Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda? [Yes!]

[Pleb Status]

It looks like VA have 'enhanced' hotel bookings by dropping Agoda! The VA website now uses 'Virgin Australia Holidays' for hotel bookings and I cannot see any references to Agoda at all.

Obviously the new site is more expensive than Agoda and it looks like the 100% bonus for WP has been dropped as well. You can still earn points through Agoda using PointsMax but the Velocity link was better value for WP.

I was finding Agoda very sharp for pricing in Europe and losing the 6pts/$ earn is disappointing.

 

[JohnK]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Very sneaky. The Agoda link was handy.

 

[Blackswan]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Bugger. This was a good earner - I also found Agoda to be very competitive in Europe.

 

[Tremere]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Doh! I was about to book a couple of rooms for an upcoming trip, my only gripe was around missing inventory on the Virgin Agoda link.

The new one still shows a status benefit, all is not lost?
https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Earn/Accommodation/book-via-virgin-australia-holidays/

 

[Nick Jennion]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

It's annoying as VA Holidays doesn't seem to allow you to book day-of unlike Agoda; the earliest stay I can book now is 6/12; useless if you're trying to arrange hotels on short notice...

 

[atreides]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Wow, not much good news these days. The VA slide continues, where will it stop?

 

[Skyhigh057]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

I noticed the same thing, Virgin has confirmed that they've dropped the partnership. No announcements issued. Here is their response to my enquiry:

Dear Mr Mason

Thank you for your enquiry regarding our partnership with Agoda.

Id like to confirm that Velocitys partnership with Agoda has already ended. However, you can still file missing Points claim for activities taken on/prior to 30 November 2016 until 3 months from the date of the activity.

You can raise your claim online. Simply:

Log in to your account at... Click Claim Missing Points

If theres anything else we can do for you, please visit ... or call the Membership Contact Centre on the number below.

Kind regards

Selena Harper
Velocity Frequent Flyer

 

[Denali]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

So what happens to those that have March 2017 bookings via the Agoda link and have the confirmation with "Virgin Partner" printed on it?

Does VA honor the booking/points?

 

[Denali]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

So what happens to those that have March 2017 bookings via the Agoda link and have the confirmation with "Virgin Partner" printed on it?

Does VA honor the booking/points?

My update from my earlier post.

After spending 10mins on the phone with Velocity, was told basically too bad, so sad, no points for you.

Then after spending 15mins on the phone with Velocity, it was we will honor points up to 3mths from Nov 30th, which still means too bad, so sad for me.

Then after 20mins on the phone with Velocity and escalated to a "manager", it was an offer of 1000 points. Manager said, "Im meeting you half way". I said that I was the injured party and Velocity needed to make me whole, not meet me half way and think Im happy with that.

Then after spending 30mins on the phone with Velocity I agreed to 3000 points for the current 2 bookings I have with Velocity/Agoda.

Im happy with the resolution but not happy with their initial response. I was very happy with the manager and how he handled my call - I kept my cool (no need to be nasty) and I think we both treated each other professionally.

 

[aaronm]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Good on you for getting the right outcome! Given that points were an advertised benefit at the time of booking, they shouldn't be retrospectively removing it without some form of compensation.

Looking at it from VA's perspective, 3000 points is hardly a exorbitant amount. It probably cost them more to discuss the issue with you for an hour than the points are worth!

 

[Denali]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

The massively annoying thing is early November I was on the phone with them because the Agoda booking no longer requested the Velocity number to be entered/no longer had FF field and they assured me on Nov 1st that I will get points plus WP bonus points, and once I made the booking, "trusted Virgin Australia partner" was on the email confirmation.

I understand they cant say anything before its announced but at least have a back up plan for all bookings made prior to announcement date.

 

[Ausbt]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Wow, that's crazy. I grabbed one of the 'Points Max' bookings from the email which was sent on 18 November (I mean come on - 12 days before the partnership ended?). This was supposed to net me 5K points - will be an interesting battle no doubt.

The terms stated: booking period : November 19, 2016 - November 30, 2016

Stay period : November 29, 2016 - January 31, 2017

Ok, so from the Velocity Earn page:

3 Points per $1AUD spent at most domestic hotel partners. Reading through the T&Cs I can see the Vibe/Adina group are mentioned. I guess this means I just go direct to them and then claim 3 points per dollar, instead of the six (WP bonus) I was earning with Agoda.

 

[Pleb Status]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

When I noticed that the Agoda link had been dropped, I just assumed that they would pay out on bookings made before November 30.

I have over 25k of VFF points coming over the next few weeks from various Agoda bookings, so it looks like a fight is coming when I get back to Australia. Hopefully, common sense will prevail and they will pay out on all existing bookings once the complaints start rolling in.

 

[Warks]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

I was using it to book with my VA airfares to get a really good deal on a hotel/apartment in Brisbane. Noticed there was nothing to book accommodation last month and just booking now there is still nothing that stands out unlike car rental. I also noticed that looking up the same hotel via Booking.com etc or directly shows the price about $35 a night higher (could be my dates though).

 

[amagz]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

I noticed Agoda had vanished and came here to find out! Despite there frustrating flaws at times, Agoda was a great points earner for me.

Virgin Holidays is a terrible system, the options compared other third party booking sites has minimal options. For example, no book now, pay later which was very useful particularly for business trips as I only get reimbursed at the time of travel.

Just tried doing a dummy booking. It is slow and not intuitive, the hotel options are not clear in what they offer. Why do I need to include my DOB on a hotel booking and why do I need to list all the guest names?

I don't think I will use Virgin Holidays website (because it seems to be frustratingly useless), I might unfortunately need to earn my hotel points through another airline by taking my business there.

Interesting the total lack of communication around the change...

 

[blueturkey]

I went to book through Velocity Agoda to find it has been replaced with Virgin Australia Holidays.

https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Earn/Accommodation/book-via-agoda/

What a shame. It was much better website than VA holidays. I wonder if it's still the same Agoda prices and availability.

Seems to me moving backwards instead of forwards once again.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Wayne Herring]

Just did some random searches and doesn't appear to be the same as Agoda. Less choice and higher prices, at least for the locations I searched.

 

[Denali]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

...

Interesting the total lack of communication around the change...

Apparently, there where emails.

Me: Thats laughable because I never get Happy Hour or Sale emails, I never get announcement emails. Ive checked my email address, Ive reloaded/saved my email address, I checked my spam, nothing. I simply dont get Velocity or VA general announcement emails.


Edit: Trying the Virgin Holidays to search for hotels, its been thinking about it for about 10mins and the wheel turns and turns but no results. I guess there are no hotels in Atlanta.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Re: Have VA 'enhanced' Agoda?

Apparently, there where emails.

I hope drron and mrsdrron are reading this!

I can confirm that none of the three accounts I manage (that each receive varying degrees of email notification), received email notification of the Agoda dumping.