Warning - beginning of rant.
After the third call in three days from a call centre chasing up documents for verification, I finally told Virgin Money (Citbank) to cancel the application for a
Virgin Australia Velocity VISA Flyer Card. I have been a Citibank Platinum member for 10 years, had (until recently) a Virgin Platinum Amex (switched to zero fee Amex Qantas lined card), am a long standing Velocity member, have a Virgin Mobile plan but still was required to go through a convoluted verification process. My switch of Amex cards was seamless - took five minutes online and car arrived within 3 days. I know its a different issuer. The point is that for all Richard Branson's wonderful positioning and feel good fluff, cross marketing of Virgin products is a failure. His business model depends on creating the expectation of a better experience for the customer whenever the Virgin name is involved - in this case it just didn't work. Given the overlap of existing and potential customers between
Virgin Australia, Virgin Money, Virgin Mobile etc they are missing out on a good opportunity. So if you want one of these cards be prepared for a painful experience. This all happened in a week when I had another problem with trying to book rewards flights on line - the web site just doesn't work. I sent an email to John Borghetti and this problem was at least dealt with properly.
End of rant.