Major changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer announced 17/10/24

[clifford]

Well done - the more that do that - the higher the chance someone in the blockhead Ivory Tower Team might see there is a large groundswell of this line of thinking.

Nah, you're dealing with Americans here.

 

[nutwood]

Out of interest, has anyone worked out how VA allocate SC's on multi-leg flights?
As an example, I recently flew ADL to GLT. Two leg flight, Adelaide to Brisbane and then Brisbane to Gladstone. 65 SC's for first leg, 26 for second leg. I haven't done the sums but I would think ADL-BNE is more than 2.5 times the distance of BNE-GLT. Equally so, if I were purchasing individual legs, I would expect there not to be much difference between them. Capital city to capital city is generally more competitively priced than a regional flight.

 

[bernardblack]

Out of interest, has anyone worked out how VA allocate SC's on multi-leg flights?
As an example, I recently flew ADL to GLT. Two leg flight, Adelaide to Brisbane and then Brisbane to Gladstone. 65 SC's for first leg, 26 for second leg. I haven't done the sums but I would think ADL-BNE is more than 2.5 times the distance of BNE-GLT. Equally so, if I were purchasing individual legs, I would expect there not to be much difference between them. Capital city to capital city is generally more competitively priced than a regional flight.

You're correct that it isn't just proportional on distance:



I am not sure what the actual basis is, though, sorry.

 

[anat0l]

Out of interest, has anyone worked out how VA allocate SC's on multi-leg flights?
As an example, I recently flew ADL to GLT. Two leg flight, Adelaide to Brisbane and then Brisbane to Gladstone. 65 SC's for first leg, 26 for second leg. I haven't done the sums but I would think ADL-BNE is more than 2.5 times the distance of BNE-GLT. Equally so, if I were purchasing individual legs, I would expect there not to be much difference between them. Capital city to capital city is generally more competitively priced than a regional flight.

Is the overall SC earn correct for the price you paid?

This is rather interesting, as would be whether a return itinerary (with exactly the same sectors both ways) would be "symmetrically" credited. That is, if we take your example, if it were a return itinerary on the same legs and exactly double the cost of what you paid, would you receive the same SCs in reverse?

In some way, if the overall SC given is correct for the price, not many people would care too much about how the earn gets split up per sector. It probably only matters if something irregular happens while the booking is in progress. For example, if someone books BNE-PER return, flies the BNE-PER successfully first, but then on the return gets rebooked to PER-SYD-BNE (for whatever reason), what's the earn there? (One answer is that the "fare paid" used for calculating SC doesn't change - it's based on what you originally paid, no matter how much your ticket then subsequently changes)

 

[serfty]

Out of interest, has anyone worked out how VA allocate SC's on multi-leg flights?
As an example, I recently flew ADL to GLT. Two leg flight, Adelaide to Brisbane and then Brisbane to Gladstone. 65 SC's for first leg, 26 for second leg. I haven't done the sums but I would think ADL-BNE is more than 2.5 times the distance of BNE-GLT. Equally so, if I were purchasing individual legs, I would expect there not to be much difference between them. Capital city to capital city is generally more competitively priced than a regional flight.

It would in all likelihood based on the same algorithm that is used to determine velocity point earn.

If I book A to C via B for $360 and as a Platinum* get credited 2100 points for A to B and 1500 points for B to C. This indicates the fare portion for A to B was calculated as $210 and that for B to C was $150.

In this case SC earn would be $210 / 12 rounded up plus $150 / 12 rounded up or 17.5 -> 18 and 12.5 -> 13 so 31 SC all up.

* WP earn 10 Velocity per $; Rouge earns 5 per $.

 

[moa999]

I find it interesting the /24 for SCs for Lite, but /12 for other fares.

Does that mean Virgin are acknowledging that their baggage charges are just profit making, so they won't give you any decent SCs unless you give them the extra margin.

Think I'm earning 3 SCs on one of my next flights booked during happy hour.

 

[anat0l]

I find it interesting the /24 for SCs for Lite, but /12 for other fares.

