Virgin Money credit cards (linked to Velocity rewards)

[stuartfaz]

Thanks for the quick reply - My cards are with the NAB now and expire Feb
I am thinking of Going direct with American Express getting their Charge Card and getting rid of my NAB Platiunum Amex and then also getting another to use when I cannot use Amex
I was thinking this one might do.
Thanks for the advice
K

That's exactly what I've got going now. Works well, it's a good little earner for a Visa.

 

[franky3844]

Yayy - good to know
Many thanks

 

[coolsteps]

what r the "

• Access to all the great Virgin family offers." ?

 

[defyet]

Buy One Seat Get One Free Offer!

Hi,

Just a little insight of the dramas i have gone through today and the complications of Virgins T & C's like i have read on this forum (wish i saw it before i applied as i may have had second thoughts). I applied for the card 2 weeks ago and have since had about 9 bloody letters sent out within a week - Pin #, Internet Pin, Phone Pin, Welcome Letter & Card, Internet Access Number, Velocity Card etc..etc..

I thought id book a Buy one seat get one free flight today, after ringing Virgin Blue they told me that offer is inactive on my new Virgin Money Flyer Credit Card and i have to call Velocity Rewards, so i call them they tell me to call Virgin Money, i call Virgin Money they say IT IS active you need to quote the Promo Code, Velocity Member Number, and Credit Card Number.

So i ring Virgin Blue back and they tell me sorry its still inactive call Velocity Rewards. So i ring them again and after 30min on the phone to them there was still no solution and they called me back within 15min and told me i need to wait 7 days for it to be active on my account as i had only signed up to Velocity Rewards site a few days prior.

Mean while i was actually out and used my Virgin Credit Card and i came home and it now says online that my Buy one seat get one free offer is ACTIVE! All i had to do was make a purchase after signing up for Velocity Rewards to make the offer active. Why the hell couldnt the 8 or so people i spoke to from 3 different sections of Virgin tell me this??

Not only that the offer is only valid when there is a "GO FARE", however the price you pay is not the "GO FARE", you have to pay the "BLUE SAVER", If there is no GO FARE then you cant take advantage of the buy one seat get one free offer. However their marketing states get a free seat when purchasing a flight on GO FARE!
FALSE because your not purchasing a GO FARE!

So if the GO FARE is $55 and the BLUE SAVER is $79 you actually have to pay the $79.

So instead of 2 GO FARE Return Tickets at $55 each way totalling $220 your paying 1 BLUE SAVER Return Ticket at $79 which totals $158. So your saving $62.
Not as much as they make it out to be as the return flight uses 2 out of the 4 free seats so id only be saving $122 a year which is nearly the cost of the credit card (i would have just been better off getting a credit card with no annual fee and a lower interest rate).

Anyway i just thought id let people out their know so they dont go through all the complications i have and think they are actually saving a lot of money on flights like Virgin make it out.

Now i just have to work out how to get back the 4 hours of lost time on the phone to all the Virgin Departments this morning! :evil:

 

[markis10]

Welcome to AFF defyet!, I have moved your post into the credit card thread that discusses this as your experience is a follow on from an earlier discussion and the product is a credit card linked to velocity rather than being a Velocity originated product.

 

[defyet]

Thanks,

I thought it had been deleted for some reason.

 

[defyet]

They also just sent me a Special Offer by Email for "Free Flight", funny thing is its only valid if you book before 15 October 2010. It is now 16 November 2010!

 

[Nigelinoz]

I think the may be starting a major marketing blitz for the card,they are running tv ad's in my area almost every ad break at the moment and today I received a phone call from them saying I had been pre approved for a $5000.00 limit,all I had to do was
fax a copy of my licence and last years tax return and I could have the card in 5 days but I turned them down and applied for a wizard mastercard instead.

 

[kamchatsky]

Hi defyet, thanks for letting us know about this. I haven't applied for this card because of this reason, too much restrictions.

 

[Nigelinoz]

Just got an email from them offering 10000 bonus velocity points for obtaining the card and using it prior to 31 December,I might have to rethink my decision now.

Dear Mr xx_xx_xx_xx_

As a valued Velocity Member, we are excited to bring you this exclusive offer.

Receive 10,000 bonus Velocity Points when you obtain your new Virgin Flyer Credit Card and make a purchase on the card before 31 December 2010.1

That is on top of all the other great Virgin Flyer Credit Card benefits including:

Get two seats for the price of one on Virgin Blue2 when you pay with your Virgin Flyer Credit Card, up to 4 times a year, every year. All you need to do is cover the credit card booking fees and any applicable baggage charges.

0%p.a. interest on your balance transfers and Christmas shopping for 3 months3 after you are approved.

