How to maximise Virgin Australia status with other airlines/hotels etc

[davisd]

Hi all,

Just after some advice on how to maximise Virgin Australia FF status. Nudged over to platinum thanks to family pooling and 2 return trips to Canberra from Adelaide flying business, booked before 1st April.

I have trips to the UK for work planned for next 18 months (1 week every 4 weeks), most likely economy out of AU and maybe business from somewhere in Asia to Europe, then economy hop into UK.

Should I consider Etihad, Singapore, Vietnam or Emirates for a status match as my next course of action, or is there a hotel rewards program I should be targeting?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[Mattg]

Well, as a Velocity Plat member you can get IHG Platinum or Hilton Diamond status. For many people, Hilton Diamond is a better option as it's Hilton's top tier and comes with more benefits, but IHG tends to have more hotels. It depends where you stay and what you want out of the program.

There's some more info here on the hotel and car hire matches:

Complimentary Hotel & Car Hire Status for Velocity Members

As a Velocity Gold or Platinum member, you can get complimentary partner status with your choice of IHG One Rewards or Hilton Honors, as well as Hertz or Europcar.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Singapore Airlines' status match is not that easy to get and I don't think Emirates will match your Velocity status. Etihad and Vietnam Airlines have paid status matches but is your goal in having Velocity status to use the Velocity benefits or to use that to get other status?

With Velocity status you do already get benefits on Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways, etc.

 

[davisd]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the response.

The goal is to ensure enough flexibility when travelling with lounge access etc, so if possible maybe having Kris Flyer Gold might work for Star Alliance.

Emirates were happy to match to silver if I took 1 economy return flight or from silver to gold with 1 business return flight…

We’ll see. I’ll post on the forum if I have any luck.

Thanks for the info.

 

[SYD]

Not sure if they’ll even do a SM but EY will be a bit of an outlier after the messy divorce with VA.

In the meantime, they’re still the best VA partner for lounge access - while it lasts.

 

[Simon Overall]

Hi all,

Just after some advice on how to maximise Virgin Australia FF status. Nudged over to platinum thanks to family pooling and 2 return trips to Canberra from Adelaide flying business, booked before 1st April.

I have trips to the UK for work planned for next 18 months (1 week every 4 weeks), most likely economy out of AU and maybe business from somewhere in Asia to Europe, then economy hop into UK.

Should I consider Etihad, Singapore, Vietnam or Emirates for a status match as my next course of action, or is there a hotel rewards program I should be targeting?

Thanks,

Dave

Hilton Diamond is a fantastic benefit and out of the major hotel programs globally arguably offers the best value/benefits with free breakfast, lounge access and more.

 

[sydunipete]

statusmatcher.com is your friend.

StatusMatcher

www.statusmatcher.com

 

[newmarket]

Is statusmatcher actually updated? I seem to remember that it was outdated last time I looked.

 

[sydunipete]

Is statusmatcher actually updated? I seem to remember that it was outdated last time I looked.

It's updated in real time as people report their successes and failures. Velocity probably isn't a big player so you wouldn't expect to find as many entries there as say for Hilton.

 

[PERLHR]

But the Hilton and IHG benefit is a one off? Have it once, get Platinum again following year do the benefits for IHG and Hilton continue or get instated if you don't have the qualifying hotel status points etc? I thought it was just a one off..and that's it! Also I am assuming the same with Europcar benefit.

 

[rocketboy]

Looks like I will reach platinum with several partner airline flights next month. Have already found out out that a UA flight operated by Air Canada will not earn points or credits as marketed and operated flights have to match.
Next issue is whether or not I will earn points/status on an Air Canada flight operated by Air Canada Jazz.. It has an AC flight number but 4 digits rather than 3.
Any thoughts?

 

[PERLHR]

Gosh the lack of activity in this thread clearly highlights that VA status benefits outside VA is well.....not very much!

 

[SheikYerbouti]

But the Hilton and IHG benefit is a one off? Have it once, get Platinum again following year do the benefits for IHG and Hilton continue or get instated if you don't have the qualifying hotel status points etc? I thought it was just a one off..and that's it! Also I am assuming the same with Europcar benefit.

That's right. I took Hilton Diamond a few years ago as a Platinum. Went down to Gold for a few years, then made Platinum again this year and on my profile that benefit is listed as already having been taken back with the date from a few years back. A pity as I wanted to try IHG.

 

[PERLHR]

That's right. I took Hilton Diamond a few years ago as a Platinum. Went down to Gold for a few years, then made Platinum again this year and on my profile that benefit is listed as already having been taken back with the date from a few years back. A pity as I wanted to try IHG.

Poor really......isn't it.

 

[jase05]

That's right. I took Hilton Diamond a few years ago as a Platinum. Went down to Gold for a few years, then made Platinum again this year and on my profile that benefit is listed as already having been taken back with the date from a few years back. A pity as I wanted to try IHG.

You can get them to manually remove that from your profile which should allow you to use it again

 

[SheikYerbouti]

You can get them to manually remove that from your profile which should allow you to use it again

Really? I'd do that. Who should I be asking?