Does that mean Virgin are acknowledging that their baggage charges are just profit making, so they won't give you any decent SCs unless you give them the extra margin.

Think I'm earning 3 SCs on one of my next flights booked during happy hour.

I think it's just another cunning way to get more Choice fares booked over Lite fares.

I think you would have to be naive to see the baggage charges are anything but profit making, but most of the time the differential is small for the gain in SC. I guess the difference is more pronounced for happy hour or other super sale fares.

 

[PERLHR]

I've just completed six sectors on SQ down the back. Route was PER-SIN-CGK-SIN-BKK-SIN-PER. Quite a slog for 90 status points only (and that was booked prior to even a further reduction in partner status credits on VA?). At least it was also booked during the SQ 50 percent points promotion which was an added bonus. Certainly getting hard to justify Platinum chasing. ....however total paid for all of that was around 1100 dollars.

 

[nutwood]

Is the overall SC earn correct for the price you paid?

This is rather interesting, as would be whether a return itinerary (with exactly the same sectors both ways) would be "symmetrically" credited. That is, if we take your example, if it were a return itinerary on the same legs and exactly double the cost of what you paid, would you receive the same SCs in reverse?

In some way, if the overall SC given is correct for the price, not many people would care too much about how the earn gets split up per sector. It probably only matters if something irregular happens while the booking is in progress. For example, if someone books BNE-PER return, flies the BNE-PER successfully first, but then on the return gets rebooked to PER-SYD-BNE (for whatever reason), what's the earn there? (One answer is that the "fare paid" used for calculating SC doesn't change - it's based on what you originally paid, no matter how much your ticket then subsequently changes)

The overall SC matches the overall price. As you say, it doesn't really matter how they break it up however I am curious. My SC tally used to be nice and neat, now it's a mish mash of random figures, with the only tidy bits being the rapidly diminishing flights I booked in March.
I never book return as I'm seldom that predictable but I should be able to compare the same routes. LST-MEL-ADL is a common one for me. Be interesting to see if it's a constant proportion.

 

[serfty]

LST-MEL-ADL is a common one for me. Be interesting to see if it's a constant proportion.

Going by historical Velocity Points earn, it's rarely constant.

Here's an example OOL-SYD-MEL in Flex from earlier this year. Velocity earn was as follows:

Sector	Velocity Earn	Platinum Bonus	Total	Est. $ value	New SC Earn
OOL-SYD	606	606	1212	$121.20	13
SYD-MEL	589	589	1178	$117.80	11
OOL-xSYD-MEL	1195	1195	2390	$239	24

@nutwood do you have similar exaples from you LST-ADL travel?

 

[nutwood]

Going by historical Velocity Points earn, it's rarely constant.

Here's an example OOL-SYD-MEL in Flex from earlier this year. Velocity earn was as follows:

Sector	Velocity Earn	Platinum Bonus	Total	Est. $ value	New SC Earn
OOL-SYD	606	606	1212	$121.20	13
SYD-MEL	589	589	1178	$117.80	11
OOL-xSYD-MEL	1195	1195	2390	$239	24

@nutwood do you have similar exaples from you LST-ADL travel?

Had a look at my statement. Most of my recent multi leg flights were booked in March. I laid in a stock of them!
Here's some multi legs since March that I have paid for under the new system. No doubt I'll be getting some more in due course.

ADL - MEL- LST = 34 /29

SYD - MEL- LST = 26/18

ADL – BNE – GLT = 65/26

GLT – BNE – SYD = 31/27

 

[serfty]

Had a look at my statement. Most of my recent multi leg flights were booked in March. I laid in a stock of them!
Here's some multi legs since March that I have paid for under the new system. No doubt I'll be getting some more in due course.

ADL - MEL- LST = 34 /29

SYD - MEL- LST = 26/18

ADL – BNE – GLT = 65/26

GLT – BNE – SYD = 31/27

I suspect your Velocity points earn will be somewhat in line with SC earn for each segment.