Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

[coyote25]

After 14 years I'm finally nearing Qantas Lifetime Gold status and I feel it's time to start actively considering Virgin Australia and the Velocity program. While I do hold a membership with VA I've only flown with them 6-7 times over the last 3 years. I haven't invested much time yet to researching the VA program and I expect I will be reading a lot of AFF member posts over the coming weeks to determine if this is a worthwhile investment in time and effort.

The lack of Lifetime program with VA and lack of formal alliance partnership has kept me away from the program so far but it appears VA have a fairly extensive partner airlines (Etihad Airways,Singapore Airlines and Delta look good) and okay non-flying points earning opportunities but I'd really appreciate the thoughts of AFF members who have used VA a lot.

Status Match
The first thing is to see if I can get a Status Match. It appears VA have an accelerator program instead of a straight status match program. I'm currently a QF Platinum member who is on track to requalify as WP in January 2018 and will achieve LTG in June 2017 I'd think that would make it likely I'd get some type of offer.

Questions:
What level should I ask for as a status match and what is the likely requirements to qualify (like 6 segments for WP status within 2 months)?
Is there an e-mail address or form to request this status match / accelerator program? (I'm been looking all over AFF for this)

Status Tiers
I'm interested in how the VA and QF programs match up if it as simple Red = Bronze, Silver = Silver, Gold = Gold, Platinum = Platinum or is there some differences?
Does the requalification work the same as QF, you earn the status within the membership year and status is extended to the end of the next membership year?

The status levels do look easier to achieve then QF.

Reward Seats
I found the Reward Points Table and it appears you can only redeem points in First Class on Etihad.

I'm very interested in how hard it is to redeem J seats on partner airlines and what members experiences have been.

I'm assuming more award availability if a higher status member like QF.

Lounge Access
It appears from reading threads on AFF that the Lounge access rules outside of Australia are a bit of a mess with coverage not as good as being part of an alliance but interested to know with when flying in J if there is any issues or if this is just and issue with high status members traveling in Y.

I'm only experience the Domestic Lounge in Melbourne which seemed great to me at the time.

Seat Allocation
Do SG and WP members get access to all Y seats on the plane (Dom & INT) or are they separated by status or cost of ticket or some other arrangement?

Anything Else
I know I'm asking for a lot of information from AFF members but I'd appreciate you insights into these questions and anything else I should understand about the program.

I travel domestically in Australia from Melbourne to Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane regularly. I usually use rewards for international flights.

Happy to answer any questions on QF matters to anything looking at moving the other way

 

[Spacetravel]

recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

Its funny, I had a very similar thread over in the QF section asking the same thing but in reverse. So I am happy to return the favour to the community

The lack of Lifetime program with VA and lack of formal alliance partnership has kept me away from the program so far but it appears VA have a fairly extensive partner airlines (Etihad Airways,Singapore Airlines and Delta look good)

As you touched on already they don't have a formal alliance and you really feel it at times. Domestic things are pretty good, internationally things such as lounge access and partner airline agreements are very inconsistent. When travelling on partner airlines you have to be aware of VA rules and prepared to recite them as sometimes the airlines themselves don't know what benefits you are entitled to. See threads in this section where people have to either open the Virgin website on their phone or take a print out to show partner airlines the agreements.

I've also found beyond what benefits are listed on paper for VA on partner airlines, you are generally not given any special attention when things go wrong. (I've been left stranded in FLL after a VX flight was cancelled, as the airport went to chaos I was even denied access to the priority counter and sent to the back of the Y line despite having my VA WP card in hand. Also been kicked out of the SQ lounge due to a maintenance issue and not re accommodated because Virgin didn't have any other agreement). While these stories do show a bit of a negative with VA's partnerships it isn't all bad and its also worked really well for me plenty of times. This is just something to be aware of, unless you are on VA metal if things go side ways nobody will care to help.