Earn Velocity Points on your everyday spend, plus earn Points twice when you use your card with our Program Partners.

Use your Points for a huge range of rewards, including international and domestic flights, accommodation and much more.
The special 10,000 bonus Points and balance transfer offer is exclusive to Velocity Members and for a limited time only so apply here.

Kind regards,

The Velocity Team

 

[defyet]

I just recieved a call from Virgin Money about the complaint i submitted, they apoligised for the incident and said it should have been handled a lot better and they will add 5000 Velocity Points to my account for raising this issue as it was something they hadnt considered and they have now put procedures in place.

After reading the offer you got sent i wish i signed up with that offer, when i signed up the balance transfer was 6.9% and no free velocity points.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Virgin Credit Card

Any of you good people who have the Virgin Credit Card had much experience with booking the 'Buy One Seat Get One Free'?

Is this promo available on all flights and fare levels?

TA in advance.

 

[markis10]

Re: Virgin Credit Card

Any of you good people who have the Virgin Credit Card had much experience with booking the 'Buy One Seat Get One Free'?

Is this promo available on all flights and fare levels?

TA in advance.

Hi Cruiser Elite, I have merged your thread with one that answers many of your questions.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Re: Virgin Credit Card

Hi Cruiser Elite, I have merged your thread with one that answers many of your questions.

Not a problem markis10 - maybe if I had searched and not such a lazy sod I would have found this thread.

Great post by defyet which answer most of my questions.

Both wifey and myself applied for the card to get the bonus points - I guess there will be a bit of a fun aspect to buying each other a couple of 'cheaper' seats but I just wish Virgin would get serious with their rewards program and also offer a serious AMEX / Visa / MC combo card.

maybe with the Westpac SQ Cards losing appeal and possible entry into Star Alliance the time might be right for Virgin to really 'grow-up' into a serious player in Australia.

 

[stuartfaz]

Cancelled my card today, multitude of issues.

Signed up when it was first launched and am yet to receive either a postal or email bill. Have to log into my account every time to check if one's been issued before paying it.

Still got charged interest despite paying off my account on time every time (being refunded but still).

Took them 4 months to acknowledge that I could get 10000 bonus points and they only credited them last week.

Hasn't been a good experience with Citibank. Have upgraded my Amex Gold to a Platinum Edge, which I'll transfer to Velocity instead. Replaced the Virgin card with the Woolworths EDR Qantas card, which I've had a much better experience with.

 

[peterincanberra]

Re: Virgin Money credit cards (linked to Velocity rewards)!

I realise I am resurrecting an old thread, but this deal is now even more complicated. As Virgin Australia has abadoned the GO! Fare, you now have to ring the call centre to find out when flights are available. Not happy.

 

[peterincanberra]

I rang Virgin Australia and asked them to check whether there were tickets available on some days I am interested in. While talking to the lady, I asked what were the conditions she was checking. She advised that the two for one deal can be used when there is an S class ticket available and the flights are not in the next 21 days. So while a "normal" user won't be able to check this without ringing the CC, ExpertFlyer users will be able to.

 

[notzac]

She advised that the two for one deal can be used when there is an S class ticket available and the flights are not in the next 21 days. So while a "normal" user won't be able to check this without ringing the CC, ExpertFlyer users will be able to.

If the conditions are that specific, why on earth haven't they built a web app to make bookings for these 2 for 1's yet??

[size=-2]Oh wait, who's the card issuer again.. *runs* [/size]

 

[KSyd]

I notice that Virgin Money has now updated their offer on the Virgin Flyer Card for new applicants- 20k bonus points with your first spend (does not need to be 5,000 dollar spend within the first three months anymore).

For those of you who rang up the call centre to check availability, were you able to book the flights that you wanted?

 

[peterincanberra]

I rang Virgin Australia and asked them to check whether there were tickets available on some days I am interested in. While talking to the lady, I asked what were the conditions she was checking. She advised that the two for one deal can be used when there is an S class ticket available and the flights are not in the next 21 days. So while a "normal" user won't be able to check this without ringing the CC, ExpertFlyer users will be able to.

Sorry, I got that slightly wrong. Turns out it is still an F class (as per a much earlier post) ticket that is required. Unfortunately, I can't see F class tickets on ExpertFlyer for Virgin - that site also suggests that F class is used for First which just adds to my confusion.

Anyway, I managed to book some tickets on one of the two dates I was interested in. Ignoring luggage and credit card fee, I paid $297 for tickets which would otherwise have cost me $556. That's a $259 saving, so the $99 card fee has been well and truly repaid. The booking process is truly awful. The CC put you through to a "credit card line" which I suspect is overseas. Their processes are extremely mandraulic - it took over 30 minutes to make the booking.