Will you still earn/retain Velocity status beyond 2025?

[Atleastonce]

I'm looking at flying LST-SYD next week. Flex is $203, Business is $822. For the extra $619 I would have thought they could cater two meals for every booked seat in J?

I just purchased two J tickets from Samoa to Brisbane during double status because they were 25 cents more each than my usual choice of choice fares.

 

[MarkD]

I just purchased two J tickets from Samoa to Brisbane during double status because they were 25 cents more each than my usual choice of choice fares.

And pay the same sc as choice fares.

 

[SCM]

Many here are hoping Virgin gets it. And fast. Client feedback is golden in such cases. This poll shows 65% of those here will downgrade this year - a total disaster for Virgin if that is even HALF that figure program wide.

Is it a disaster? Maybe they want a smaller pool of top-tier FFers who are contributing more to the company. They don't have the capacity (in terms of flights and lounges) for a FF program as big as Qantas, so it makes sense that they would want to downsize and focus on their top earners.

What I am unsure of is how Qatar's investment into VA plays into this, because IMO they are screwing over their new partner in this as well.

 

[odysseus]

Is it a disaster? Maybe they want a smaller pool of top-tier FFers who are contributing more to the company. They don't have the capacity (in terms of flights and lounges) for a FF program as big as Qantas, so it makes sense that they would want to downsize and focus on their top earners.

What I am unsure of is how Qatar's investment into VA plays into this, because IMO they are screwing over their new partner in this as well.

Why would the remaining flyers contribute more? That doesn't make sense. They're not going to buy a few more trips - or buy more expensive fares - because there are fewer other high tier fliers (not that Velocity actually publishes those numbers anyway).

Plus if they're the low flying fliers who are departing as alleged, reducing their numbers isn't going to make much of a lounge difference... since they don't fly much anyway.

And it's not as though the FF program became more generous/easy the past few years. Award rates are very much similar to how they were 10 years ago.... and nobody complained about them not having the lounge capacity back then. In fact they were slightly more generous then, with more premium access availability which if anything would have been more encouraging to utilisation due to being quicker/easier to access if in a hurry passing through.

 

[ozstamps]

Is it a disaster? Maybe they want a smaller pool of top-tier FFers who are contributing more to the company.

The often touted Groupies response here (unsupported by any comment from Virgin of course) is that there are 'too many Golds' in lounges etc.

Maybe -- they all spend money, year in and year out, and you can NEVER have too many regular and loyal clients in any business. Basic sales fundamentals #101.

ANYWAY, the bog simple way to address that was to crank up the SC needed to get Gold or Plat. Job done.

Have not seen a simple comment on that bog basic way to sort this alleged issue.

Gold goes up 20% from SC 500 to 600 etc. 20% more money for Virgin. The weaker level and casual 'Gold' flyers drop off. Bog simple. The fewer Golds in lounges spent more to get there. Job done. Emptier lounges filled with folks spending more money.

KEEP the number of Virgin flight segments needed (they were crazy dropping that) - nothing changes except Virgin gets fewer Golds/Plats, but all of whom spend more money.

I qualified TWICE over the get Platinum last year on SC and this year could not give a toss. Lose many 1000s like me, and they will take a $$ hit, and devalue Velocity to armies of now disgruntled once super loyal Elites.

I still get row #3 for years, early boarding, lounge access, priority check-in, fly ahead, and they get a TON less money as I'll book very cheapest LITE fares, if I truly NEED to fly Virgin, or chew up useless points on award seats, seeing they have no foreign partners offering value any more, after huge fees added. Dumber than dirt.

 

[jase05]

Gold goes up 20% from SC 500 to 600 etc. 20% more money for Virgin. The weaker level and casual 'Gold' flyers drop off. Bog simple. The fewer Golds in lounges spent more to get there. Job done. Emptier lounges filled with folks spending more money.

Personally I would have went for 800 for Gold, 1500 for Platinums with no family pooling.
Also something like 8 VA sectors for Gold and 14 for Plats.
It definitely needs to be made a lot harder to qualify but maybe they have gone too far the other way but I guess we will find out

 

[MooTime]

Personally I would have went for 800 for Gold, 1500 for Platinums with no family pooling.
Also something like 8 VA sectors for Gold and 14 for Plats.
It definitely needs to be made a lot harder to qualify but maybe they have gone too far the other way but I guess we will find out

Only say with 8 sectors for Gold, that's just 4 return trips, you'd need 100SCs per sector to qualify at the minimum.
You'd need family pooling or fly J cabin at DSC offer time to get 100sc per single sector generally. Yes mel to CNS or per or Darwin get more I know.

Or fly like 16+ sectors yourself to get the 800.

Needed to be tougher to attain status absolutely, but family pooling is a unique Virgin offering that is good imo.

