Virgin Australia Velocity Platinum Club

[Denali]

I found the Europcar and Hilton status match a waste of time. Had them both and never scored any upgrades.

Hilton has been good for us. Lounge, breakfast and numerous upgrades.

 

[Martin J Cowling]

Thanks, yeah a lot of the flights 95% of them are MEL > ADL and MEL > MILDURA and couple of MEL > SYD... Other than that it does stray too much away from that...

I am saving/transfer just before devaluation for Business Class Star Alliance RTW through Kris Flyer for end of next year... just about there with the points so the extra bonus points will certainly help achieve this quicker....

Thanks for all the comments...

Please anyone else that has just got Platinum Status share your story its great to hear how everyone goes about it!

I dropped from Platinum to Gold to Silver for a couple of years and decided I wanted Platinum back! Would you believe it took me three months from Dec 2018 to Mar 2019 to achieve it with 14 sectors flown:

HX: Business Four sectors 220 SC: TPE -HKG-BKK- HKG-BKK HX have a very good product and you can get some very good inter Asia business deals BUT you risk the airline going bust on you. This caused some anxiety before my flights as the news every day re HX was grim. eg Hong Kong Airlines collapse? Officials not taking any chances

My best find: a status run with a really good fare IN BUSINESS class. Booked as an Open jaw return to Nadi giving me a quick beach break WITH DOUBLE SC resulting in a whopping 580 SC over four sectors. The ticketed routing was OOL-MEL-NAD-BNE-SYD. Google flights and Matrix ITA searching really pays off! (I used QF to fly up to OOL). The flight was cheaper than the SYD-NAD return!

So I got 800 SC with 8 flights which was a healthy return at a very reasonable cost.

I also flew three sectors AKL-MEL-HKG. This was much cheaper than MEL-HKG despite being on the same aircraft from MEL. This gave me more SC but also gave me the SC from a one sector positioning flight across the Tasman to AKL. This then allowed me to have a business meeting in Auckland and a break on the Bay of Islands. I have a AKL-DUD (NZ) and DUD-BNE-MEL (VA) booked soon which is a roundabout way to get from AKL to BNE but was a much cheaper fare than AKL-MEL and nets me way more SC. I also booked at double SC rate. Instead of a night in AKL, I get to experience the delights of DUD. I always check originating flights from NZ where practical!

There was a couple of domestic flights -one normal SC and one at the double rate.

Now to retain Platinum!

 

[Martin J Cowling]

Hilton has been good for us. Lounge, breakfast and numerous upgrades.

IHG looks after me very well. I have been thrilled with my benefits.

 

[Martin J Cowling]

I

I use mine all on BNE-PER, with the A330 of course.

Wish I could get more...

They are not transferable are they? I would happily gift them! Crazy to have a benefit I never use.

I had a huge fight with my travel dept over these. I was eligible to fly Business from CBR to PER so offered to book an economy ticket and use my free upgrade. The cost was $100s less than the business class fare. The work rules only allowed the cheapest discount economy or the cheapest discount business fare. I was not allowed to book an economy ticket at the upgradeable fare even though it was just $79 more. Even if I personally paid that $79. The discount business fare was still outrageous so I flew in economy (to save my travel budget expenses) cursing the travel rules the whole way.

 

[Martin J Cowling]

Your new status on the Monday flight, I don't think it will have gone through yet, Mine took about a week and even then I had to contact them by phone. They did it manually straight away. Good luck

Yes I had to ring and get them to manually adjust my Silver to Gold as I wanted to be Gold before a particular flight. Did the same with Platinum.

 

[cqtiger]

i just turned velocity platinum from gold.As I already have the hilton and europecar privileges is there anything else on top of that

 

[Pleb Status]

They are not transferable are they? I would happily gift them! Crazy to have a benefit I never use.

Unfortunately you cannot effectively transfer the upgrades outside of your family/close friends as you have to manage the upgrades directly.

 

[CPMaverick]

Unfortunately you cannot effectively transfer the upgrades outside of your family/close friends as you have to manage the upgrades directly.

So you are implying that you CAN transfer them to family/close friends. How would you do that?

 

[Pleb Status]

So you are implying that you CAN transfer them to family/close friends. How would you do that?

You can upgrade family and friends travelling with you.

 

[CPMaverick]

You can upgrade family and friends travelling with you.

You can upgrade ANYONE traveling with you. But you can't transfer the upgrades to anyone in any other circumstances. I don't know what this has to do with family/friends. I thought maybe you meant that it had something to do with family pooling...

 

[Denali]

I thought the rule was they had to be travelling with you. You cant transfer upgrades to family/friend on a random ticket if youre not flying with them.

 

[deangelj]

i just turned velocity platinum from gold.As I already have the hilton and europecar privileges is there anything else on top of that

You get next level privileges with those programs. For example, with Gold you get Europcar Privilege Executive. With Platinum you get Europcar Privilege Elite. Same with Hilton I believe.

 

[cqtiger]

You get next level privileges with those programs. For example, with Gold you get Europcar Privilege Executive. With Platinum you get Europcar Privilege Elite. Same with Hilton I believe.

Yes but as I have already used the benefit for gold there seems no option to apply for higher status

 

[eric2011]

I think you will need to wait until your Gold expires and then I think you will be able to go for Plat as long as you are still Plat with VA

 

[traceyy]

I think you will need to wait until your Gold expires and then I think you will be able to go for Plat as long as you are still Plat with VA

i thought you could only ever apply for it once? we have been hit and miss with hilton as a gold member, we are staying in hilton properties in the usa at xmas hope to see some gain then from being gold, would be very happy to hit plat and then be able to rejoin as a plat member..

 

[Harthagan]

Something small yet practical would be complimentary wifi on non domestic flights for platinums. Not that they seem to be looking to add anything at this point, but if they were, that should be a no brainer

 

[ward_FF]

Something small yet practical would be complimentary wifi on non domestic flights for platinums. Not that they seem to be looking to add anything at this point, but if they were, that should be a no brainer

I'm 100% with ya on that one!

 

[MooTime]

- Make sure you use your free J upgrades, I actually had 2 unused last year due to bad planning
- Make sure you take advantage of the free Economy X
- I heard some rows are also kept for Plat but maybe someone else can confirm
- Try to score an upgrade on a USA flight if you take them, this is absolutely the BEST use of points

Welcome to the club!

Row 6 on 737's is kept for Platinum, 2 Bus rows, 3 EconomyX then 6 for Plat & rows 7, 8 & 9 Gold.
When i was Silver only could access row 10.

All rather meaningless though!

 

[SeaWolf]

Row 6 on 737's is kept for Platinum, 2 Bus rows, 3 EconomyX then 6 for Plat & rows 7, 8 & 9 Gold.
When i was Silver only could access row 10.

On the ATR-72s (where there's no EconomyX) I think the last two rows (the ones closest to the exit) are reserved for Platinums. Then the next three for Gold.

 

[Atleastonce]

I have been platinum for 5 years and this year achieved partner gold too. One of the benefits I use all the time is lounge access on arrival. The bathrooms are clean and a chance to grab a quick drink and maybe a bite to eat before going to bag collection right on time for when bags come out. The other benefits like economy x are pretty good too.