Virgin Australia Discover Gold (Status Match)

Jacques Vert

Jacques Vert

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Qantas
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Virgin
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Yes, had a look at the offering. 80 SC & 1 sector within the 3 month qualifying period. Can earn SC without flying as well and hence the at least 1 sector condition.

Minimum QF Gold, Platinum & P1 to submit expression.

Upon successful completion - can gift VA Gold to a friend/partner

IMHO, seems like a good offer - if you have any flying planned in 2021 with VA

For those who have got the extension from QF until 2022, doesn't hurt to get VA Gold as well :)

I know there used to be a VA SC calculator on the web - unable to find it now. If anyone has the link, can they send to me please? Thanks in advance

Cheers,
Ade
 
Matt_01 said:
Is this what you are after Here
Click to expand...
hmmm.. not this one ...There used to be a 3rd party calculator. It helps you calculate SC for multi segments as well as across various fare types ... I used to have it bookmarked on my old laptop .. not on the new ones ...
 
Well I've applied. Apparently they'll get back to me within 7 days.

They didn't ask me for much - just a colour photo of my current QFF membership card.

You have to pick a start date for the 3-month Discover Gold period no later than 28 December 2020. I would have preferred if they gave us until 31 March, like QF did, but that's fine.

To be honest, it's almost not worth pursuing if they don't reopen the CBR lounge as that's my home airport (for the time being). Let's see what they do about that...
 
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Mattg said:
I would have preferred if they gave us until 31 March, like QF did, but that's fine.
Click to expand...

Agree on this point. Would've been great if the start data can be in 2021.

However, it's only the START DATE of the period. I think one can even book cheap tickets in Jan or Feb and still stay under the 3 month qualifying period ..
 
Mattg said:
They didn't ask me for much - just a colour photo of my current QFF membership card.
Click to expand...

Hmm, I wonder what you need to do when Qantas refuse to give you any tangible real world recognition of your gold status at all. I made gold for the first time back in September and am yet to receive anything at all of any tangible nature to recognise the fact. I've got no baggage tags, no gold coloured Q-tags, not even a gold coloured plastic membership card. I've noticed no difference at all to the booking, checking-in or boarding/seat selection experience over my previous silver status either. QFF gold status appears to be complete vapourware to me. There is nothing at all to show for it.

The only difference I have noticed is non-real ones. When I check-in now, I get a virtual image of a boarding pass on my phone which is now coloured gold instead of silver. Not that I ever use it because the readers can focus on and read the barcode on the back of my silver plastic membership card several times faster than they can on an LCD image, so I always slap my plastic card down and take the slip of thermal paper instead. Since I always change seats from the default selection, I always have to take the slip of thermal paper from the printer anyway even if checking in with mobile boarding pass because whilst their idiot systems do update the seat selection on the boarding pass, that doesn't translate to telling the check-in machine to not print the paper slip.
 
I wonder if you don't qualify after the three month period if you go back to red or drop down to silver. Previously with VA pilot gold I've dropped to silver for 12 months. Ie, a couple of free lounge passes.
 
Daver6 said:
I wonder if you don't qualify after the three month period if you go back to red or drop down to silver. Previously with VA pilot gold I've dropped to silver for 12 months. Ie, a couple of free lounge passes.
Click to expand...

You'll drop down to Silver. It's in the FAQs.
 
There are two ways to win a tennis match.
1. Outplay your opponent, your skill wins the match.
2. Let your competitor make errors, your skill wins the match.

Virgin is making an unforced error, but they won't see it till the set is lost.

Phones are off the hook for this one. Virgin is 3-steps behind.
 
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Hilariously got the offer as well. This would be the third status match to Velocity if I applied... but I'm not that bothered, despite my poor soft product experience on QF recently.
 
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It's tempting but I'm weighing up the cost of VFF knowing my QF status and the likely ongoing marketing.
 
trippin_the_rift said:
There are two ways to win a tennis match.
1. Outplay your opponent, your skill wins the match.
2. Let your competitor make errors, your skill wins the match.

Virgin is making an unforced error, but they won't see it till the set is lost.

Phones are off the hook for this one. Virgin is 3-steps behind.
Click to expand...

It does feel like Virgin has been playing "follow the leader" for the last little while.
 
I'm very much betting that Virgin are not going to be contacting Qantas to confirm the validity of the gold status via the image you need to send them in the EOI form you fill out.

The PNG image of your membership card screen shotted from the Qantas app on your phone is hilariously simple and easy to colour pallet substitute from silver or red to the gold colour (R:186, G:167, B:123). Not that I've needed to do this, but just saying it would be very easy to do if one wanted.

Virgin can't even reject virtual digital images of membership cards either because Qantas haven't been posting status membership packs out at all since at least August using Covid as the all-encompassing excuse not to incur the postage cost. For members like me, the digital membership card image on the phone is literally the only evidence we have that we meet the minimum requirement.
 
For those that are considering taking up the status challenge - I did some research on the routes for a status run .. looks like VA is not flying to NZ yet, I was not able to find fares from AU to NZ (happy to be corrected if that's not the case), so that limits runs to domestic only.

1. MEL-SYD-OOL - one way in class I fare - $570, gives 100 SC
2. Above leg when done the other way is for $699, giving same 100 SC
3. SYD/MEL-DRW, according to the VA SC table should give 90 SC one way class I & 100 SC for class J, but there is no DIRECT SYD/MEL-DRW, so it's invariably connecting with either BNE or MEL or ASP, giving around 140 SC for a little over $900 one way !

Same observation as earlier - better SC earn rates when flying in/out of OOL. Found this to be true for DRW as well. BNE-DRW is 90 SC, so is SYD/MEL-DRW

My idea would be to fly MEL-SYD-OOL on VA biz & OOL-SYD on QF classic reward Y

I'd love to find a route originating in SYD, so that I don't have to use a positioning flight to MEL.

What is everyone else thinking status run wise?
 
Mattg said:
You'll drop down to Silver. It's in the FAQs.
Click to expand...

For those that are currently Red, it's a good deal. In the normal world one would need 250 SC to go from Red to Silver, but with this scheme, even if I take one "Getaway" fare from SYD-MEL and get 5 SC, I will get Silver :)
 
I've expressed interest to VA for this with the latest possible start date, not much point having Gold until the lounges reopen. I used a screenshot of my QFF app membership card given I wasn't issued with a 2021 expiry physical card, has anyone done the same and received approval?

Without VA flying SYD-CBR there's not much point in me holding VA status long term, but I will hit the 500 SC rollover cap with QFF for this year anyway, so I may as well credit 80 SC worth of flights to VA and get myself + a friend/family member a year of VA Gold.

Can then use those 12 months to spend my remaining 50k VFF points too.
 

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