Major changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer announced 17/10/24

[MooTime]

I booked a Flexi fare recently only cos I could see a reward seat in J so could use a WP free upgrade to J.
Good to get some value from final year of WP with VA.

 

[nutwood]

I booked a Flexi fare recently only cos I could see a reward seat in J so could use a WP free upgrade to J.
Good to get some value from final year of WP with VA.

How do you see whether there's a reward seat available? I can see there's a gap in my knowledge here!

 

[serfty]

How do you see whether there's a reward seat available? I can see there's a gap in my knowledge here!

You do a 'dummy booking', searching for Business Class award availability on flights for your route and timing. Note down suitable flights with the availability. Don't select any flights or complete the booking.

You then search for flexi flights on the same route and date; book the options that match the awards availability. As soon as ticketed (a few minutes generally), call Velocity and ask for the Platinum upgrades to be applied.

Do not do this during those times when the Velocity call centre is closed.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

How do you see whether there's a reward seat available? I can see there's a gap in my knowledge here!

During the booking process you can toggle between paid seats and award seats. If there’s an award seat available in business you buy flex and call up immediately to covert it to the business cabin, taking the award seat.

If no award, move to another flight where there is, and/or if timing is flexible, make sure you have the lowest flex fare + business availability (can save $20-$60).

Works Bali and the like too, giving considerable savings.

 

[nutwood]

Ah-ha. Thank you for that. My technique was to do a dummy booking and see if the J cabin had any any seats sold. If all seats were available, I would assume an award seat was available for my WP upgrade. This worked fine until about 12 months ago and then it didn't. I can only assume they cut back the number of award seats.

 

[QF WP]

Fare class doesn't make any difference for status credits, other than the cost now, between choice, flex or bus (1 status cr per $12).
Perhaps I've misunderstood your point, quite likely as I haven't had my first coffee yet lol.
Good luck, you are definitely tracking okay, hopefully you booked some during the DSC promo

A combination of spending a little more money that was within budget, getting more SC’s and MooTime’s comment (access to immediate J seat on same flight). Hard to spend those upgrades these days.

 

[Happy Dude]

I booked a Flexi fare recently only cos I could see a reward seat in J so could use a WP free upgrade to J.
Good to get some value from final year of WP with VA.

I probably would have just booked the J award, unless there was a burning desire to give VA revenue or get a few SCs.

 

[SYD]

I probably would have just booked the J award, unless there was a burning desire to give VA revenue or get a few SCs.

…or work’s paying.

 

[Happy Dude]

…or work’s paying.

Touche. I'd have to give my work the Flexi ticket that arrives first such is the drama associated with claiming a business class ticket.

 

[SYD]

Touche. I'd have to give my work the Flexi ticket that arrives first such is the drama associated with claiming a business class ticket.

Before I left my last big Corp, I used to be able book my own work travel on VA via a booking portal. In theory, it wasn’t too hard to match a flight with award seats (if any) but getting one in the right fare bucket (within travel policy) that was eligible got harder. Many freebies went unused towards the end…

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I probably would have just booked the J award, unless there was a burning desire to give VA revenue or get a few SCs.

In my case I didn’t have enough points left, but still needed to fly SYD-MEL and vv.

So for $200 each way I got business. Half the money I would have had to have spent anyway for business on either VA or QF.

 

[moa999]

Anyone know how much flex VA is currently applying in renewals.

My sibling is seemingly sitting 15 SCs off Plat renewal after a miscalc under the new $ system with double SC (one flight ended as Lite not Flex)

The official expiry is over but they are flying as a family shortly to Europe, within the 14-day extension period.

Ideally they get renewed and the flight over and back plus 3x family pooling get them a long way to next year.

But alternatively they drop back to Gold, and then on 12mth look back upgraded back to Plat once the flights over credit, and then a small credit for the following year.

 

[nutwood]

If I'm reading correctly, renewal is going be interesting in the future. According to my account, I've re-qualified for WP, with the next renewal date March 2026. However, apparently, I've also qualified for PP, which will commence Oct 1 and run for 12 months. I now seem to have two dates. If I've got it correct, PP looks at your last 12 months, whereas WP considers your year, based on your renewal date. Technically then you could fail to qualify for WP, put in some serious flying (spending?) and jump straight to PP.

 

[serfty]

Technically then you could fail to qualify for WP, put in some serious flying (spending?) and jump straight to PP.

That's always been a possible situation when qualifying for higher levels.

I requalified WP in late January shortly before my end Feb review and now have bookings that would qualify me WPP in mid-January, taking that travel again into account.

I.e. That January 2025 travel should contribute to two aspects of status: 1) requalifing WP in 2025 & 2) qualifying WPP in 2026.

 

[nutwood]

That's always been a possible situation when qualifying for higher levels.

I requalified WP in late January shortly before my end Feb review and now have bookings that would qualify me WPP in mid-January, taking that travel again into account.

I.e. That January 2025 travel should contribute to two aspects of status: 1) requalifing WP in 2025 & 2) qualifying WPP in 2026.

