Unwritten VA Platinum benefits?

[Madz]

Hi all

I’m about to hit VA Platinum for the first time. There’s all the obvious benefits but I was wondering if there are any unwritten benefits. Eg on QF long haul I often notice QF Platinum+ members getting business class amenities when seated in Economy. Is there anything like that with VA? Or anything else I should know about?

Cheers =)

 

[Mogul]

Don't expect anything and you won't be disappointed.

 

[ozstamps]

Wish there WERE!

I find that being Plat often allows agents to bend the rules a tiny bit. And unless I missed the secret handshake, that is about it.

This week a phone agent changed the origin time on an overseas flight I just booked. Initial one would have connected I am sure, but this was being safe "just in case" of weather or ATC delays etc.

Another cancelled a cheapie domestic flight I had just booked in wrong direction as it was late. She could see it connected with an overseas flight, and offered to book the correct one and me to pay any difference. She could not get the discount code to work so just cancelled the first one when I booked correct one on phone. Virgin got more money on this, so a WIN for them, and WIN for me as strictly speaking I was toast if the rules were followed exactly.

Screwed up some family pooling dates by a day, and Plat Line agreed to unscramble it this week and as 260 SC at stake, was much appreciated.

Small things, but very handy.

 

[hossein_au]

Well, not an unwritten rule, but this past week I had a flight from CBR. Arriving in to CBR (from another flight) much earlier than anticipated. Checked on the mobile app and there were seats available in an earlier flight, so rocked up to the lounge and asked whether I could 'fly ahead'. Lounge lady said there were no seats! I double-checked the mobile app and went back to the counter about 10 minutes later. Another lady was there and said she could not move my flights and "fly ahead" was only possible by calling Guest Services.

I called guest services and successfully changed the flight to the earlier one, and as it was within one hour of the flight, asked me to go back to the counter to check in (they also emailed me a copy of the updated ticket with the new flight number).

Went back to the counter and told the lady at the counter about the changed flight and asked to check in. She was very upset about the changed and told me they should not have done that (she said because the flight was full!!) and I "must" travel on the original flight. She then proceeded to move me back to the original flight and gave me new boarding passes (this is the same lady who had told me earlier that she could not move my flights). And of course the seat I had booked weeks earlier had now gone...

 

[blackcat20]

Well, not an unwritten rule, but this past week I had a flight from CBR. Arriving in to CBR (from another flight) much earlier than anticipated. Checked on the mobile app and there were seats available in an earlier flight, so rocked up to the lounge and asked whether I could 'fly ahead'. Lounge lady said there were no seats! I double-checked the mobile app and went back to the counter about 10 minutes later. Another lady was there and said she could not move my flights and "fly ahead" was only possible by calling Guest Services.

I called guest services and successfully changed the flight to the earlier one, and as it was within one hour of the flight, asked me to go back to the counter to check in (they also emailed me a copy of the updated ticket with the new flight number).

Went back to the counter and told the lady at the counter about the changed flight and asked to check in. She was very upset about the changed and told me they should not have done that (she said because the flight was full!!) and I "must" travel on the original flight. She then proceeded to move me back to the original flight and gave me new boarding passes (this is the same lady who had told me earlier that she could not move my flights). And of course the seat I had booked weeks earlier had now gone...

I hope you took down their name and filed a complaint, they should not be able to do that.

 

[hossein_au]

I hope you took down their name and filed a complaint, they should not be able to do that.

As Karma is a cough/charm (depending on which end you get ), I received a request for feedback-survey the next day. I gave them my feedback

Edit: haha, the system has censored my post... the system apparently does not like it ;-)

 

[JeeJee]

What a mess! Sounds like no one knows what to do and who can do it. I have heard before that Ground check in staff can be sometimes, notorious in Sydney and Melbourne.

 

[Matt_01]

I agree with @Mogul set your expectation bar very low and anything above that will be a bonus. Personally the biggest benefit of VA WP is access to Y+. Never been given QF J amenities when flying long haul Y but then again I do not travel international in Y and the QF J amenities are not that good.