For me SQ are great and being able to redeem velocity points with them are a huge bonus with a pretty generous availability and burn rates once transferred to SQ (SQ did however recently increase the cost reward seats in points however they reduced the cash fees that go along with the fare). I have heard good to ok things from others flying Delta however I've never really had a good experience. Even in first class I've had some pretty terrible flights with them. Dirty old planes and uninterested flight crew, I try and avoid them where possible. Flights within the US on Delta are also usually pretty expensive. While they are on the way out I recommend flights in the US with Virgin America until they are swallowed up by Alaska Airlines. Usually considerably cheaper and I've always enjoyed my experience with them. I've never flown with Etihad so unable to comment.

Status Match
Questions:

What level should I ask for as a status match and what is the likely requirements to qualify? Providing they offer it, you should easily be able to achieve a platinum status match. While I've never done it myself, I've heard here and elsewhere VA are pretty generous when it comes to status matches. How to go about this though I'm not sure.

Is there an e-mail address or form to request this status match / accelerator program? A status match and accelerator programs are different. The accelerator program "Virgin Accelerate" is for companies after a corporate account, similar to QF's for business account, however the requirements are a bit harder to achieve than with QF. More info on accelerator is here: https://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/experience/corporate-travel/accelerate/
Through this if you satisfy the requirement you can be given 2X "Pilot gold" memberships which last for 3 months, if you achieve 80 SC you can keep it for a year. You don't need status with another airline for this.

A status match however you don't need to have a company, its just your regular ol' status match. I'm not sure where you email though.

Status Tiers

I'm interested in how the VA and QF programs match up or is there some differences? In short = yes.
However the individual benefits from the tiers don't match up exactly. From my research of switching to QF, it appears the order of good to bad looks like this: QF P1 and P, VA P, VA G, QF G.
VA Platinum and VA Gold are very close to each other in terms of benefits.

Does the requalification work the same as QF? I'm not sure how QF works but VA is like this, when you achieve status you go up immediately (next day) and have it for 12 months. You have 12 months to requal. If you do then you keep it for 12 months from your requal date, if you don't you get a bonus month then a soft landing to gold.

The status levels do look easier to achieve then QF. They certainly are, SC are easier to earn and the levels are lower. You can also earn SC when shopping at coles through flybuys.

Reward Seats
I found the Reward Points Table and it appears you can only redeem points in First Class on Etihad.

No as far as I am aware you can redeem points across all classes on Etihad?

I'm very interested in how hard it is to redeem J seats on partner airlines and what members experiences have been. This is where the inconsistency thing comes in, some airlines its really easy such as SQ, you can do it via VA's booking engine or by transferring to SQ first then redeeming directly with them. There are pros and cons on both, refer to other threads for the break down.

Some airlines such as Virgin Atlantic you have to ring the call centre which is overseas and only open Mon - Fri. However they have always been pretty helpful for finding dates and booking. The rates with partner airline are usually pretty good too.

I'm assuming more award availability if a higher status member like QF. No. When it comes to Dom and short Intl, award availability is the same for all. Both for upgrading and straight out reward seats. Reward seats and upgrades are confirmed immediately upon booking for all status.

The areas it differs are:
- Status pax can upgrade via the lounge for Dom flights
- If no upgrade is available, you can be waitlisted and the wait list is cleared in order of status
- For long haul flights (LAX and HKG) upgrades are only available for gold and plat. However you can upgrade a pleb that is travelling with you.

Lounge Access

For Intl flights and overseas partners its a bit of a mess. However there are some sweet spots.

Domestic is fine, VA metal and VA lounges no issue at all. If you are gold or plat you also can use the prem entry in SYD and BNE, and the prem exit in MEL.

