Confused Post Requalifying

[pshepvic]

We're not arguing that the wording is not bad because it is. What it is supposed to mean is different to how people are interpreting it, and they definitely need to fix the wording.

The old t&cs had the same problem - which I think is where 777 started this thread with the complaint to Virgin at the beginning when Platinum was first introduced. They were reworded to make it clearer that the 1500/2000 SCs were on top of the qualifying amount. They seem to have created the same issue again, but I'm 100% sure that to get partner gold/plat you need to earn 1500/1800 SCs. Previously you actually needed 2300/2800 (ie. 800 requal + 1500/2000 on top) not 1500/2000 total like some have suggested. If it was 1500/1800 I would have been offered partner gold 2 months ago but wasn't.

It also doesn't make sense that they would reduce it below the level to get the same through family pooling. Having it as 800+500/1000 means the rates are the same as would be required to pool someone to gold/plat in the first year.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2

 

[medhead]

But it is what the T&C's say




If they mean that you need to earn the Status Credits to requalify for platinum, and then get another 500 Status Credits, then they should say that. But as it stands, it does not say that you need to get the status credits to requalify first.

They may say that and as many people have said, including danoleary55 it's ambiguous. All I'm saying is that I don't not believe that the intention is to provide partner gold to everyone who gets 500SC after their review date. Bit since I currently have ~1100 I might just ring up to ask for partner platinum.

 

[oz_mark]

They may say that and as many people have said, including danoleary55 it's ambiguous.

If it's ambiguous then I am sure the principle of "Contra proferentem" could come into play!

 

[dandandan]

lol, I bet everyone has to google that, I had too!

If it's ambiguous then I am sure the principle of "Contra proferentem" could come into play!

 

[dandandan]

An example or examples would definitely help us all.

If it's ambiguous then I am sure the principle of "Contra proferentem" could come into play!

 

[waynemat]

No, you only need to get 1300 after your Plat qual date to gift gold, or 1800 to gift Plat. They should phone you, but if not give the Plat call centre a call.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2

No I was gold and got to plat in april
they say I need another 500 to gift and 800 to maintain
i am currently at 360

 

[pshepvic]

No I was gold and got to plat in april
they say I need another 500 to gift and 800 to maintain
i am currently at 360

You might want to go back and read through this thread again. The T&Cs are misleading about what they actually intend them to mean. The intention is you need another 500 AFTER you have got your 800 to requalify. Yes we can debate for ever that the T&Cs may not necessarily sound that way, but I can assure you that's what they are intended to mean.


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[dandandan]

How can you assure that's what they are intended to mean?

You might want to go back and read through this thread again. The T&Cs are misleading about what they actually intend them to mean. The intention is you need another 500 AFTER you have got your 800 to requalify. Yes we can debate for ever that the T&Cs may not necessarily sound that way, but I can assure you that's what they are intended to mean.


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[pshepvic]

How can you assure that's what they are intended to mean?

That's what the Virgin call centre has stated. It's also exactly the same problem that happened when they first introduced platinum that 777 had (as I've already stated in a previous post). Back then the T&Cs said "when you earn 1500 in a membership year" when what they meant was "additional 1500 in a year above your requalifying requirement" - this meant the actual SC earn required was 2300 including the 800 to requalify. The T&Cs were changed shortly after, after numerous complaints both here on AFF and also to Virgin. Now someone has made the same mistake again when writing the T&Cs. They should just have replaced the "1500" with "500" but instead changed the wording and made it worse.

Additionally I would have received a call from them 2 months ago when I hit 1500 under the old T&Cs, but I didn't because the amount required for partner gold was 2300. Same as the amount required now is 1300. They've dropped it by 1000 SCs to align the rates with what you could achieve via pooling, there is no way they have dropped it by 1800 SCs!!!