 

[hossein_au]

What a mess! Sounds like no one knows what to do and who can do it. I have heard before that Ground check in staff can be sometimes, notorious in Sydney and Melbourne.

On a couple of occasions staff in MEL were a bit, hmm, less than friendly and not-accommodating, but until last week I have always had great service in CBR.

 

[Happy Dude]

Well, not an unwritten rule, but this past week I had a flight from CBR. Arriving in to CBR (from another flight) much earlier than anticipated. Checked on the mobile app and there were seats available in an earlier flight, so rocked up to the lounge and asked whether I could 'fly ahead'. Lounge lady said there were no seats! I double-checked the mobile app and went back to the counter about 10 minutes later. Another lady was there and said she could not move my flights and "fly ahead" was only possible by calling Guest Services.

I called guest services and successfully changed the flight to the earlier one, and as it was within one hour of the flight, asked me to go back to the counter to check in (they also emailed me a copy of the updated ticket with the new flight number).

Went back to the counter and told the lady at the counter about the changed flight and asked to check in. She was very upset about the changed and told me they should not have done that (she said because the flight was full!!) and I "must" travel on the original flight. She then proceeded to move me back to the original flight and gave me new boarding passes (this is the same lady who had told me earlier that she could not move my flights). And of course the seat I had booked weeks earlier had now gone...

I thought Fly ahead was a perk for Golds and Plats, albeit with certain conditions (eg not on a Getaway fare, HLO etc)? Even then, there's been plenty of bending of those conditions. You may have been within the one hour rule?

Regardless, fly ahead can certainly be done at the airport and having the fly ahead change undone, spitefully no less, is just not cricket. I do hope you tore them a new one.....

As for the OP, I can't think of any particular event in my travels that would fall outside of the written benefits.

I haven't been able to use the upgrades, and can't pre-select Y+ seats for free on Int long haul and sparse benefits with partners (perhaps if I'd got to try the EY first lounge in AUH I could say different but SQ had to be pushed all the way at every stage to honour benefits). In fact, so underwhelming have the benefits been, relative to Gold, that I'm not making any particular effort to maintain Plat. I will miss the Y+ seating though, at least when I'm not CBR-SYD vv (17B or C is not "+" at all).

 

[support]

Edit: haha, the system has censored my post... I wrote something to the effect of *, but the system apparently does not like it ;-)

And you shouldn't attempt to circumvent the censor, see the T&C for further information, but here's a snippet (my emphasis):

AFF is a general, family-friendly website which should be viewable in a family context or by children. Please do not post anything which is inappropriate for a family environment. This includes, but is not limited to, profanity, sexual, sexualized or illicit content, hateful, threatening, provocative or vulgar content, links and websites, or any illegal content. Please do not attempt to circumvent the censoring options we have established.

I, and I am sure many others, understood the message you were trying to convey.

If you would like to discuss this, please start a conversation with me, lest this thread be dragged off-topic.

Thank you.

 

[hossein_au]

I thought Fly ahead was a perk for Golds and Plats, albeit with certain conditions (eg not on a Getaway fare, HLO etc)? Even then, there's been plenty of bending of those conditions. You may have been within the one hour rule?...

Just to clarify, I was at the airport about 5 hours before the ticketed flight (and about 90 minutes before the next scheduled flight).

 

[hossein_au]

And you shouldn't attempt to circumvent the censor, see the T&C for further information, but here's a snippet (my emphasis):
...
I, and I am sure many others, understood the message you were trying to convey.

If you would like to discuss this, please start a conversation with me, lest this thread be dragged off-topic.

Thank you.

