Getting close to Velocity Platinum

[Brendon Williams]

Mark D you made another point about why I want to get there, the soft fall for the next year to gold. I will pool all our points the next year to the wife's account getting her gold at least while I only drop from plat to gold as well. All food for thought

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Being able to seat select rows 3-5, 4 free upgrades a year, Guaranteed International reward flight each year, access to 1st class lounge in Abu Dhabi and so on.......

Apart from the extra points, Hilton Diamond, free upgrades......

 

[notzac]

access to 1st class lounge in Abu Dhabi and so on.......

Small nitpick; the FLounge at AUH doesn't exist at the moment - they've decamped the lounges downstairs - it's now a shared J/F lounge while they overhaul the original J and F lounges (which I believe is going to be one big FLounge when it's all done).

 

[bullerdude]

What I am really hoping is that Gold members will be able to access the downstairs J lounge once the new premium lounges are finished - that would be a massive improvement over only having access to the lounge in T1.

 

[R36snowbound]

IMO, the benefits that go with being VA platinum depend on where you fly with Australia.

I do 4-5 trips a year SYD - PER and those 4 comp upgrades to business are a godsend.

If I was only flying SYD - BNE or SYD - MEL all year, having the 4 comp upgrades would be nice but would I go out of my way to fly VA.... probably not.

I am currently in ZQN on a family holiday, thanks to being VA plat with guaranteed availabilty, the wife and kids are stoked, so IMO, the difference between VA gold and platinum is noticable and well worth considering.

 

[Sbv72]

Platinum = row 3. But that is still not good enough for miss 9 yr old. "Row 3 is cattle class and a form of child abuse." (One time when 2 x business reward tickets were cheaper than economy and the kids had to fly economy)

 

[Brendon Williams]

My oldest was like that when I joked about not having lounge access, she said "oh no way dad we can't go back", lol. Bloody kids don't know how good they have it I was 18 before I left the country (NZ) my kids go back twice a year at least.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I recently had to do without lounge access flying back from Fiji.
I had forgotten how truly awful places airports can be, and how expensive the poor quality food and drinks are.
We are all spoilt.

 

[JohnK]

For me there is no great difference between VA Platinum and VA Gold.

The 4 complimentary upgrades are nice but travelling SYD-BNE makes those upgrades awfully expensive.

Both statuses give lounge access for departure and arrival. Op-ups are non existent. Shadows are not guaranteed. Luggage would be better as Platinum but not something I would go out of the way to achieve.

And row 7 appears to be a Godsend. Had a double shadow in 7D the other day.

 

[MacBH]

I recently had to do without lounge access flying back from Fiji.
I had forgotten how truly awful places airports can be, and how expensive the poor quality food and drinks are.
We are all spoilt.

Funny I was thinking the same when flying back from HBA recently.

 

[Pleb Status]

The main reason I decided to ascend to VA WP (this weekend in fact) is the guaranteed soft landing to SG. I will not have to set foot on a VA aircraft for two years but will still get SQ lounge access PER-SIN etc.

Unfortunately, I have overshot a little bit on my forward VA bookings and will get the 400SC required anyway to requalify SG on earned SC.

 

[SimonF]

The main reason I decided to ascend to VA WP (this weekend in fact) is the guaranteed soft landing to SG. I will not have to set foot on a VA aircraft for two years but will still get SQ lounge access PER-SIN etc.

Unfortunately, I have overshot a little bit on my forward VA bookings and will get the 400SC required anyway to requalify SG on earned SC.

Yes the soft landing is a great benefit.

 

[Fiches Mouser]

Much of the same for me.

Took my first trip this weekend as Plat. Felt exactly like gold. Everything was the same, which is a real shame considering the spend that goes into Plat and beyond.

Just a bigger smile from the crew would be nice. Just something.

With regard to the four upgrades, it essentially brings the cost of a J ticket C2C from ~$3k down to ~$1k. So there's definitely some value there.

HH Diamond is great too (but a bit of a golden handcuff – I've been missing out on too many cool independent hotels lately)

 

[Eggsbenedict]

Much of the same for me.

Took my first trip this weekend as Plat. Felt exactly like gold. Everything was the same, which is a real shame considering the spend that goes into Plat and beyond.

Just a bigger smile from the crew would be nice. Just something.

With regard to the four upgrades, it essentially brings the cost of a J ticket C2C from ~$3k down to ~$1k. So there's definitely some value there.

HH Diamond is great too (but a bit of a golden handcuff – I've been missing out on too many cool independent hotels lately)

On the plane recognition has pretty much been non existed on domestic flights since about a month after Platinum was introduced, I was treated much better on board as a Gold on Virgin Blue than WP on VA except for about the first month. I believe it was due to the Qantas status match, just too many elites for an airline not used to dealing with them. Cabin crew never seem to have recovered. However I think all other Platinum benefits are great.

 

[Denali]

Because we don't fly domestic often (December was the first time in about 4yrs), the 4 platinum upgrades go to waste for me. Pity we cant use them on a NZ flight or I could gift them to someone but not have to fly with that person (ie, another AFF).

Must say row 3 benefit is nice but only if we have a empty seat in the middle, which we did over Christmas but that's no guarantee so I would rather give up the upgrades for an empty seat option.

 

[SimonF]

Because we don't fly domestic often (December was the first time in about 4yrs), the 4 platinum upgrades go to waste for me. Pity we cant use them on a NZ flight or I could gift them to someone but not have to fly with that person (ie, another AFF).

Must say row 3 benefit is nice but only if we have a empty seat in the middle, which we did over Christmas but that's no guarantee so I would rather give up the upgrades for an empty seat option.

I still say my killer idea to allow those upgrades to be used for double the amount for Saver and reward bookings would make them a heck of a lot easier to use.

 

[Revolio]

I have only been acknowledged as a Platinite on AirNZ flights. Row 3 helps, but generally on Virgin flights you are just another flying punter. The recognition and respect is confined to the Lounge.

 

[Pleb Status]

My ascension to VA WP is almost complete and now just waiting on the final SC to credit and then the assessment to take place. From 40SC to 1055SC in just over two months.

From my initial VA experiences, I am happy with my decision to go for the QF/VA WP double rather than requalify QF P1. As QFi does not effectively service PER now, VA can provide better partners to anywhere North or West of PER. Also, apart from row 4/23 seat selection, I will not miss QF P1 that much as the P1 SST are completely useless.

 

[mlob]

Hi all. I have a question in regards to those upgrades. This is my first year as a platinum. I was hoping to upgrade my family of four on one of our holidays. When I enquired in regards to a brisbane cairns trip we had booked there was only two upgrades available. Does anyone know here what the general availability is like? What are the chances of getting 4 upgrades in one hit?

 

[davidsilver]

At end of May I will be 60SC short of WP for the first time, after that my flying drops away quite a bit thanks to loss of family pooling. I am thinking about chasing the SC just so I can get the soft drop to SG next year. In Aug/Sep I have a planned trip to USA and the lounge access in TBIT is pretty much the only thing that would be worthwhile difference for me. Most of my flying is to HBA and the 4 upgrades are pointless