Family Pool Calcs x 2 please check/help

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babysun

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Can I please have some help with the best way to family pool during our trip to maximise SC use and status upgrades for my husband and myself.

We are going away to the USA next month and will accrue a ton of SC credits between 2 adults and 2 kids.
International flights are VA getaway fares and domestic USA flights are Delta Comfort Plus (W). Every domestic flight has a separate flight number. The BNE-LAX-BNE was one booking with Virgin Australia and the Delta flights were booked on one booking as multi-trip.

Ideally we would make use of our SG whilst travelling but we will have opportunities in the future.

I have done a lot of reading and my understanding about the SC achieved on the day your status changes won't count toward maintenance of status. For example if we pool everything to my husband on the first leg of our trip then he will arrive in MCO with 700SC. BUT the additional 200SC will not count as part of the 400 required to maintain SG (although they will count towards the 1000 required for WP). This doesn't seem right to me. It's actually a bit cough if it's true.

I presume that anything pooled takes effect on the same calendar day that the flight starts regardless of country. I ask this because we are departing BNE to LAX on 13/10 and then board a Delta flight LAX to MCO on 13/10 but here (Australia) it would actually be 14/10.

I had thought the best way to pool so that we both attain SG would be to pool everything to my husband who will start the trip having just re-qualified Silver (review date 04/18) on 300 SC and who starts the trip on 0 SC Red.

Itinerary & related SC earn with Virgin Australia and Delta
10/10 BNE-LAX 40SC LAX-MCO 60SC 100 x 4 = 400
21/10 MCO-ATL 30SC ATL-DCA 30SC 60 x 4 = 240
26/10 DCA-DTW 30SC DTW-SEA 60SC 90 x 4 = 360
31/10 SEA-LAX 45SC 45 x 4 = 180
2/11 LAX-BNE 40SC 40 x 4 = 160

Ideally I would've liked both of us to have arrived in DCA SG so that IF there are any delays when we are transiting in DTW we can make it more bearable by waiting in the lounge in the midst of a 7+ hour trip but that is not possible (it would take 700SC and we will earn 620). So I thought the next best thing would be at least one of us is SG so that maybe we could ask nicely to take our angelic (HA) children in too. If you don't ask you don't get right?

To achieve this SG after arrival in DCA we would simply split the pool down the middle from the beginning of the trip and he would have 520SC and I would have 320SC.

From here is where I'm confused about the SC earned on day of status review. IF we then pooled 75% to me am I wasting SC towards maintaining SG? eg. Keep pool spilt 50/50 and I land in SEA on 500SC. 75% to me 590SC.

My rationale by me getting 75% of the family pool after DCA is that I will land in BNE with 950SC and 8 segments flown in the last 12 months. I will quite easily get another 50SC from Flybuys to attain WP in the future. My husband would land in BNE with 770SC. He will get 100 SC in July from Velocity Platinum card plus whatever he gets flying for business in the interim. He's happy to stay SG rather than WP. He likes lounge access the most.

If I am WP at least when I don't maintain it I will then drop to SG for the next year. We can family pool everything back to my husband after that if he's short.

Does all of this make sense or is there a better way to do it?
Both being SG+ means we are getting a points earn bonus too. Baggage fees will already be waived by Delta as we start the trip with my husband as VA Silver.

Thank you to anyone who is interested in this kind of thing. I have drawn many diagrams and charts and my brain is a bit sizzled now so please forgive me if my figures are wrong.

Our main objective is for both of us to qualify as SG minimum and to earn as many SC to maintain SG (especially me). I could come home WP but I think I'm better off leaving it to a slighter later date as we won't be going anywhere in the next couple of months at least.

If there are better ways to configure this I'm all ears.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
 
I family pool, its from my mum who does not fly all the time, so its her as "donor" to me, as receipient.
My parents flew ADL - BNE - ADL, and VFF's system would not let me pool my dad into mine, only would allow my mum into mine.
Some on here say you can pool 2 into 1, but I am not sure how.
I went online and into my older mum's VFF account, and added my VFF #, and her return trip, both points and SC appeared in my VFF account, which is good, but my dad's one, does not allow me to pool.
In your case, considering the adults, who is going to be the main flyer in the future, (forgetting about the kids VFF account for the time being).
If hubby will be flying the most in the future, go into your VFF account and put his number to be pooled into.
So after your trip, your points and SC will go to him.
Now, considering the kids VFF account, maybe let them collect points and SC on their own, and let the balance build up.
BUT if you wanted to clear their account after the trip, and pool the points and SC to yours then to hubby, I don't know how to do it.
I have a feeling that VFF only allows 1 member to 1 member points and SC pool, not mutiples.
Maybe my muse does not make a lot of sense, but its a pity VFF does not allow (in my case), 2 to 1, so my dads VFF account would be empty and I get all the points and SC, but his VFF is stuck with about 30 SC and 250 or so VFF points.
 