I'm not sure it has always been a possible situation, unless you did some mammoth trip that leapfrogged a level.
Platinum plus is different. To qualify you need 2000 SC's. Virgin's wording is: "...total of 2,000 Status Credits (within 12 months)...". No reference to benefit period.
The question comes then about maintaining. Virgin state "...2,000 Status Credits (within your Benefit Period)..."
Logically this means that they will have to grant it for the duration of the next benefit period, not 12 months or strange situations could occur. Someone whose benefit period starts in August could have earned 3000 SC's in the last twelve months but they are unlikely to earn 2000 before October. They qualify October 25 and lose it October 26, whereas someone whose year commences November has no problem.

 

[oz_mark]

I'm not sure it has always been a possible situation, unless you did some mammoth trip that leapfrogged a level.
Platinum plus is different. To qualify you need 2000 SC's. Virgin's wording is: "...total of 2,000 Status Credits (within 12 months)...". No reference to benefit period.
The question comes then about maintaining. Virgin state "...2,000 Status Credits (within your Benefit Period)..."
Logically this means that they will have to grant it for the duration of the next benefit period, not 12 months or strange situations could occur. Someone whose benefit period starts in August could have earned 3000 SC's in the last twelve months but they are unlikely to earn 2000 before October. They qualify October 25 and lose it October 26, whereas someone whose year commences November has no problem.

I would imagine that when you attain Platinum Plus, your 12 month benefit period would start from the data of attainment (as it does for every other level)

 

[serfty]

I'm not sure it has always been a possible situation, unless you did some mammoth trip that leapfrogged a level.
Platinum plus is different. To qualify you need 2000 SC's. Virgin's wording is: "...total of 2,000 Status Credits (within 12 months)...". No reference to benefit period.
The question comes then about maintaining. Virgin state "...2,000 Status Credits (within your Benefit Period)..."
Logically this means that they will have to grant it for the duration of the next benefit period, not 12 months or strange situations could occur. Someone whose benefit period starts in August could have earned 3000 SC's in the last twelve months but they are unlikely to earn 2000 before October. They qualify October 25 and lose it October 26, whereas someone whose year commences November has no problem.

I believe you are conflating issues.

Once you attain a status you have 12 months to earn the needed SC to requalify that status. You might call that a "Benefit Period".

To attain a status on any one day, the number of SC's earn in the previous 365 days are taken into account. Here's the current T&C's:

Terms and Conditions

This explains the definition, applicable terms, related changes and terms related to membership, velocity pin, velocity estrore, family pooling, redeeming points, status credit, member benefit,tax, fees, charges and other related things

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

7.2 How to upgrade or maintain your Status

To upgrade your Status, you need to have flown the number of Eligible Sectors and your Status Credits balance needs to meet the number of Status Credits set out below during the previous 365 days – calculated daily on a rolling basis.

Once you upgrade to a higher level of membership, you will have 12 months (from the day of your upgrade to your new Review Date) to achieve the required number of Status Credits and Eligible Sectors to maintain your membership.

 

[nutwood]

I would imagine that when you attain Platinum Plus, your 12 month benefit period would start from the data of attainment (as it does for every other level)

That's where I'm puzzled. Is the Benefit Period 12 months from the date of attainment, or is it 12 months from date of renewal?
I have attained WP because I have flown sufficiently between March and now. The assessment period is based on my renewal date. Come March 2026, my WP status will renew for another year. If I stop flying now, I'll still be WP through to March 2027. The benefit period commences in March 2026.

 

[serfty]

That's where I'm puzzled. Is the Benefit Period 12 months from the date of attainment, or is it 12 months from date of renewal?
I have attained WP because I have flown sufficiently between March and now. The assessment period is based on my renewal date. Come March 2026, my WP status will renew for another year. If I stop flying now, I'll still be WP through to March 2027. The benefit period commences in March 2026.

Assessment for requalification is based on 12 month periods from initial status level attainment date.

Assessment for Qualifying (to a higher level) is based on the previous 365 days of travel.

Here's an example. Between September 15th and September 28th last year someone earned 500 SC's and had 4 eligible segments to qualify SG. That someone had earned no SC's during the previous 365 days.

At this point they are SG until their review period commences on September 28th this year. They have until then to earn another 400 SC's and fly 4 eligible segments to requalify.

If they have no other travel until August, but from August 1st to August 14th they earn another 500 SC's and fly 4 eligible segments, they will Qualify WP with a review date of August 14th next year. This is because during the 365 days up to August 14th they had earned 1000 SC and had 8 eligible segments.

 

[nutwood]

I believe you are conflating issues.

Once you attain a status you have 12 months to earn the needed SC to requalify that status. You might call that a "Benefit Period".

To attain a status on any one day, the number of SC's earn in the previous 365 days are taken into account. Here's the current T&C's:

Terms and Conditions

This explains the definition, applicable terms, related changes and terms related to membership, velocity pin, velocity estrore, family pooling, redeeming points, status credit, member benefit,tax, fees, charges and other related things

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Does this mean that come October 1st, my renewal date will re-set from March to October? I've been considering the situation based on my Qantas experience where there's a renewal date set in stone. My VA renewal date has always been March and I thought that was fixed?