Virgin Australia Discover Gold (Status Match)

[MattA]

A question to the brain trust, please: what happened to my status credit level for the membership year?

Back in time, the month I joined Velocity was March. Yesterday the VA app showed 85 SC's (status level Red). Today the status match rolled through and the app now shows me as a Gold but with 25 SC only. Why would that be?
View attachment 298013

I’ve seen this before. Many years ago I took up a discover gold offer or whatever it was called at the time and the same thing happened.

It’s a bug, but you don’t need to worry about it because it’ll sort itself out when your status match ends. Some part of the logic they use in the code for working out the current status credit balance must use the duration of your current status to work out how far it counts back through your historical SCs to calculate your balance.

Notmally that’s fine because your status lasts for 12 months, and so do SCs.

But… you have a three month temporary status right now and so it’s incorrectly only counting SCs from the last three months when showing your balance.

Some developer made an assumption that SC validity and status duration would always match that didn’t hold up when they started doing temporary status matches… Once the three months ends and you go back to a normal status with 12 month duration it will magically revert back to the correct number.

Edit: Ah. Found it—it was in 2017. “Explore Gold”:
Post in thread 'Another explore gold (Flybuys) offer'
Another explore gold (Flybuys) offer

 

[Port Power]

A question to the brain trust, please: what happened to my status credit level for the membership year?

Back in time, the month I joined Velocity was March. Yesterday the VA app showed 85 SC's (status level Red). Today the status match rolled through and the app now shows me as a Gold but with 25 SC only. Why would that be?
View attachment 298013

Notwithstanding the other reply, when I recently read through T&Cs searching for information about status, it was stated that your membership year starts again when you reach a new status level. I therefore think that your new anniversary month is September. Whether that will apply to these three month gold status ”gifts” is another matter!

 

[MattA]

Notwithstanding the other reply, when I recently read through T&Cs searching for information about status, it was stated that your membership year starts again when you reach a new status level. I therefore think that your new anniversary month is September. Whether that will apply to these three month gold status ”gifts” is another matter!

That’s correct, yes. VA uses a rolling membership year that changes as you move around the status tiers. Once you come out of the temporary status your new review date will be 12 months out from that date.

Your SC counter for maintaining your matched status at that 12 month review will be 0 and everything starts again.

These prior SCs would only be relevant if you, say, matched to Gold, met the criteria to keep it, and then wanted to subsequently progress to Platinum via the standard “1000 SCs / 8 sectors over the past 12 months” route.

 

[CMA222]

Applied for Switch-a-roo at 6.19 pm on Friday 23rd and received status match approval today (Wed 28th) at 3pm. Now for 200 status credits in 90 days.

 

[marks]

Now for 200 status credits in 90 days.

I thought it was 80 credits in 90 days and 200 credits within 12 mths for platinum. Did I read it wrong?

 

[aikman]

I thought it was 80 credits in 90 days and 200 credits within 12 mths for platinum. Did I read it wrong?

I read it as 200 credits in 90 days to get platinum.

Am I reading correctly that all business class fares paid in cash are fully refundable up until departure?

 

[oz_mark]

I thought it was 80 credits in 90 days and 200 credits within 12 mths for platinum. Did I read it wrong?

It was 80 status credits in the trial period for gold, and 200 status credits in the trial period for platinum. So, 90 days for both cases.

 

[marks]

Ooops. Re-read the offer. I got it wrong....

 

[BrettV]

I’ve seen this before. Many years ago I took up a discover gold offer or whatever it was called at the time and the same thing happened.

It’s a bug, but you don’t need to worry about it because it’ll sort itself out when your status match ends. Some part of the logic they use in the code for working out the current status credit balance must use the duration of your current status to work out how far it counts back through your historical SCs to calculate your balance.

Notmally that’s fine because your status lasts for 12 months, and so do SCs.

But… you have a three month temporary status right now and so it’s incorrectly only counting SCs from the last three months when showing your balance.

Some developer made an assumption that SC validity and status duration would always match that didn’t hold up when they started doing temporary status matches… Once the three months ends and you go back to a normal status with 12 month duration it will magically revert back to the correct number.

Edit: Ah. Found it—it was in 2017. “Explore Gold”:
Post in thread 'Another explore gold (Flybuys) offer'
Another explore gold (Flybuys) offer

Experiencing a similar issue with a status match (not part of the recent promotion) and this was the response from Velocity:

"Please be advised that we have a known issue within our system that members who are in the Discover Gold status that started their benefit period on or before 30 June 2022 will have their account counted as a 3-months benefit period even if it is valid for a 5-months benefit period.

What we can advise is to monitor your account and check if your Status will be downgraded to Silver after your end date. If your account will be downgraded, kindly contact our Membership Contact Centre or you can send an email on this email thread so that we can have it rectified and upgrade your Status to Standard Gold."

 

[PuravidaTC]

As a point of reference, just flew the required status credits (90) for the Gold Match over the weekend and it's showing completed in my VF account however the card still shows as review date being 20 Dec 2022 and expiry of 20 Jan 2023 - expecting they will both update on 20 Dec upon that review date.