I can't see a way to get both of you to SG until SEA (either - you're well on top of this). But it boils down to which of you would value/use WP the most. I'd split the first flight 50/50 to not "lose" the 200SCs as you point out. It gets hubby to SG straight away and there's enough SCs to maintain it, provided you don't want WP badly. Interested to know more about the 100SC from the Velocity Platinum card? Did I miss something?
 
I can't see a way to get both of you to SG until SEA (either - you're well on top of this). But it boils down to which of you would value/use WP the most. I'd split the first flight 50/50 to not "lose" the 200SCs as you point out. It gets hubby to SG straight away and there's enough SCs to maintain it, provided you don't want WP badly. Interested to know more about the 100SC from the Velocity Platinum card? Did I miss something?
Thanks Happy Dude,
Husband doesn't care about WP. He likes the lounge etc. I think we would benefit from WP as a family more if it happens a bit later so we use it over holidays next year.
To answer your question about 100SC we got a letter from Amex saying from October they will give you up to 100SC depending on your annual spend (up to $50,000). We use it for everything we can & would easily hit that amount. This is applied on your anniversary date. Ours is July. I'll look at the letter later & tell exact wording. I haven't found it online anywhere.
 
Happy Dude,
I could not find the letter anywhere and nothing online. So I called Amex and they confirmed everything I said. The woman I spoke to didn't have any concrete details about it yet except what I've written already. It takes effect from October 3rd, 2017 and will be applied for your membership year just gone on your anniversary date. She did say "eligible purchases" but I presume that's the usual things excluded like balance transfers, cash advances etc.
 
Setting up the various family pools might be challenging. You're going to have to switch between 2 pools each with 1 adult and 1 child at some stage. Having played around with my family pool, adding and removing members can have some delays.
My experience is that the important time is when the SC credit, rather than when the flight was taken for Virgin Aust. You might get the Delta credits before the credits for the flight to the US.
Unless virgin have fixed up their systems recently.

I family pool, its from my mum who does not fly all the time, so its her as "donor" to me, as receipient.
My parents flew ADL - BNE - ADL, and VFF's system would not let me pool my dad into mine, only would allow my mum into mine.
Some on here say you can pool 2 into 1, but I am not sure how.
I went online and into my older mum's VFF account, and added my VFF #, and her return trip, both points and SC appeared in my VFF account, which is good, but my dad's one, does not allow me to pool.
In your case, considering the adults, who is going to be the main flyer in the future, (forgetting about the kids VFF account for the time being).
If hubby will be flying the most in the future, go into your VFF account and put his number to be pooled into.
So after your trip, your points and SC will go to him.
Now, considering the kids VFF account, maybe let them collect points and SC on their own, and let the balance build up.
BUT if you wanted to clear their account after the trip, and pool the points and SC to yours then to hubby, I don't know how to do it.
I have a feeling that VFF only allows 1 member to 1 member points and SC pool, not mutiples.
Maybe my muse does not make a lot of sense, but its a pity VFF does not allow (in my case), 2 to 1, so my dads VFF account would be empty and I get all the points and SC, but his VFF is stuck with about 30 SC and 250 or so VFF points.

The rules clearly state that a family pool can only have 2 adults, including the recipient. You and your parents would be 3 adults. This is not a problem for the OP.
 
Happy Dude,
I could not find the letter anywhere and nothing online. So I called Amex and they confirmed everything I said. The woman I spoke to didn't have any concrete details about it yet except what I've written already. It takes effect from October 3rd, 2017 and will be applied for your membership year just gone on your anniversary date. She did say "eligible purchases" but I presume that's the usual things excluded like balance transfers, cash advances etc.
Thanks Babysun, I do have this letter. I had banished that bit from my conscience as I've no hope of reaching $50k spend on that or any other card. Have a good trip - let us know which way your pooling goes....
 
Thanks Babysun, I do have this letter. I had banished that bit from my conscience as I've no hope of reaching $50k spend on that or any other card. Have a good trip - let us know which way your pooling goes....
I asked her what amount would be if there was less that $50K and she didn't know as it wasn't live yet. You would think that lower amounts spent would reap something though. Maybe $10K would give you 20SC. Only a couple of weeks til we will find out.
 
Setting up the various family pools might be challenging. You're going to have to switch between 2 pools each with 1 adult and 1 child at some stage. Having played around with my family pool, adding and removing members can have some delays.
My experience is that the important time is when the SC credit, rather than when the flight was taken for Virgin Aust. You might get the Delta credits before the credits for the flight to the US.
Unless virgin have fixed up their systems recently.



