Incremental benefits of Velocity Platinum?

[twiningb]

I have had Gold off and (mostly) on for the last several years. I am within striking distance of Platinum with upcoming travel I'm going to book this weekend for double status credits. I'm trying to strategize whether to shoot to qualify with an Easter trip, or sooner then make a dent in requalification at Easter. We're planning a Europe trip for approximately Easter 2021 so it might be the difference between staying Platinum just long enough, or dropping back before then.

What are the concrete incremental benefits of Platinum over Gold? Obviously you get the First Lounge in AUH, but are there any lounge upgrades at SIN or SQ outstations? DL and VS don't have meaningful First differentiation, and NH benefits are not known yet.

Is Economy X availability pretty good? Are there routes with a decent Platinum upgrade chance where the Freedom fare is not disproportionately expensive?

I'm not going to redeem points for short-haul economy, so guaranteed availability to do so isn't a selling point for me.

Is there anything else I'm not considering?

 

[CPMaverick]

I'm a VA Platinum that has flown DL many times, and I've never seen my name on the First Class upgrade list or been upgraded. I'm not convinced the one or two anecdotes here where people have been upgraded are a basis to make decisions on.

I have also been Delta Platinum and Diamond in the past, and as a Delta Platinum First Class upgrades were rare, maybe 5% of the time, so I would not put much emphasis on a benefit that puts you behind Delta Plats even if it is true.

 

[deangelj]

Another benefit of Platinum is that you get waitlist priority when they do reward seat allocations on international flights at T-5. Not a biggy but I'm hoping it helps me get one or more of us upgraded on a SYD->LAX trip next year.

 

[cqtiger]

I wish they would occasionally do random upgrades for platinum to business class when its empty. Are the good old days

 

[kamchatsky]

When I was Platinum for 2 years, I used Economy X a lot and it was an absolute blessing. I also managed to use the 4 domestic upgrades. I absolutely loved VA because of these benefits.

Another thing about Platinum is if this is your first time you can get complimentary Hilton Diamond which gives free upgrades and breakfast and exec lounge access.

 

[Lord_Lenny]

Another thing about Platinum is if this is your first time you can get complimentary Hilton Diamond which gives free upgrades and breakfast and exec lounge access.

This is the benefit that keeps on giving for me. If you time your status match right then you get a ridiculously long period as Diamond, I had done the Gold to Gold and then managed to roll over to Diamond via the match which lasted about 18mths from memory. I've been Diamond for the last few years thanks to that and the (now discontinued) Macquarie Bank Hilton Visa.

Sadly I didn't get the full benefit of Economy X as it was introduced towards the end of my Platinum year from memory, but the soft landing and the Hilton Diamond match were very useful to me at that point. But given my domestic flying pattern now (2-3 trips per year in a good year) and the fact that our International travel is on SQ then I'm finding Gold to be a useful sweet spot. Thank you Family Pooling!!

 

[HotKgon]

For me economy X is really the main advantage as I'm tall and mainly fly domestic. I just booked 4 return flights and got seat 3D on all 8 legs.

Economy X is the real advantage for me. Really do enjoy the space and front of the plane seating. Also it allows for a quick escape upon arrival.

The cost of a freedom fare is so high that it makes the 4 upgrades useless for me. Unless u were going to need the flexibility of a freedom fare in the first place I'd say there are much cheaper ways of getting a seat in J for almost any domestic route. Like a reward J seat or purchasing a getaway fare and then bidding $$ for the upgrade will almost always work out to be better value.

I find the free upgrade from freedom pretty useless for me as well.

 

[waratahbay]

Recently booked PER-MEL on the A330 and paid $665 Freedom fare and used one of my comp upgrades. Business Saver was $1200 so not a bad use of the upgrade IMO.
The key was I was fairly flexible around the dates I was after and once I found award availability I booked and phoned up ASAP

Please excuse my ignorance. How could you see award availability online (before you phoned)?

 

[jase05]

Please excuse my ignorance. How could you see award availability online (before you phoned)?

Search for flights with the “use points + pay” tab ticked. As an example I just checked a random date. On Feb 13th there is Business reward availability on the PER-MEL A330. Fare costs $1299 in Business Saver or $665 in Freedom.

 

[Fifa]

Another thing about Platinum is if this is your first time you can get complimentary Hilton Diamond which gives free upgrades and breakfast and exec lounge access.

