Best way to accumulate sectors?

[mardy]

I have enough status credits to maintain Platinum this year but I don't have enough sectors
as I travel mostly on partner airlines.

So are there some cost effective ways to earn the required sectors?
Or I am doomed to be stuck on Silver from now on?

(For what it is worth, this new sector requirement seems really dumb to me, but that's another thread...)

 

[pshepvic]

Qantas have a sector requirement as well, but a flat 4 to maintain no matter what your status, rather than 2/4/8 like Virgin.

I don't have a problem with it. It's fair enough you should have to do at least a few flights with the airline to maintain status.

A couple of Melbourne to Launceston runs on a cheap fare might do the trick, but others may have some more creative ways with connecting flights.

 

[777]

How many sectors have you got?

Can you 1. Book partner flights in future under a VA code? or 2. Book a holiday with a few gratuitous legs on it (eg. MEL-SYD-MKY or return or something)?

 

[Boris spatsky]

Where are you based? Might help us give you ideas.

 

[cssaus]

I'm planning on doing a return trip from SYD to LAS towards the end of the year and I was thinking about going via MEL/BNE. Providing I book VA flight numbers for the LAX-LAS sector, that will give me a total of 6 eligible flight sectors. I don't think it's a big deal to fly out of SYD at say 8.00am in the morning.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

(For what it is worth, this new sector requirement seems really dumb to me, but that's another thread...)

Isn't that the same as saying having to earn 1000SCs for plat seems a bit dumb to me?

It doesn't matter who considers it dumb, those are the requirements and to be honest, a requirement to actually fly a few sectors on the airline from where you're getting the status is not what I'd consider inappropriate. One might even suggest to forgo platinum for silver due to lack of sectors may seem a little dumb to others.

Perhaps for future travel, try routing via ports with a VA sector or two, or fly code share on VA tix or worse case scenario, buy a few domestic sectors for circa $70 (on sale). Less than $600 (dependant upon the No. of sectors you currently have) for plat over silver seems like a reasonable proposition.

 

[mardy]

I guess the reason I am with Velocity is they are the only rewards program that covers all of the airlines I frequently use.
Anyway, i'm on the Gold Coast and need 6 "eligible sectors" by November.

I'm a bit confused by the wording on the terms and conditions:
"Eligible Sector means a flight journey, from an origin to a destination"

Which would appear to mean if a single booking is OOL-SYD-MEL for example, that would only count as 1 sector.
Not sure what that means for code shares though.

 

[mardy]

Isn't that the same as saying having to earn 1000SCs for plat seems a bit dumb to me?

I understand why they added the requirement, and I guess my point is if it were absolutely necessary it would be been there since day 1.
It's not like there were any additional benefits added that required a stricter criteria.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I guess my point is if it were absolutely necessary it would be been there since day 1.

Perhaps VA noticed a lot of VA FFers never flew VA.

 

[LonePine]

I've got nearly the opposite problem. I have to travel as cheap as possible for work. Just hit silver with 17 sectors - LOL

 

[pshepvic]

I thought the definition of a sector had changed recently. Originally it was that one sector was from your start to end points, but then was changed to be each flight segment (ie. OOL-SYD-MEL would be 2 sectors). That's how they now calculate SCs so I would have thought same applies to sectors. Also note that the costs of these flights increased as well - they used to be around the same as the direct flight, but since the change now are closer to the sum of the two individual flight costs.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

i'm on the Gold Coast and need 6 "eligible sectors" by November.

OOL-SYD is currently on sale for $59. (Travel between 22-7 and 18-9 or between 14-10 and 12-12).

There's also BNE-NTL for the same price if that suits better.

Plat over silver for $354 is something that I'd personally grab.