Platinum Plus Perhaps ...

[serfty]

Prologue

I am about to head off by train to Broadmeadows station from where I'll catch a 901 bus to Melbourne airport. There I'll catch Virgin Australia to Cairns.

This trip was booked last year as a status run as part of retaining Velocity Platinum. The Business Class journey MEL to CNS via BNE each way should earn 320 status credits. I flew another of these in March; both bookings were made in early October last year.

These were planned to have me well on the way to requalification. Like many, I have the post COVID 28th February Velocity Review Date so travel needed to be in the 365 days after that.

A few days after booking something came up:

Major changes to Velocity Frequent Flyer

OK ... these changes have been dissected in detail by many and I'll not do that here. Suffice to say that on a personal level with these changes I could not envisage being able to achieve the new "Platinum Plus" level, let alone retain Velocity Platinum beyond early 2027 at any reasonable cost. So be it ...

But then a question was asked on Australian Frequent Flyer about Qualifying up a Velocity Status level after October 2025 and how it may work.

The post and it's answers got me thinking about the 365 days to qualify for a higher tier, soft landings and such ... I have come across is no indication this is changing.

Anyway, off to Cairns ...

 

[serfty]

Two trains and a bus later, I'm in the Virgin Australia lounge having some soup.

The trip was mainly uneventful, my late running second train may have strained the scheduled 5 minute bus connection at Broadmeadows, but the bus itself was running 10 minutes late.

On thing did happen though on the bus was a full sized spinner suitcase escaping from the grasp of its owner and carreening to the front of the bus as it braked, bouncing off sundry legs and fittings as it made us abrupt journey forward.

I did ask for some orange juice, but they only had a mixed fruit drink. It was ok.

My flight appears on time and is scheduled to board in 40 minutes.

 

[serfty]

Off to Brisbane; this was a strait forward flight on a route I have travelled over a hundred times.

The business cabin was attentively serviced by
Yoey.

The meal options were:

• Beef Quesadilla with charcoal salsa
• Vegetable and Chickpea Tagine with optional Chicken.

I chose the tagine ... I did enjoy it.

There was a 10 minute arrival delay due to weather passing through the airport.