Federal Government Status Match 2018

[Stevo.1702]

Just spotted on Ozbargin.com

[Federal/Australian Government] Velocity Frequent Flyer Status Match Promotion (Australian Government Email Address Required)

Email a copy of your Qantas Frequent Flyer card from a Federal Government email address and receive a 12 month status match for Virgin Australia.

I know this is very targeted and may not apply to most but if there is one of me there must be more. I'll be attempting tomorrow and will report back with the results.

I've done this once before in 2013/2014 and they matched my QFF Silver for VA Plat. A beautiful day that was.

 

[hossein_au]

Just spotted on Ozbargin.com

[Federal/Australian Government] Velocity Frequent Flyer Status Match Promotion (Australian Government Email Address Required)

Email a copy of your Qantas Frequent Flyer card from a Federal Government email address and receive a 12 month status match for Virgin Australia.

I know this is very targeted and may not apply to most but if there is one of me there must be more. I'll be attempting tomorrow and will report back with the results.

I've done this once before in 2013/2014 and they matched my QFF Silver for VA Plat. A beautiful day that was.

I emailed them Wed or Thu last week. I sent it around around 4:30pm and got a positive response the next day. I have heard of same-day response if email is sent in the morning.

Edit: I also had done it once before in 2013/14. Matched QF Plat to VA Plat back then. Ditto this time.

 

[Bibendum]

Just spotted on Ozbargin.com

[Federal/Australian Government] Velocity Frequent Flyer Status Match Promotion (Australian Government Email Address Required)

I've done this once before in 2013/2014 and they matched my QFF Silver for VA Plat. A beautiful day that was.

Sliver for Plat... Really...?

This really annoys me in that I have earnt my status, mostly flying Y and on red eye coast to coast flights.. I'm QF sliver too but someone who has never flow VA, or very little gets all the benefits..

What a joke

 

[Stevo.1702]

Sliver for Plat... Really...?

This really annoys me in that I have earnt my status, mostly flying Y and on red eye coast to coast flights.. I'm QF sliver too but someone who has never flow VA, or very little gets all the benefits..

What a joke

If it helps I only flew VA maybe 4 times when I was given VA Plat. I never got an upgrade because I never bought the flexible fares. It was a shiny card greatly unused.

 

[Anna]

I have just got my 3rd QF plat for VA plat status match using this. Hardly any of my flying is paid for by government though, it's mostly paid for by my business or by me. Maybe twice a year by govt, always in Y. I happen to have a .gov.au email address for a job I'm doing.

My past experience of the status match is that VA has never allowed me to fly ahead, usually saying 'it's too close to the flight time now', has only ever allowed 2 upgrades out of 4 each time due to J being full already or else due to fare class booked for me by someone else, and Hilton Diamond was an absolute joke that got me almost zero in terms of benefits and didn't even have lounges in most of the hotels I stayed at (sole exception - Hilton LAX, where being Diamond was useful).

Nothing about my previous 2 experiences as VA plat has led me to think that VA is truly a competitor for QF in any sense. Half the time if I go to the VA website to make a booking it can't even cope with the itinerary I need and it just all gets too hard so I retreat back to the QF website (I'm not saying that the QF website is perfect - it isn't).

 

[strongarmAU]

Ive just sent email, QFF gold here, wonder what I will become with VA...

 

[Des1801]

Successfully matched to VA gold within 24 hours this will be a great benefit in terms of lounge access for when I am forced to fly VA due to lowest fare of the day

 

[Daver6]

Did you get a response via email in 24 hours or is it showing when you log in to your Velocity account?

 

[Des1801]

Got an email acknowledging receipt of application, velocity account was updated within 24 hours. Still waiting for card to arrive in mail however

 

[Pleb Status]

I have just got my 3rd QF plat for VA plat status match using this. Hardly any of my flying is paid for by government though, it's mostly paid for by my business or by me. Maybe twice a year by govt, always in Y. I happen to have a .gov.au email address for a job I'm doing.

My past experience of the status match is that VA has never allowed me to fly ahead, usually saying 'it's too close to the flight time now', has only ever allowed 2 upgrades out of 4 each time due to J being full already or else due to fare class booked for me by someone else, and Hilton Diamond was an absolute joke that got me almost zero in terms of benefits and didn't even have lounges in most of the hotels I stayed at (sole exception - Hilton LAX, where being Diamond was useful).

Nothing about my previous 2 experiences as VA plat has led me to think that VA is truly a competitor for QF in any sense. Half the time if I go to the VA website to make a booking it can't even cope with the itinerary I need and it just all gets too hard so I retreat back to the QF website (I'm not saying that the QF website is perfect - it isn't).

Interesting how others see the world...

All of your 'issues' are with the additional benefits that QF does not even offer their WP members. So even if these additional VA benefits are worth absolutely nothing to you, you have lost nothing flying VA over QF and they can hardly be seen as a negative in any case.

