Pleb to WP - On track to 1500 SC

[tomasp]

Hi Guys,

Just curious, I went from Pleb to WP within the last year, and with an international trip coming up next week I'm on track to reach 1,500 SC within the year... Does this mean I qualify for the companion gold status (given I've achieved the 1,000 + 500 extra SC) or once I've reached WP it all resets and now I need to earn another 1,300 (800 + 500) within a year from my WP upgrade?

Anyone have any experience with this? I could call Velocity, but seems like a trivial thing to hold up the phone lines with.

Cheers
Tom

 

[Denali]

So youre already WP and the 1500 SCs you will be earning is in your new membership year?

If you are maintaining, you only need 800SC. "Maintain" is the key word to gift companion.

https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Status/PlatinumMembership/

Companion Gold membership and Platinum Membership

• Gift a Gold membership to a companion of your choice, by simply earning an additional 500 Status Credits over and above the required number of Status Credits to maintain Platinum within your member benefit period.
• Contact our Membership Contact Centre once you are eligible to gift Gold membership.
• Upgrade your companion to Platinum membership, by earning an additional 1,000 Status Credits over and above the required number of Status Credits to maintain Platinum within your member benefit period.

My husband (already WP) reached 1800+ SCs in March (800 to requal and 1000 to gift companion) and he received a letter a week or so after, advising him he can now gift WP to someone and he has a year from that qualifying date (March) to issue it.

 

[tomasp]

No, so the 1500 will be split to about 980 before WP and 500ish after WP (but all 1500 within the 1 year).

Judging by your response, I think the answer might be that I have to requal 800 after achieving WP and then another 500 on top to gift companion gold (i.e. doesn't include SC earned in achieving WP).

So youre already WP and the 1500 SCs you will be earning is in your new membership year?

If you are maintaining, you only need 800SC. "Maintain" is the key word to gift companion.

https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.com/content/Status/PlatinumMembership/

My husband (already WP) reached 1800+ SCs in March (800 to requal and 1000 to gift companion) and he received a letter a week or so after, advising him he can now gift WP to someone and he has a year from that qualifying date (March) to issue it.

 

[Denali]

No, so the 1500 will be split to about 980 before WP and 500ish after WP (but all 1500 within the 1 year).

Judging by your response, I think the answer might be that I have to requal 800 after achieving WP and then another 500 on top to gift companion gold (i.e. doesn't include SC earned in achieving WP).

Yes, my understanding of the T&Cs is you have to earn 800SCs to requal as WP and then you can earn extra SCs to gift companion (like my husband's situation).

Anyone else you can pool the excess SCs to once you get your 1000 SCs to earn WP?

And are you using Flybuys to earn SCs? I ask because you only need 20 SCs to get WP - Ive earned 22 SCs via Flybuys since May.

 

[tomasp]

Oh i'm already WP... earned it earlier this month. so its all good

 

[Jack_OC]

With Velocity, your "membership year" resets once you reach a new status tier. So your new membership year started on the date that you reached Platinum (or thereabouts). If you log in it will tell you what your new review date is. You need to get 1,300 SCs in your new membership year in order to gift Gold to someone. Your running total (currently 1,500 SCs or whatever) no longer has any relevance.

Family Pooling might also be worth looking into as an alternative. It can be quicker to get your other half (or whoever) to Gold/Platinum status that way, for example if they already had 100 SCs, you would only need to pool 400 SCs to get them to Gold etc. However, in that case, the other person would still have to meet the eligible flights rule in their own right (i.e. 4 for Gold, 8 for Platinum). Additionally, they have to be eligible for Family Pooling (a relative at the same address etc), whereas you can gift Gold to anyone, and the eligible flights rule doesn't apply.

 

[grubbidok]

I find it easier to just switch on family pooling as soon as I re-qualify and Mrs G gets her SG that way. TBH I essentially manage both accounts as she is not the points hound in the family so handing the points over isn't an issue.

Companion Gold is one of those things that on paper should be easy, but VA have managed to make quite complicated.