advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gold

[rahulley]

Hi everyone,

I need some advice in a relatively time sensitive fashion.
I have velocity gold with 505 SC at this time.
I need 310 SC to retain gold due by end jan 2016

My wife is velocity red pooling currently to my account.

Im flying SIA to KUL tomorrow in economy.
we are both then flying etihad business to ams, then to rome and back to sydney on sunday 19 july.

Should i continue pooling to my account and go for platinum or am i better off pooling to her account and getting her up to gold.

as another conundrum we will be living apart for 6 months from feb so it would be nice for her to have lounge access etc.

 

[EUROPA]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

If you are going to always be travelling together than IMO it's better for one person to be plat. If travelling separately in the future than better to both be gold.

Another 'benefit' of hitting plat is that you keep the benefit for 12 months and then drop to gold for another 12 months even if you don't fly at all, giving you in effect at least 24 months of premium (gold/plat) benefits.

 

[mark4217]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

Will the wife be flying much during the 6 months apart?

 

[rahulley]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

She will be doing a couple of trips to Europe I think.. Usually etihad economy

 

[mark4217]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

J lounge access here and in Abu Dhabi would be nice for her.

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

She will be doing a couple of trips to Europe I think.. Usually etihad economy

I think that answers the question. No way I would leave my wife without status so I could go from SG to WP if she was doing international trips in Y with a VA partner without me.

 

[rahulley]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

I think that answers the question. No way I would leave my wife without status so I could go from SG to WP if she was doing international trips in Y with a VA partner without me.

So then will this trip get her to gold?
Kul-ams
Fco-auh-syd
In business on etihad either her alone or both both our points pooling to
her.

 

[mark4217]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

Extra luggage allowance for SG. Points upgrades to J on VA metal to AUH. If flying EY metal Points upgrade would have to come from EY Guest account.

 

[MH_fan]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

It's a no-brainer. Get your wife to SG!

 

[pauly7]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

It's a no-brainer. Get your wife to SG!

Agree, WP is not worth it on VA in my opinion anyway, so keep the other half happy

 

[Jurahn]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

So then will this trip get her to gold?
Kul-ams
Fco-auh-syd
In business on etihad either her alone or both both our points pooling to
her.

As long as she has (or will have) enough eligible sectors - does she have these already or were these upcoming flights booked as codeshare through VA with VA flight numbers?

 

[Moopere]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

I'm in a similar situation - but an important difference is that my wife rarely travels by herself. Ideally, we'd get plat + gold, gold for her _would_ be great for those few times when she is out doing her own thing - but on balance I think we'd get better value out of a single plat than 2x gold - so I'm going to gun for plat and make use of the free j upgrade legs domestically.

 

[Denali]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

We go for plat renewal with enough SCs to gift gold. Apparently my husband and I have a co-dependency thing happening, we always travel together and even for work, he comes too (because he disappears to take photos, play tourist ect).

 

[mark4217]

Re: advice re family pooling -- Should I go for platinum or try to get my wife to gol

Priority boarding in OZ and AUH. And I think express lane in customs