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.

 

[LionKing]

I actually struggling to understand the rationale behind Business Class SC earn rate is the same as Economy Choice/Flex fare.
So Virgin Australia is not encouraging passengers to fly Business because the earn rate would be the same as Economy!? I suppose it is a common sense that Business should earn at least 50% more Status Points or Miles than any Economy fare?

 

[moa999]

Business Class SC earn rate is the same as Economy Choice/Flex fare.

What routes is Business priced the same as Choice/Flex?
It's simply a $ based program.

 

[Human]

I actually struggling to understand the rationale behind Business Class SC earn rate is the same as Economy Choice/Flex fare.
So Virgin Australia is not encouraging passengers to fly Business because the earn rate would be the same as Economy!? I suppose it is a common sense that Business should earn at least 50% more Status Points or Miles than any Economy fare?

Well, there are in fact incentives to fly Business Class apart from the SC earn! The food, comfort and legroom might possibly have something to do with it as well?

Having said that, I think you are onto something if you’re saying that Business Class should have a higher SC earn rate. I think this would actually make sense. Currently it’s $24= 1SC for Lite fares, and $12 = 1SC for everything else. I’d like to see something like $24 = 1SC for Lite, $12= 1SC for Choice, $10= 1SC for Flex, and $6= 1SC for Business.

I think something like that makes a lot of sense and would go a long way towards rebuilding some of the goodwill that VA has lost as a result of these changes.

 

[odysseus]

What routes is Business priced the same as Choice/Flex?
It's simply a $ based program.

He said the earn rate is the same.

Sure it's $. And some $ (choice) are worth more than others (Lite). Yet business is not similarly encouraged.

 

[MarkD]

What routes is Business priced the same as Choice/Flex?
It's simply a $ based program.

There are plenty. Some even cheaper for J than flex Y. Been documented many times over the years here

 

[LionKing]

Does it meaning failure in Virgin's pricing strategy, or offering a inferior J product that no business travellers want to fly Business with Virgin?
I can imagine J should be the money making product for Virgin, and they should make it attractive to fill up J cabin every flight, or else their business model really needs to review.
My point is, when Virgin only offers same earn rate in Business Cabin as in Economy Flexi, what is the point of flying Business for frequent flyers? What is the attractiveness of Business Cabin for Frequent Flyers? It seems to be there is some issues with their business logic here.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Does it meaning failure in Virgin's pricing strategy, or offering a inferior J product that no business travellers want to fly Business with them?
I can imagine J should be the money making product for Virgin, and they should make it attractive to fill up J cabin every flight, or else their business model really needs to review.

Nail on the head there.

VA is more a premium economy offering.

That’s reflected in the fares… which between the main trunk cities like MEL-SYD business class starts at $349.

There’s no ‘premium’ fare pricing, except maybe for one seat per flight that might be available for a last minute walk up, but even then it’s way below QF’s price for the same seat.

On my regular MEL-SYD travels flex fare was $209, business $349. But the latter came with a swag of SCs… 55. Which meant gold after just 3.5 return trips, even less when double status credits. I suspect that was unsustainable.

 

[PERLHR]

Nail on the head there.

VA is more a premium economy offering.

That’s reflected in the fares… which between the main trunk cities like MEL-SYD business class starts at $349.

There’s no ‘premium’ fare pricing, except maybe for one seat per flight that might be available for a last minute walk up, but even then it’s way below QF’s price for the same seat.

On my regular MEL-SYD travels flex fare was $209, business $349. But the latter came with a swag of SCs… 55. Which meant gold after just 3.5 return trips, even less when double status credits. I suspect that was unsustainable.

It is still route dependent though I think. You should see the "biz" prices ex Perth to anywhere .....including Kalgoorlie! That trunk route between MEL and SYD is maybe an exception with lower costs and alsso I guess to Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast? Down to basics I can fly Perth to Europe in Y class for the same price as PER to SYD in VA "biz! " I do miss the old status credits on biz though. It really is rather sad the collection values even with high prices.