Virgin Australia "Milestone Announcement" June 1, 2023

[QF WP]

So after an IT crash from overload from a PR fanfare, your detracted from ever using the estore?? wow. had you ever even used it previously? Did you realistically ever actually intend to ever use it?

If we all vow to never use a website that crashed we'd all be reading books & newspapers. sorry but it happens often.

I for one occasionally use both QF & Velocity estores, when they have upto 10 points per dollar spent, can be good value.

I agree J upgrade certs for WP should have more flexibility.

No, I’ve never visited the eStore previously and this has further dissuaded me from trying, given that every time they release some 1c offers, it’s likely to crash again. Why bother. I can spend my $ or points elsewhere (and better value on the points for upgrades now)

 

[MattA]

Velocity means… fast delayed till August:

 

[33kft]

No no, the Internet was fine, Velocity. What broke was the login function of a particularly small corner of it.

 

[oz_ally]

I really have no idea which emoticon to use on your post. None seem appropriate. Thank you for sharing the info @MattA

 

[Gold Member]

No no, the Internet was fine, Velocity. What broke was the login function of a particularly small corner of it.

Yup. Bain & Co don’t want to pay for the seamless high volume AWS/Azure solution that costs a bit more than the standard deployment.

 

[MooTime]

Yep large size (data holders) servers grow overnight.

Comms room footprint have to increase considerably, data servers have to be ordered (no chance of delay in delivery... Right), delivered and installed in the new increased permitted comms / server room. S#&t load of extra cat5e cabling and racks need to be installed and tested, within ceiling spaces and under floor modifications.... signed off by the inspector, yet alone being approved by local council (massive eye roll dealing with local council) possibly depending on size and approved by electrical Commission inspector.
Existing comms cabling being rejigged to new racks.
Power supply to the premises may well need to be upgraded, not to mention UPS.

Oh and yeah all this does have a cost. Just a minor one.... IPO minimisation of $$$ anybody.

More cost and delivery time than ordering an American triple cheese pizza from Bain pizza n co....... Just saying.
Now knock my points out of the park fellow engineers.

 

[CaptJCool]

1 cent offers inundate website

whodda thought

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Sooooo… the major milestone announcement was 1 x logo change, and 1 x announcement that we *may* get some 1-point rewards sometime later this year?? Like three months away? (June, July and August)

That’s pretty much the definition of the raw prawn.

 

[alexczarn]

Sooooo… the major milestone announcement was 1 x logo change, and 1 x announcement that we *may* get some 1-point rewards sometime later this year?? Like three months away? (June, July and August)

That’s pretty much the definition of the raw prawn.

and the rejigging of award tables

 

[MooTime]

Sooooo… the major milestone announcement was 1 x logo change, and 1 x announcement that we *may* get some 1-point rewards sometime later this year?? Like three months away? (June, July and August)

That’s pretty much the definition of the raw prawn.

Is it or is it not better than 30% off points + pay fares?
Just as much chance anybody will ever use that deal.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is it or is it not better than 30% off points + pay fares?
Just as much chance anybody will ever use that deal.

actually, this is more disappointing.

At least with the 30% off deal you can assess and discard in 30 seconds.

This is gonna take months!

 

[Princess Fiona]

Sooooo… the major milestone announcement was 1 x logo change, and 1 x announcement that we *may* get some 1-point rewards sometime later this year?? Like three months away? (June, July and August)

That’s pretty much the definition of the raw prawn.

I think the actual milestone in the announcement was that they have 11.5 Million Velocity members.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think the actual milestone in the announcement was that they have 11.5 Million Velocity members.

True.

But then I’m thinking… ‘what’s in that for me?’

 

[SYD]

True.

But then I’m thinking… ‘what’s in that for me?’

Less reward seats.

 

[_flyer]

True.

But then I’m thinking… ‘what’s in that for me?’

I have to agree, this promotion give nothing to loyal members. It's extremely uneventful and lacks real imagination. It has been done by companies before and their systems always fail due to customer demand. There was no real research completed by Velocity. The marketing team seemed to have pulled it together overnight without taking any due diligence.

The slogan - 'Velocity means Fast' doesn't make any sense at all. The slogan will now be used every time they miss a target, when there website is down or slow, when planes are late etc. How on earth did it get approved by the CEO. Velocity the word, has nothing to do with being fast.

Frequent flyers want tangible benefits to the program - partner benefits, new levels, lifetime benefits, International lounge access etc. I enjoy collecting points, but I do it for the benefits at the airport/onboard, I'm not collecting points for a vacuum.

I could not care less about 1 point promotions. This is where Velocity and Qantas FF differ, I feel Qantas puts a little more into frequent flyer benefits to encourage buy in, and still caters for points enthusiasts with the like of Points Club (lounge access).

Velocity frequently does marketing campaigns whereby people remain engaged for a few seconds and simply forget. Qantas on the other hand has Points Club which is an ongoing (marketing) program to encourage continued points collection, with 'prizes' for reaching certain targets - 2000 points, status rollover, lounge passes, wine passes, accommodation vouchers etc.

I wish they would listen to their loyal members, I have completed so many surveys but they fall on deaf ears.

Rant over

 

[MEL_Traveller]

So what *would* have been refreshing was ‘we’ve got 11.5 million members so we’ve negotiated 20% off health insurance, 20% off energy prices, 20% off insurance’… etc… with selected companies. Something leveraging that huge base that provides benefits back to members.

 

[RooFlyer]

Less reward seats.

Off to the grammar thread for you!

 

[SYD]

Off to the grammar thread for you!

Short hand for a new form of “Hunger games”. At least they should be Fast.

 

[Bagpuss]

Yup. Bain & Co don’t want to pay for the seamless high volume AWS/Azure solution that costs a bit more than the standard deployment.

Totally incorrect. Estore and this promotion is hosted by https://www.valuedynamx.com/

You can tell this because if yo go the estore and scroll all the way to the bottom it tells you

It's highly usual for corporates to use third party providers for parts (if not all) other e-commerce. From a cybersecurity sense it's actually good practice to separate out the systems.

 

[jpp42]

Totally incorrect. Estore and this promotion is hosted by https://www.valuedynamx.com/

As explained clearly in previous posts, the problem was primarily the Velocity web site login step, not the Estore itself. Collinson Group is the likely operator of this part of the infrastructure, as already discussed.

Comms room footprint have to increase considerably, data servers have to be ordered (no chance of delay in delivery... Right), delivered and installed in the new increased permitted comms / server room.

None of that is relevant whatsoever, that's not how IT works in 2023. It's all about using cloud services, *particularly* for short-term promotions like this, as you can scale up to meet the demand without paying for long-term capital infrastructure. No one is running any cables , you're living well in the past if you think that's how things operate these days. And people are delusional if they think they can handle this kind of load in-house themselves (unless they really spend millions and millions on infrastructure for a one-time promotion, which would be incredibly stupid when a specialised content delivery network / cloud security company can handle it for a fraction of that cost).

Please read posts 365 onward on page 19 for how this actually works.