Now that they've changed it, I have received a call offering Partner Gold. I'm on 1780 SCs since my Plat qualification date - based on your argument saying gold is 500 and plat is 1500, then they should be offering me platinum, but they're not, they're offering gold because I've made the new requirement (800+500). If they hadn't changed it I would have still needed another 520 SCs before getting partner gold.

Ring the call centre if you like and ask. I'm also going to predict that the T&Cs are going to be updated again shortly to clarify.

Note that I do think if you take a copy of the T&Cs and take the matter further, they may be forced to "honor" what the T&Cs state, even though I believe 100% that is not the intent. I reckon the T&Cs will change even faster if someone does that.


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[Jama]

I thought it was pretty simple with the explination by the VA rep in the other thread.

Under the maintain platinum heading in my account I have Additional status credits required showing as 'Acheived' and under status credits earned since Dec 2011 it shows as 800. As soon as that 800 gets to 1500 (prior to Dec 2012 cutoff) I get access to partner gold. Simple.

I do have somthing I am not sure about though. In the top right corner where it says points balance, my status and SC balance, the SC balance is 1340. What is the significance of this ? I expected it to match the balance under the maintain platinum heading which is 800

 

[dandandan]

What thread was this explanation in?

According to other posters and pshepvic above yours, you need 1,300 not the 1,500 you said for companion Gold.

I thought it was pretty simple with the explination by the VA rep in the other thread.

Under the maintain platinum heading in my account I have Additional status credits required showing as 'Acheived' and under status credits earned since Dec 2011 it shows as 800. As soon as that 800 gets to 1500 (prior to Dec 2012 cutoff) I get access to partner gold. Simple.

I do have somthing I am not sure about though. In the top right corner where it says points balance, my status and SC balance, the SC balance is 1340. What is the significance of this ? I expected it to match the balance under the maintain platinum heading which is 800

 

[Jama]

What thread was this explanation in?

According to other posters and pshepvic above yours, you need 1,300 not the 1,500 you said for companion Gold.

I can see you have been posting in this particular thread. But it is an older post. Here is the link, VA rep post bottom of the page
http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ity/ok-i-really-unhappy-velocity-33020-8.html

We seem to be talking about the same thing now in two different threads. The OP in this one, started by me, was actual a different question but soon got onto the current topic.

 

[oz_mark]

I do have somthing I am not sure about though. In the top right corner where it says points balance, my status and SC balance, the SC balance is 1340. What is the significance of this ? I expected it to match the balance under the maintain platinum heading which is 800

If it's the number I think you are referring to, it is the rolling 12 month balance of your status credits.

 

[Jama]

Ah. Ok. That makes sense. Shame partner status isn't based on this.

 

[bullerdude]

I spoke to the Platinum service desk this week and it turn out it is quite simple (as some people have already mentioned in this thread).

You are eligible for Partner Gold in either of the following 2 situations:

1. You earn 500 status credits after being upgraded in Platinum.

2. You earn 500 status credits after passing a review date if your membership level stays the same.

In other words, ignore all your other status credits balances or requirements. It is as simple as earning 500 additional status credits in one of these two scenarios. (The key here being additional status credits)

In my case, I recently hit ~1300 Status Credits which means I was upgraded from Gold to Platinum. However, the extra 300 status credits above 1000 were effectively earned before my upgrade so they do not count towards partner gold. I have to earn 500 additional status credits, i.e. reach 1800 SCs , to get partner gold.

Therefore, the process for me is like this. Earn Platinum at 1300 SCs, Earn parner gold at 1800 SCs (+500) , earn platinum renewal at 2100 SCs (+800), earn partner platinum at 2600 SCs (+1000).

Parter Platinum is the same but require 1000 additional status credits. Another thing to keep in mind, I believe partner status is tied to your own, so you would need to re-qualify to keep it.

 

[pshepvic]

I spoke to the Platinum service desk this week and it turn out it is quite simple (as some people have already mentioned in this thread).