It really annoys me that Hilton Diamond is a one-off benefit.
I used it in 2012, have re-qualified Diamond each year on stays but sadly will be back to Blue on 1 April .
Has anyone had any luck contacting Velocity to get Diamond a second (or third) time?

 

[Nee24]

It really annoys me that Hilton Diamond is a one-off benefit.
I used it in 2012, have re-qualified Diamond each year on stays but sadly will be back to Blue on 1 April .
Has anyone had any luck contacting Velocity to get Diamond a second (or third) time?

I've managed to get Gold twice - there was a year in between. Velocity were more than happy to accommodate the request, but it could have also been because I dropped to silver in between. It did still say inside my Velocity account that I had already claimed it though so who knows. If you ask, the worst that can happen is they say no.

 

[Fifa]

I've managed to get Gold twice - there was a year in between. Velocity were more than happy to accommodate the request, but it could have also been because I dropped to silver in between. It did still say inside my Velocity account that I had already claimed it though so who knows. If you ask, the worst that can happen is they say no.

Thanks.
I'll give it a try next membership year as I have a swag of Hilton points to use.

 

[hydrabyss]

It really annoys me that Hilton Diamond is a one-off benefit.
I used it in 2012, have re-qualified Diamond each year on stays but sadly will be back to Blue on 1 April .
Has anyone had any luck contacting Velocity to get Diamond a second (or third) time?

I will be in the same boat with regards to Hilton and realised it was cheaper to just get my partner to Platinum with Virgin than get the extra stays needed to keep my Diamond. Although most of my stays are at one Hilton and am interested to see how I will get treated once status drops.

As far as Velocity it would cost them something and I would be more than happy to pay a fee to get it but then look at the US and what bought status ends up becoming with Hilton.

 

[Stealthflyer]

I’ve not used my complimentary upgrades simply because I don’t book freedom fares. For one, they’re so much more expensive than the getaway fares, plus they’re not that different from the business fares that guarantee you’ll have a business seat. I fear that I’ll book the flight and then not be able to upgrade, or I’ll have my upgrade taken away. Has that happened to anyone?

I wish there was a credit system for these upgrades - maybe an option like 2 upgrades from getaway/elevate OR 4 from Freedom.

 

[Nathant123]

I activated the Hilton gold offer when I was Velocity gold and then moved up to Velocity platinum whilst my Hilton request was pending (took over a month). I will re-qualify for Velocity platinum early next year thanks to the double status credit offer but wondering if I can request for Hilton diamond next year even though I already took the gold request? I was under the impression I could do this based on what I read in the Hilton subtopic but asked on facebook and was told no.

 

[lilkid28]

I activated the Hilton gold offer when I was Velocity gold and then moved up to Velocity platinum whilst my Hilton request was pending (took over a month). I will re-qualify for Velocity platinum early next year thanks to the double status credit offer but wondering if I can request for Hilton diamond next year even though I already took the gold request? I was under the impression I could do this based on what I read in the Hilton subtopic but asked on facebook and was told no.

Yes you can. I got Hilton gold and then just got Hilton diamond.

 

[hydrabyss]

I’ve not used my complimentary upgrades simply because I don’t book freedom fares. For one, they’re so much more expensive than the getaway fares, plus they’re not that different from the business fares that guarantee you’ll have a business seat. I fear that I’ll book the flight and then not be able to upgrade, or I’ll have my upgrade taken away. Has that happened to anyone?

I wish there was a credit system for these upgrades - maybe an option like 2 upgrades from getaway/elevate OR 4 from Freedom.

As mentioned above you can search for award availability before booking. Also its a freedom fare so you can change dates easily and never heard of someone loosing their upgrade.

 

[Harthagan]

My plan regarding hilton diamond status is to swap years with my partner via family pooling leading to velocity platinum and then hopefully rinse and repeat. If timed perfectly should work out to 4.5 years and then possibly do it all over again.

 

[lilkid28]

What do you mean do it all over again? I thought it's only one time upgrade to Hilton Gold and Diamond each per Velocity membership...? OR is it once per X amount of year period?

 

[Harthagan]

Well I'm not sure but I think u can request it each time u attain platinum status thus why I said hopefully as it's not a guarantee

 

[hydrabyss]

Well I'm not sure but I think u can request it each time u attain platinum status thus why I said hopefully as it's not a guarantee

I do not know if you can request it but it is not offered on your account page once you have used it.