So on that end, SC's seem to get updated to VF account just as quickly as they do with QF.

Will be flying the remaining 110 SC's for the Platinum Match next week, will updated on how quickly that upgrade of status occurs both in account and on card.

 

[liamg]

Question about Pilot Gold (which I hope is relevant for this thread): Does the count on the 80 status credits I have to get to get Gold for a full year only start when the Pilot Gold date starts? Or if I have 50 credits, get Pilot Gold, I only need a further 30 to get Gold for the full year?

 

[stratosp]

Finally completed my Switcharoo challenge over the weekend. 205 SC to match my AY platinum. 2 x J fare, 1 x J upgrade bid, 1 x economy.

Not the best flights I had with VA because 3 of 4 flights are delayed, but overall I find the service still good. Delays are no more than 2 hours and it's mainly due to weather issues in the east coast. Food service improved from the last time I flew VA Business during lockdowns.

Surprised they automatically provided a 5-star Sydney hotel and food voucher in advance in one of my flights because my earlier flight was delayed, and will miss the next one. Thing is I ended up making it to the next flight because it is delayed too.

The app now says I earned the SC and sector to maintain gold. No indication of when the Platinum status will show.

Any Platinum status chasers here who already had the correct status shown? Did you call or are just waiting for the review date?

 

[PuravidaTC]

Finally completed my Switcharoo challenge over the weekend. 205 SC to match my AY platinum. 2 x J fare, 1 x J upgrade bid, 1 x economy.

Not the best flights I had with VA because 3 of 4 flights are delayed, but overall I find the service still good. Delays are no more than 2 hours and it's mainly due to weather issues in the east coast. Food service improved from the last time I flew VA Business during lockdowns.

Surprised they automatically provided a 5-star Sydney hotel and food voucher in advance in one of my flights because my earlier flight was delayed, and will miss the next one. Thing is I ended up making it to the next flight because it is delayed too.

The app now says I earned the SC and sector to maintain gold. No indication of when the Platinum status will show.

Any Platinum status chasers here who already had the correct status shown? Did you call or are just waiting for the review date?

agreed on the flights, all went smoothly on my end completing the 200 SC’s with just the 4 sectors and only weather related issue on 1 of them ADL to MEL.

completed it a few weeks ago and still showing as Gold but it states I have completed enough to maintain status so expect that to stay as is until the review date on my card - 20 December 2022. Will be interesting to see if goes directly to Plat or call required to get that adjusted then.

it did state in the terms it could take 6-8 weeks to see the Plat upgrade, hoping it’s quicker then that.

 

[dairyfloss]

agreed on the flights, all went smoothly on my end completing the 200 SC’s with just the 4 sectors and only weather related issue on 1 of them ADL to MEL.

completed it a few weeks ago and still showing as Gold but it states I have completed enough to maintain status so expect that to stay as is until the review date on my card - 20 December 2022. Will be interesting to see if goes directly to Plat or call required to get that adjusted then.

it did state in the terms it could take 6-8 weeks to see the Plat upgrade, hoping it’s quicker then that.

Just to be sure, you were matching from another Platinum status?

I’m completing my required SCs with some J flights with the family (pooling to me) in the coming couple of weeks; my match is from QF WP.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[PuravidaTC]

Just to be sure, you were matching from another Platinum status?

I’m completing my required SCs with some J flights with the family (pooling to me) in the coming couple of weeks; my match is from QF WP.

Cheers,
Matt.

Yes from QF Platinum.

 

[Danger]

Question about Pilot Gold (which I hope is relevant for this thread): Does the count on the 80 status credits I have to get to get Gold for a full year only start when the Pilot Gold date starts? Or if I have 50 credits, get Pilot Gold, I only need a further 30 to get Gold for the full year?

You need 80 from the time the Pilot Gold starts. Anything earned before that doesn't count.

 

[dairyfloss]

I have now completed the required SCs (and then some) for the Switcharoo promotion and match to VA Platinum. Flew with the family from SYD<>MCY return in J on some sale fares, and with family pooling I collected 330 SCs and 10,523 velocity points for doing so.

Two days after the outbound flights were completed, which took me past the 80SCs required for Gold, I got a 'Your Discover Gold Status Update' e-mail, which specifically referred to my Platinum goal, and the numbers remaining, at that point.



I will update when the confirmation comes through for Platinum, and later, when it's applied.

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[ferntree]

Well done... If your expectations are similar to mine you will find that Virgin platinum is significantly easier to hold on to than with Qantas.

 

[dairyfloss]

Well done... If your expectations are similar to mine you will find that Virgin platinum is significantly easier to hold on to than with Qantas.

Indeed, and I think if anything it's the sectors that are likely to be more problematic for us than the SCs. I was thinking of taking the family (of 3) on a J return to Singapore flying SQ, and that's 720/800 SCs right there... but I'd still need 6 more sectors of my own.

 

[ferntree]

I don't know what your own domestic travel patterns are, I fly regularly HBA -BNE - HBA and by transiting thru SYD or MEL get 4 sectors per trip. Two return trips a year in J gets me 8 sectors and 540 SCs which makes picking up the extra 260 SCs over the year a breeze.