Velocity Family Pooling - Inadequate Disclosure Led to Gold Status Downgrade - Has This Happened to Anyone Else?

[ngajic]

I'm reaching out to the community after experiencing what I believe to be a significant failure in Velocity's Family Pooling disclosure process, which has resulted in my unexpected downgrade from Gold to Silver status.

Timeline:

• 28 May 2025: Set up Family Pooling arrangement through my Velocity account
• 9 October 2025: Received response from Velocity refusing to rectify Status Credit allocation issues
• 14 October 2025: Received notification that my status had been downgraded from Gold to Silver

When I set up the Family Pooling feature in late May, I was not adequately informed that Status Credits would be permanently reallocated in a way that would affect my ability to maintain Gold status. The system allowed me to complete the setup without clear warnings about these irreversible consequences.

During my annual status review period, I discovered that due to the Family Pooling configuration, Status Credits of approximately 11000+ AUD worth of flights had been allocated differently than I understood or intended. This resulted in me falling short of the requirements to maintain my Gold status, despite having earned sufficient Status Credits through my actual flying activity.

Velocity's Response​

I have corresponded with Velocity Membership Contact Centre regarding this matter. Their position is:

• Family Pooling was set up on 28 May 2025 (confirmed)
• Once Status Credits are allocated, they cannot be reversed or transferred "regardless of how the pooling was originally set up"
• They cite their Terms and Conditions as governing the program
• Their decision is "final and remains unchanged"

My Concerns​

As a long-time Velocity member who has actively earned Gold status through genuine flying activity, I find this situation deeply concerning:

1. Consumer Protection: I believe there are potential issues here under Australian Consumer Law regarding misleading or deceptive conduct and consumer guarantees for services.
2. Transparency: A loyalty program should operate with clear, prominent disclosure of material consequences, especially for features that can permanently affect status qualification.
3. Fairness: The refusal to rectify what appears to be a disclosure failure, particularly when I earned sufficient Status Credits through flying, seems unreasonable.
4. System Responsibility: If Virgin's system allowed members to inadvertently configure Family Pooling in ways that undermine their status qualification without clear warnings, this seems like a design flaw that members shouldn't bear the full consequences of.

Questions for the Community​

I'm reaching out because I suspect I may not be alone in experiencing this issue:

1. Has anyone else had problems with Family Pooling affecting their Status Credits?

Did you receive clear disclosure about how it would work?
Were you warned about irreversibility?

2. What disclosure did you receive when setting up Family Pooling?

Were there prominent warnings?
Was the impact on Status Credits clearly explained?
Were you shown examples or scenarios?

3. Has anyone successfully resolved similar issues with Velocity?

What approach did you take?
Did you escalate to external dispute resolution?
What was the outcome?

I've been a loyal Velocity member for several years and have genuinely valued the program. This isn't about being vindictive - it's about what I believe to be a legitimate consumer protection issue where inadequate disclosure has resulted in material detriment.

If Velocity's position is truly that once you've set up Family Pooling (even without adequate disclosure of consequences), there's absolutely no remedy regardless of circumstances, then I think that's something the broader frequent flyer community should be aware of and discuss.

I welcome all perspectives, including those who think I might be wrong or missing something. I'm here to learn and hopefully resolve this fairly.

Thank you for reading this lengthy post. Any insights, experiences, or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RooFlyer]

@ngajic please remove the membership number ASAP. Welcome to AFF.

Also the attachment. We don’t need to see that with its personal information

 

[HeavyElectricity]

IMHO, it's all laid out quite clearly how it works and it's usually people skipping reading and making assumptions that causes misunderstandings.

The only legitimate complaint might be how this has now affected "Lifetime Gold" eligibility.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi ngajic and welcome to AFF!

I think you need to provide details on:

• the flights you and your family took
• how the status credits were allocated
• how you *thought* the status credits would be allocated.

Short answer… no one on here has raised similar issues to you and there are dozens of members using family pooling. There haven’t been any reported errors or ‘gotchas’ in the processes or outcomes.

So if something has truly gone wrong, some details would help us work out where the error has occurred.

 

[oz_mark]

It is hard to work out what you intended to do, but it is possible to set up pooling in two ways

1) Pool the points
2) Pool the points and status credits

Once you set up pooling, and points (or status credits), someone earns will be transferred to the beneficiary account. The points and status credits will then be in their account. They are also deemed to have been earned in that account.

from my own experience, it works as it says in the T&Cs.

 

[odysseus]

I'm not clear on the issue. Is it that you set it up 'incorrectly'? As you say they were your flights so sounds like you transferred them to someone else. But in hindsight didn't wish to?

I've always been clear that they're not reversible (in normal, as designed allocation).

 

[drron]

Welcome to AFF @ngajic
To be clear it sounds like you are the beneficiary of the family transfers. If that is the case then family pooling is not what has caused your downgrading but rather the .changes to Qualification that were implemented on 1/10. There was plenty of warning about it and sent out much earlier this year.

In my particular case if the old system was in place i would easily requalify as god. but under the new system of qualification I must have half the SCs to come from my flying alone so in February I will drop to silvr despite having more than enough SCs due to family pooling.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

…

In my particular case if the old system was in place i would easily requalify as god.

Now that’s some serious status