 

[jase05]

Only say with 8 sectors for Gold, that's just 4 return trips, you'd need 100SCs per sector to qualify at the minimum.
You'd need family pooling or fly J cabin at DSC offer time to get 100sc per single sector generally. Yes mel to CNS or per or Darwin get more I know.

Or fly like 16+ yourself sectors to get the 800.

Needed to be tougher to attain status absolutely, but family pooling is a unique Virgin offering that is good imo.

You can get SC’s from other airlines so the people who fly partners a lot are looked after but something like 8 sectors on VA metal is a piece of cake especially when plenty of people have flights with multiple sectors.

 

[clarkkent]

"It definitely needs to be made a lot harder to qualify"
"Needed to be tougher to attain status absolutely"

Nah, it didn't. Everyone here naturally pushes their own barrows, well, to push the barrow of the families (who VA claim are a key market): It was good for families who travel on their own dime in economy, now it is much less good. A nice sweet spot for families who don't want to fly JQ, but also don't want to pay QF prices for ostensibly the same product if you have no status (buying 4x tickets at a time any increase adds up quickly). Rows 3-10 (or whatever the range is restricted to gold/plat) aren't exactly packed with kids so it's not like families are swamping the planes and lounges (and kids aren't exactly costing a lot at the bar, and probably tend to fly outside the peak of the peak too).

But hey if our household of four decides to spend $1k on a weekend in Sydney (actually for BNE-SYD $125/flight is a sale fare now, sigh, can easily be $1.2k), it is bemusing to see such weight given to the solo traveller's household deciding to spend say $600 on the same trip. VA still needs to fill the planes, and the big spenders in this forum are far too thin on the ground to do that...

 

[Must...Fly!]

Personally I would have went for 800 for Gold, 1500 for Platinums with no family pooling.
Also something like 8 VA sectors for Gold and 14 for Plats.
It definitely needs to be made a lot harder to qualify but maybe they have gone too far the other way but I guess we will find out

They couldn't have risen above QF

Gold 600/400
Platinum 1200/900 might've been better.
Maybe the reduction in partner earn would've been a bit easier to swallow as well. If it didn't achieve the desired result in 12-24 months, then reassess.

As we noted, the issues of lounge capacity aren't going to be solved by this change due to the introduction of access through Velocity co-branded credit cards.

 

[simmomelb]

Why would the remaining flyers contribute more? That doesn't make sense. They're not going to buy a few more trips - or buy more expensive fares - because there are fewer other high tier fliers (not that Velocity actually publishes those numbers anyway).

SCM didn't say they expect flyers to contribute more, but... "Maybe they want a smaller pool of top-tier FFers who are contributing more to the company."
So the top-tier flyers, which they have now, who contribute more (meeting the required spend tiers), won't be impacted by these changes and may eventually get a better product, given it'll be for true high-value clients, of course any improvements to come is purely speculation, as we won't know until later next year, once all these changes achieve the results they expected (or not).
In the meantime, they will see the status of those who don't spend much (by their metrics) drop in status, which is what they want, whether some of us agree or not, is another topic.
It'll certainly be interesting to see what, if any, changes are made over the coming 18 months - I suspect they will tweak it a little, but again, that's just speculation on my part.

 

[skiaplg]

They couldn't have risen above QF

Gold 600/400
Platinum 1200/900 might've been better.
Maybe the reduction in partner earn would've been a bit easier to swallow as well. If it didn't achieve the desired result in 12-24 months, then reassess.

As we noted, the issues of lounge capacity aren't going to be solved by this change due to the introduction of access through Velocity co-branded credit cards.

The couldn't even rise to match QF. I and many others I'm sure would switch over quickly if it was the same effort to qualify for QF as then you get the benefits of Oneworld membership + lounge access on international flights etc etc. vs Virgin's complete mess of international partnerships.

 

[nutwood]

SCM didn't say they expect flyers to contribute more, but... "Maybe they want a smaller pool of top-tier FFers who are contributing more to the company."
So the top-tier flyers, which they have now, who contribute more (meeting the required spend tiers), won't be impacted by these changes and may eventually get a better product, given it'll be for true high-value clients, of course any improvements to come is purely speculation, as we won't know until later next year, once all these changes achieve the results they expected (or not).
In the meantime, they will see the status of those who don't spend much (by their metrics) drop in status, which is what they want, whether some of us agree or not, is another topic.
It'll certainly be interesting to see what, if any, changes are made over the coming 18 months - I suspect they will tweak it a little, but again, that's just speculation on my part.

I think the problem is that they have made too many changes at the same time. Makes it very hard for anyone, including VA, to assess what has worked and what hasn't. Changes that drive long term frequent flyers away or change spending patterns are not going to be easy to evaluate.