I have been a Velocity member for many years, reaching Platinum status, but then falling back to Gold, and now Silver due to some body replacements curtailing my activities for a couple of years - I have now almost returned to Gold, and because I have not been travelling to the US (as previously) I have been using partner airlines (Singapore,
Etihad, etc). As I do not fly domestically much anymore, I have rarely been using VA in Australia, and consequently, although I have flown more than sufficient number of sectors, because they were not on VA flight, I cannot regain Gold status until I fly 4 VA sectors, even though I have sufficient Status credits, and 300K+ velocity points. I do understand the definition of a Loyalty scheme, but when Virgin does not provide sufficient options flying to Asia and Europe, I found it a bit hard to take as I consider the Status perks are the most important part of the scheme. Does anyone have any thoughts about moving to one of the partner airline programmes and whether they have a different vew on Status, or should I just book a couple of cheap return flights in Australia to reach the sector requirements. Normally on long-haul flights we travel Business anyway, so most benefits are available but occasionally when travelling shorter flights (Japan, Singapore, etc) we will travel Economy, and still want to access priority benefits. Any suggestions welcomed.