Seat Allocation

Plat have access to all seats in the class they are flying. Plat also have access to free Economy Space X seating for Dom and Short Intl.
Gold have access to most seats but not Space X
Pleb status are stuck at the back until T48

Anything Else

Virgin are "cheaper" than Qantas, not on every flight but SC earn is easier and the amount required for each level is much less than Qantas. Point earn and burn rates on VA are generally better too. These things to help to reduce your "annual spend" required to maintain status. They also have happy hour sales every Thursday which sometimes a good bargain can be had.

Make sure you get flybuys if you haven't already and link it to velocity, you get 1SC for every $100 spent, which helps to boost your SC to the next status. Flybuys points can also be converted to Etihad and Velocity.

One of my favourite VA Platinum perks is Hilton Diamond status, which is given to VA P. The rules say you can only have it once for 12 months, however I am on my 3rd cycle.

Overall summary: If your flights are mainly going to consist of VA metal and domestic, they are great and status is considerably easier to achieve and maintain. If you are planning some euro trips, there are some pretty big holes in their network. SQ would have to be my favourite partner and you must try a reward booking in suite class some time.

 

[amaroo]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

FWIW I hit QF LTG around 5 years ago - I asked myself the same questions. Decided to stay with QF/OW because of the network and superior lounge quality/access. The other reason - LTG is only gold.

 

[JohnK]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

I find the sweet spot to be Qantas Platinum and Virgin Gold. Don't need row 3 on VA and don't want to purchase flexible airfares for 4 complimentary upgrades.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

IF you can get a status match, or if they offer you one step down, ie, VA SG instead of VA WP, and then you show them that you will fly VAd/VAi 100% of the time, is this the accelerator you mention, then its a good one to hold.
But if they don't, it will be a long hard road if you fly VA whY nearly all the time, as on the shorter Aust dom routes, VA only offer 5 VA SC on their cheaper fares. Which is a "fair suck of the sauce bottle" as a former PM has said, as VA fares haven't dropeed markedly as the SC earn dropped.
If you always fly flexY/whJ then again, VA is good to hold.
I like the VAd MEL and VAd SYD lounges, the VAd ADL lounge is too small (but I look forward to the day they will do some major works at ADL airport).
Not to mention, that VA's partner NZ does swap a lot of planes from whats stated to the 320, transTasman which do not have a J class, (so SC earn in whY/flexY is the only option).
All in all though, in my point of view, QF is still better as it is.
PS: I have written a letter by snail mail, to VA about the SC earn without a fare drop, but just got the spin that they are happy I "choose" to fly VA. They did not tread into my displeasure about lowered SC earn.
But life is too short to moan about this, so, to each their own.

 

[serfty]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

I am happy to keep WP in both. I have been LTG with QF since 2009.

I do 2 or more trips to the USA yearly, one trip I'll fly premium on DL, the next I'll fly premium on AA (Even with 'simpler and fairer ' there are still reasonablevalue QFF earnings around).

Booking well ahead domestically, VA is mainly 15%-25% cheaper than QF for me. Flight & Lounge food is generally better with QF but the cost saving outweighs that.

 

[pauly7]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

I find the sweet spot to be Qantas Platinum and Virgin Gold. Don't need row 3 on VA and don't want to purchase flexible airfares for 4 complimentary upgrades.

Agreed and general consensus on here consistently is that VA Plat is a waste of time. I get row 3 on VA 9 times out of 10 as a gold anyway as they don't block it out or have shadows like QF.

 

[serfty]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

Agreed and general consensus on here consistently is that VA Plat is a waste of time. I get row 3 on VA 9 times out of 10 as a gold anyway as they don't block it out or have shadows like QF.

It will be interesting to see how that goes with the implementation of economy X.

 

[coyote25]

Re: recRe: Considering Move to Virgin Australia / Velocity - Advice Needed

Its funny, I had a very similar thread over in the QF section asking the same thing but in reverse. So I am happy to return the favour to the community

Thanks for the comprehensive response banana0692 you everyone hear has given me a lot to think about.

Does anyone know of a contact address / channel to reach out to VA to discuss status matching possibility?