Understood. I wasn't trying to circumvent it per se, just finding it funny that there even was a system to detect swear words. Now I know

 

[support]

Understood. I wasn't trying to circumvent it per se, just finding it funny that there even was a system to detect swear words. Now I know

Not to stay off topic any longer than necessary, but you'd be surprised what ends up in there. There's also a filter that detects common spam phrases/words but the action for that detection isn't a bunch of asterisks

 

[grubbidok]

Not sure if it is written or not, but the two times that my flight has been cancelled (last flight of day) I was given two taxi vouchers (so I could leave by myself and immediately) rather than having to wait for the bus to the allocated hotel with everyone else. They also put us up in a 'higher level' hotel. I'm not sure if it was platinum only, but there were only a few people called up to the desk, and it wasn't everyone in the lounge.

 

[Denali]

No perks but Ive found their call centre always helpful and reasonable fast to answer and hubby (WP) got to fly ahead the only time he requested it (on a cheap fare).

On long haul, hubby got a very personal "we appreciate you" welcome and farewell from the cabin manager - me (SG at the time), nothing.

 

[henrus]

It used to be on Trans Tasman flights you'd get a bottle of water (same as what they'd hand to business class) but that seems to have stopped.

Express Pass cards and a greeting also seem to be standard for Platinums on trans tasman flights both of which Gold don't get. Domestically though I've noticed no difference, however, the phone staff are top notch as I've even booked the wrong date once and they changed and fixed for free after I called them minutes later.

 

[hydrabyss]

Not sure if it is written or not, but the two times that my flight has been cancelled (last flight of day) I was given two taxi vouchers (so I could leave by myself and immediately) rather than having to wait for the bus to the allocated hotel with everyone else. They also put us up in a 'higher level' hotel. I'm not sure if it was platinum only, but there were only a few people called up to the desk, and it wasn't everyone in the lounge.

I find when things go wrong platinum is the first to receive any help when it comes to flight cancelations and it does make you feel better knowing they are looking after you.
I found this to be very helpful when a flight to Melbourne from Newcastle was cancelled and being they only have one flight a day there we where booked onto jetstar for a direct flight. Golds got to go via Brisbane and everyone else had a 3 hour bus trip to Sydney.

 

[grubbidok]

I find when things go wrong platinum is the first to receive any help when it comes to flight cancelations and it does make you feel better knowing they are looking after you.
I found this to be very helpful when a flight to Melbourne from Newcastle was cancelled and being they only have one flight a day there we where booked onto jetstar for a direct flight. Golds got to go via Brisbane and everyone else had a 3 hour bus trip to Sydney.

I don't want to go into details but there was also one scenario where we were in the lounge waiting for our flight to another country (and we *had* to be in that country within 24 hours of original arrival for a valid reason), a technical fault grounded the plane. People were being booked onto the next day's flight as there were no other options in that city and other flights to other cities for re-routing were full. The dragons very discreetly flew us to another city to get on the flight to that country from there last minute and had even arranged for the plane there wait for us if required (it didn't need to, we made it through in time).

I don't think you should think of WP as a list of unwritten "perks", as much as insurance that when things do go wrong they will do all they can to help. They can't always help, but at least you know that they've usually done all they can if it's something that is in their control.

 

[JeeJee]

I thought Fly ahead was a perk for Golds and Plats, albeit with certain conditions (eg not on a Getaway fare, HLO etc)? Even then, there's been plenty of bending of those conditions. You may have been within the one hour rule?

Regardless, fly ahead can certainly be done at the airport and having the fly ahead change undone, spitefully no less, is just not cricket. I do hope you tore them a new one.....

As for the OP, I can't think of any particular event in my travels that would fall outside of the written benefits.

I haven't been able to use the upgrades, and can't pre-select Y+ seats for free on Int long haul and sparse benefits with partners (perhaps if I'd got to try the EY first lounge in AUH I could say different but SQ had to be pushed all the way at every stage to honour benefits). In fact, so underwhelming have the benefits been, relative to Gold, that I'm not making any particular effort to maintain Plat. I will miss the Y+ seating though, at least when I'm not CBR-SYD vv (17B or C is not "+" at all).

Agree with all that you have written and so I never ever push it beyond gold for VA. Its plainly not worth it!