place, to cater for families who travel. It is a large component of the leisure travel market. They still want them to travel and pool SCs together.

 

[antycbr]

I reckon that's the egg that's too hard to unscramble, so am not surprised they are taking this line.

My solution means there’s no scramble at all and recognises who actually flew which seems to be the point of lifetime status anyway.

 

[Scarlett]

Before MattGs message above my very rough calculations showed I would be about 50% of the way there. I figured SCs I contributed to others from VA metal would still be counted as mine, as I flew… but I guess they wanted to make things ‘simpler and fairer’.

With this new knowledge suspect I’ll have about 4000 total VA metal SCs. The other 3000 (non-VA + pooled) will easily take care of themselves, so I probably need another 5000 SCs on VA. Under the new changes that will take a long time and I will not be chasing it.

As I already have lifetime SG with QF, my choices will mostly be around maintaining *A status now, with the lesser spend domestic travel being whatever is most convenient.

 

[Scarlett]

QF requirement is 0%. There’s an edge case where someone was Bronze all their life but then gets LTS and LTG. Without ever setting foot on a QF aircraft or giving a cent to QF.

Genuine question: How do you account for the 4 ~ requirement in the above statement?

 

[oz_mark]

Genuine question: How do you account for the 4 ~ requirement in the above statement?

No squiggle required for LTG.

Although QF would get paid by whatever airlines were flown

 

[Bagpuss]

Going through my activity on the website for now from 1st January 2021, I've obtained a total of 3,784 Status Credits. Of which 2,485 from flying VA marketed flights myself and 1,299 from other sources. Fingers crossed I make the cut. In recent years my flying has been much lower than almost all the years between 2013 and 2021.

 

[engbren]

I'm looking forward to a tool that will show me my lifetime SC. By my calcs I should be approaching halfway to Forever Gold.