You are eligible for Partner Gold in either of the following 2 situations:

1. You earn 500 status credits after being upgraded in Platinum.

2. You earn 500 status credits after passing a review date if your membership level stays the same.

In other words, ignore all your other status credits balances or requirements. It is as simple as earning 500 additional status credits in one of these two scenarios. (The key here being additional status credits)

In my case, I recently hit ~1300 Status Credits which means I was upgraded from Gold to Platinum. However, the extra 300 status credits above 1000 were effectively earned before my upgrade so they do not count towards partner gold. I have to earn 500 additional status credits, i.e. reach 1800 SCs , to get partner gold.

Therefore, the process for me is like this. Earn Platinum at 1300 SCs, Earn parner gold at 1800 SCs (+500) , earn platinum renewal at 2100 SCs (+800), earn partner platinum at 2600 SCs (+1000).

Parter Platinum is the same but require 1000 additional status credits. Another thing to keep in mind, I believe partner status is tied to your own, so you would need to re-qualify to keep it.

This doesn't make any sense to me at all, as the amounts quoted to qualify for Platinum are not even correct, let alone the rest of the calculations. Above you stated you qualified for Platinum at 1300 - the qualification level is 1000, not 1300.

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[pshepvic]

How can you assure that's what they are intended to mean?

FYI - I did get your PM but they don't work on my iphone or Samsung and I'm overseas so haven't got to replying from the proper website! Without going into detail I do think you've been lucky, and things likely change once the loyalty management team work out what has happened!

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[Deleted member 29185]

Seems as though it might actually be in my interests to fly on saver fares and plan for the correct number of SC's to requal as close to my requal year as possible.

If you're buying flexis, why not? Savers get you the same seat and the same service just without a dubious snack that you haven't been permitted to choose. Flexis aren't flexible and I know from experience that it works out cheaper to forfeit the saver and re-purchase for the times that you require to change flights. With fly ahead, I just book the latest flight on the day (often the cheapest as well) which decreases the number of forfeitures but still allows me home early if I finish early.

If VA were to show some incentive to get me to plat, I'd likely buy the dearer fares just to requal. over and above what I currently earn flying savers, but I'm not prepared to justify the extra spend to get there in the first place.

Personally, I just wish VA would return to some kind of consistancy of offering. These SMs, SC challenges to the patently disloyal and freebie bonus SCs just to the golden hair few for absolutely nothing is a disgraceful way of treating supposedly valued clients (both those not offered all the generous offering and those that have done the hard yards to achieve their status). I won't get drawn into the discussion on partner status except to say if every man and his dog can get his/her partner gold/plat, then it's questionable in value in the long term (we are already seeing lounges over capacity). Wouldn't a far better reward to the high achieving loyals be a lifetime scheme or another level of status to strive for and couple that with a few partner lounge passes to be used when the partners aren't flying with the status member? If the partners fly a lot, then let them earn their own status.

 

[medhead]

This doesn't make any sense to me at all, as the amounts quoted to qualify for Platinum are not even correct, let alone the rest of the calculations. Above you stated you qualified for Platinum at 1300 - the qualification level is 1000, not 1300.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2

It sounds like a description of the old system to me. But the numbers quoted are still confusing.


Sent from the Throne

 

[bullerdude]

This doesn't make any sense to me at all, as the amounts quoted to qualify for Platinum are not even correct, let alone the rest of the calculations. Above you stated you qualified for Platinum at 1300 - the qualification level is 1000, not 1300.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2

Let me try and explain again using exact numbers.

1. Gold Member with 810 SC's
2. Earned 560 SC's from 2x LHR-MEL flights (used family pooling)
3. New SC balance of 1370
4. Overnight - Upgrade to Platinum at 1370 SC's

Basically, your upgrade to platinum occurs the night after your reach or exceed 1000 SC's.

So in my case, the additional 370 SC's above the required 1000 qualification level do not count towards anything. Therefore meaning that I need to earn 500 SC's on top of the 1370 that made me Platinum to get partner gold.