The rules clearly state that a family pool can only have 2 adults, including the recipient. You and your parents would be 3 adults. This is not a problem for the OP.
Thanks for your input Vic,
How long were your delays in changing the family pool?

I've only changed it once or twice in the past and it happened immediately. According to Velocity website anyway. I don't remember whether we got on a plane straight afterwards.
The VA flight should have time to credit before any changes are made. We are in MCO for about 10 days. Surely that is long enough.
We will have a minimum of 3 nights in each city besides LA but whatever changes made will be well and truly made by then. I hope that's enough time to see the SC credited and then we change the pool. Fingers crossed!
 
Thanks for your input Vic,
How long were your delays in changing the family pool?

I've only changed it once or twice in the past and it happened immediately. According to Velocity website anyway. I don't remember whether we got on a plane straight afterwards.
The VA flight should have time to credit before any changes are made. We are in MCO for about 10 days. Surely that is long enough.
We will have a minimum of 3 nights in each city besides LA but whatever changes made will be well and truly made by then. I hope that's enough time to see the SC credited and then we change the pool. Fingers crossed!

My previous experience said it changed immediately. But my most recent set of changes seemed to take 1 to 3 days. I'm not 100% sure of the timeframe as I had to change a couple of times. I moved my wife back into my pool and that didn't take the first time. Well my account said she was in the pool, but her account didn't.
Looking at your timing I agree you should have plenty of time. Perhaps just keep a close eye on things to make sure the changes are made.

10 days in MCO, sounds like you'll be enjoying the various worlds. Have fun.
 
I find there is a delay on the relevant accounts updating online but the change actually occurs on day of request. Family pooling status at flight date rather than crediting date has been relevant for me
 
I find there is a delay on the relevant accounts updating online but the change actually occurs on day of request. Family pooling status at flight date rather than crediting date has been relevant for me

I did wait a couple of days and the change was not reflected in the family members account, but was shown in my account. It worked immediately when I redid it. I'm hazy about the status timing, for various reasons I'm only collecting points at the moment.
 
I did wait a couple of days and the change was not reflected in the family members account, but was shown in my account. It worked immediately when I redid it. I'm hazy about the status timing, for various reasons I'm only collecting points at the moment.

I updated the family pool yesterday.
I removed one child and myself from my husband's account and added that child to me.
The cancellations and the child pooling to me showed immediately on my husband and child's account.
The child pooling to me did not show on my account until this morning.
I got emails straight away saying that any changes would take effect from that date so if I have an issue in the future I will refer to the emails.
I guess what shows on the website is not always reflective of what is happening on the back end of their systems. Maybe they run their updates overnight.

Husband will land in MCO SG so that is at least enough to give us a bit of sucky up status in lounges (if we are lucky). Presuming we get our act together enough to be at the airport in time to even access the lounges. We've spoken to friends who live and/or travel a lot in USA and they've all said check in/security is SLOOOOW. And we (me) are not morning people. Lounge access is more a contingency plan in case of delays but one aviation mad child is keen to explore every single aspect of travel that we can. Severe FOMO might be an issue too ;)

Thanks for your input, it's been really helpful.
 
Presuming we get our act together enough to be at the airport in time to even access the lounges. We've spoken to friends who live and/or travel a lot in USA and they've all said check in/security is SLOOOOW.

I've not had bad experiences with airport security in the US. Obviously will be highly dependent on timing. we did tend to get to the airport early. One moment of concern was when the child was given pre-clearance by Delta, and the adults were not, even in First class. The first time this happened the TSA agent insisted that the child must take the fast track when we asked to keep them with us.

Good luck
 
I've not had bad experiences with airport security in the US. Obviously will be highly dependent on timing. we did tend to get to the airport early. One moment of concern was when the child was given pre-clearance by Delta, and the adults were not, even in First class. The first time this happened the TSA agent insisted that the child must take the fast track when we asked to keep them with us.

Good luck
I should clarify. When I say slow I mean compare to here. I can arrive at the airport 40 minutes before a domestic flight and be confident that I've got enough time to drop my bag and get to the gate. I've been told to allow 2 hours in America. I don't know what I'd do if somebody insisted on separating us from our kids at the airport! It's bizarre they think it's OK. Rules are rules?
 
I should clarify. When I say slow I mean compare to here. I can arrive at the airport 40 minutes before a domestic flight and be confident that I've got enough time to drop my bag and get to the gate. I've been told to allow 2 hours in America. I don't know what I'd do if somebody insisted on separating us from our kids at the airport! It's bizarre they think it's OK. Rules are rules?

It wasn't an issue in the end. We could look across and see them the whole time. Strange event, but not an issue in the end.
 
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