Which is exactly my point. The system doesn't automatically update. Sure people are going to call if they should've gone up a level. But they are not going to call if flights carry over to the next year, in their favour. Whatever is shown on the website is irrelevant if the computer is counting it from the posting date.
Sent from the Throne
In the case of SCs posting after a review date but are backdated, the flights definitely
do not carry into the next year's requalifying balance. [Note that I'm saying this for the case when they do backdate when posted automatically - in some cases when a flight has been credited manually by the call centre, the activity date is not backdated]. I had actually hoped that would happen, as I also stood to gain from it, but not the case.
My account finally ticked over today, and I can see the following earned in my new membership year:
When you view my activity for "September" you can see 160 SCs have posted during September - however my balance shown above for the new membership year is only 120, because two of the flights below were from last membership year. Whilst they posted this year, the system did not count them towards this year based on the posting date, it counted them towards last year due to the activity date: [EDIT:refer to the flights that posted on 2nd & 7th of Sept - but backdated to August]
A problem would have occurred if I had been just under the 800 SCs required at the review date and needed those two flights - that's where the assessment period would have been useful. However, this is only going to impact a small percentage of people and so I still believe that the system should automatically extend your membership level as soon as you reach it, rather than this manual activity. Only people who have just missed out at the requalifying date should require a manual review or have an assessment period.
Whilst what I have shown above is a slightly different scenario to upgrading, effectively the same thing occurs - if in between the date of taking a flight and the date the points credit, previous SCs may drop off, and the system will not pick up the upgrade - therefore a phone call is required, and I think we're all in agreement on that (and that it is a flawed system). Technically this could happen on Qantas too - if you took a flight right at the end of your membership year that was going to push you up a level, it may not credit until the new year - and as Qantas wipes SCs overnight at the review date, it would require a phone call to have the status manually adjusted. It's just that it is more likely to happen with Virgin because of the rolling calculation.
I agree that the backdate may be irrelevant for the auto calculation of upgrades overnight, as in any event the points will always be "missed" from the calculation for at least the first two days. But the backdate in the account is important for when you call up, as it makes it easier to explain it to the person on the other end. Personally I think this is all a moot point and the system should simply be better configured - firstly to credit flights faster (especially domestic - I had a flight on QF at 10am today, and it had already credited when I logged in at 2pm), and secondly, when a flight does credit for a prior date, the system should calculate what the SC balance on that date would have been to check if a status upgrade was missed.