Welcome to another year of Velocity Platinum membership

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After confirming with Velocity, any status credits earned in the time period after earning the 1000 SC's to requalify for Platinum Status and the actual review date will not count for anything other than the ability to "gift" Gold status to a partner after earning an additional 500 SC's or Platinum status after 1000 SC's.

It's somewhat discriminatory if you're in a position where you don't have a partner to gift status to, then these additional SC's go to waste and all that you're earning is miles.

This is certainly something that VA needs to look at.
 
VA's status qualification/reassessment system is quite different to that used at Qantas, and neither of them use a calendar year. VA uses a rolling twelve month period, QF uses your membership anniversary date.

My understanding is this:
Consider that if you join both programs on 1 July 2012 and earn Gold around 15 December 2012.

On 15 December 2013 VA will look at your status credits earned since 16 December 2012 and extend/drop your status accordingly.

QF will set your status credits to zero on 1 July 2013, but you will remain gold until 1 July 2014, at which point your status is assessed.
VA's rolling year is only for qualification. Re-assessment is based on a 12 month period. Upgrades to the next level are still based on a 12 month rolling year though.
 
It's somewhat discriminatory if you're in a position where you don't have a partner to gift status to, then these additional SC's go to waste and all that you're earning is miles.

Companion gold / platinum doesn't have to be gifted to a 'partner' - it can be given to any Velocity member.

This is certainly something that VA needs to look at.

Where does it end though? Let's assume Velocity Palladium is introduced at 5,000 SCs for qualification and 4,500 for requalification. Once you've earned 9,500 SCs for the year those SCs are once again being "wasted."

Even a lifetime status level doesn't "solve" this - at some point you'll reach lifetime palladium - then what are you going to do?


I guess it depends on whether you view status as a benefit from a company to people who fly frequently, or whether status is a product one purchases by flying frequently!
 
VA's rolling year is only for qualification. Re-assessment is based on a 12 month period. Upgrades to the next level are still based on a 12 month rolling year though.

Correct, my example didn't include what happens if you went up another level prior to reassessment. On DJ you get a new review date twelve months hence (for example, 20 March 2014); on QF, your SCs would still wipe to zero on 1 July 2013 and you would be reassessed on 1 July 2014.

The only significant difference between the two is that on QF qualifying for a new level will generally give you more than a year of status before you get reassessed. On DJ you never get more than a year of status without being reassessed.

Key point though is that the Velocity system is not close to being a clone of Qantas.
 
After confirming with Velocity, any status credits earned in the time period after earning the 1000 SC's to requalify for Platinum Status and the actual review date will not count for anything other than the ability to "gift" Gold status to a partner after earning an additional 500 SC's or Platinum status after 1000 SC's.

It's somewhat discriminatory if you're in a position where you don't have a partner to gift status to, then these additional SC's go to waste and all that you're earning is miles.

This is certainly something that VA needs to look at.

Why is it discrimination? They allow you to give it to anyone - it is a Partner Membership, not membership for your partner. No different to QF really. They don't even offer Partner Platinum so VA is one up there. QF partner gold level is also significantly harder to achieve than on VA - QF partner gold is double the requalification requirement for Platinum, whereas on VA it is only Platinum+Gold qualification rates. And on VA you can pool SCs - that's another way you could effectively not "waste" them. The only thing QF offers is P1 which doesn't really give that much more benefit. I've got myself and two other people to platinum this year through pooling and Partner Plat - and only "wasted" about 25 SCs in the entire process. The same flying on QF would have got me requalified for Platinum and only just Partner Gold. Perhaps this is something QANTAS needs to look at, rather than VA...


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Well my account ticked over today, plat to gold. Ok no probs, my only question regarding the process is I was a lounge member, then gold, compd plat now back to gold. Ok so I got what I deserved for my amount of va flying, gold, but am kind of taken back reading all the other comps given why I didn't qualify.

Oh well, too bad and I'm sure there is wisdom in their madness.

My flying patterns won't change too much, so this time next year I will be questioning the same :-|
 
Even a lifetime status level doesn't "solve" this - at some point you'll reach lifetime palladium - then what are you going to do?

This is the key point for me - When are VA going to introduce lifetime silver/gold memberships to match Qantas??
 
You probably didn't earn the required 90SC for Plat qualification ;)
Must be some other facet in play as I rocketed to 100 SC in 4 eligible flights - however, they were my only eligible flights.
 
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I'm not aware of legislation specifying that all frequent flyer programs must offer identical benefits?

Haha :rolleyes:

Obviously there is no requirement for VA to introduce lifetime memberships but I think it might hurt them in the long run if they don't. If I am going to spend money over the course of many years then clearly there is an obvious benefit to spending it on qantas as I will eventually get lifetime gold in return.

If I have lifetime gold, I would not have to worry about maintaining status, it will just be there for any flight I take from the point I achieve it. With VA, if I stop flying regularly then my status would eventually drop back to RED.
 
Australia's highest-earning Velocity Frequent Flyer credit card: Offer expires: 21 Jan 2025
- Earn 60,000 bonus Velocity Points
- Get unlimited Virgin Australia Lounge access
- Enjoy a complimentary return Virgin Australia domestic flight each year

AFF Supporters can remove this and all advertisements

Maybe they figure that because Velocity is not that old that they can wait a few more years, so they can work out what volume they want and what rates of SCs people need to achieve for lifetime status?

Maybe they haven't even been recording lifetime SCs (or status points before the program change)?

So if they did start measuring SCs when they were introduced just over a year ago, maybe no-one is at a level for lifetime status yet anyway, and they may introduce it in future and it is a nice surprise for everyone who has achieved it! If we look at QF rates for now - to get to lifetime silver takes 5.67 years in a row at Platinum requal (including 1 year at qualification rate). If you we're only gold it would take 10.5 years, or silver 26.8 years! (This assumes you hit the exact amount each year for requalifying).

If you applied the same timeframes to achieve to VA, that would be around 4736-7000 SCs (depending if they go by the platinum, gold, or silver timeframes). How many people have achieved that amount of SCs this year?


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And then there is the complexity of establishing which SC's would count towards Life Time Status. I.E I doubt the family pooling would count!
 
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