For domestic flights, any itinerary you can book on the QF website unassisted you can easily book on the VA website.

As an ex QF P1, it is actually scary how competitive VA have become. On board in J, VA is now clearly ahead of QF. On board in Y, with free YX seating for WP, documented fly ahead etc, why would I want to pay more to fly QF and get less.

This calendar year is looking like it could be the first year since 1992 that I have not set foot on a QF aircraft and I cannot see any reason to move any travel back at this point in time...

 

[kpc]

.nsw.gov.au rejected

 

[justinbrett]

I applied this morning, got a confirmation but still waiting for it to be processed.

It's only for federal government employees as we all use the WoAG contract (whole of Australian Government).

I'm unsure of the motive of this offer - as under WoAG we aren't allowed to select airlines. Still, no complaints from me.

 

[Stevo.1702]

I applied this morning, got a confirmation but still waiting for it to be processed.

It's only for federal government employees as we all use the WoAG contract (whole of Australian Government).

I'm unsure of the motive of this offer - as under WoAG we aren't allowed to select airlines. Still, no complaints from me.

I'm assuming it's to draw personal spend to them. To level the playing field if someone does earn status from WoAG flights

 

[kermatu]

Even though it's meant to be best fare of the day there was so little between QF and VA in my experience (ex-Canberra anyway) that you effectively could choose. I certainly had no problem getting QF for all my flights if that's what I wanted. And my sense is QF gets a much bigger share of Govt travel.

So good move by VA. I'm on the verge of attaining VA Plat for the first time anyway. Is indeed proving to be a very competitive offering. Though not every route and the lounges are a step down.

 

[RoMambai]

I'm already Silver with both so unfortunately I won't be able to make more of this one.

 

[737NG]

Qantas appears choice of public servants

 

[kermatu]

Given those stats it's clear to see why they'd target federal employees to try and tap a bit more into Govt travel.

Going back a couple of years, but my EA contact or the travel provider on a few occasions showed me the range of options for certain travel I needed to undertake - it was not at all uncommon to see QF fully flexible fares and even business fares a day or two before travel at very close to the same price as a VA non-refundable fare. A no-brainer to take the flexible fare with added ability to use my own QF status eat in the lounge rather than a further charge to government.

 

[justinbrett]

When VA gave WoAG pax free lounge entry - most people I knew tried to fly with them over Qantas.

Perhaps they need to bring that back.

Being QF Gold (I travel a lot for personal travel) - I would never switch to Virgin - the lack of an alliance like oneworld is a deal breaker. I don't really mind if I have to fly Virgin for work so this is good I'll have lounge access for a year.

 

[Pleb Status]

Being QF Gold (I travel a lot for personal travel) - I would never switch to Virgin - the lack of an alliance like oneworld is a deal breaker. I don't really mind if I have to fly Virgin for work so this is good I'll have lounge access for a year.

But have you really considered how much that preference is costing you if you are paying for your own travel?

A real world example is a PER-MEL-BNE booking I am currently looking to make this afternoon.

On VA, with a better schedule for me, the total cost is currently $318 and I can preallocate row 3 extra legroom seats at no extra cost prior to payment. On QF, the total cost is currently $581 and I would have to pay for extra legroom seating (or wait until T-80 and hope row 4 opens up).

I cannot see how anyone can justify the extra $263 (or 82.7%) of their own money to fly QF for the above itinerary. In my experience, this cost difference is the norm, not the exception. Over the years, this difference adds up and for me the saving is approaching $30k since early 2015...

 

[justinbrett]

I cannot see how anyone can justify the extra $263 (or 82.7%) of their own money to fly QF for the above itinerary. In my experience, this cost difference is the norm, not the exception. Over the years, this difference adds up and for me the saving is approaching $30k since early 2015...

That's one route. On many routes Qantas is cheaper. In fact I believe Virgin makes a lot of money out of people assuming they are cheaper than Qantas without checking. Sometimes when I've checked Virgin can be almost double Qantas - this is especially true when Virgin has a smaller market share on the route, and/or competing with Qantas & Jetstar (ie, fewer flights means the cheap fares sell out quicker than Qantas).

To prove my point, I just did a random price comparison for SYD-BNE next Friday between 1800-2000. Cheapest on Virgin is $369 - Cheapest on Qantas is $263. Jetstar is $199. So yeah, this very much depends on routes, times and dates. I'm sure we can get plenty of examples either way.

I also get almost half of my SCs on non-Australian airlines (mostly AA or BA). I've flown with about 7-8 oneworld airlines in the last 5 years, it's great knowing I have the same benefits and I don't have to worry about booking with QF codes. I know Virgin has it's patchwork alliance but it's neither extensive nor reliable (looking at you Air NZ).