Velocity Family Transfers Online Suspended

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Is there really fraud happening? My account was flagged for sending points to my Brother in Law & had to go through the account suspension, investigation and then open to a new account.

I’m not suggesting you’re engaging in fraud, but others have been (with the hacks, points selling etc.) hence the crackdown.

 

[kpc]

Such a pain to ring....had to do a family transfer again yesterday (only available M-F) and took about 10 mins all up....online it took less than a minute

 

[iamsuperandrew]

Such a pain to ring....had to do a family transfer again yesterday (only available M-F) and took about 10 mins all up....online it took less than a minute

so its possible to do over the phone?

 

[Grimace1]

so its possible to do over the phone?

Yes it is.

 

[dxwell]

Website still not allowing this.
Thanks @peakhour, I followed your advice and was able to do this on a Saturday afternoon.

 

[Airlinedealschris]

Velocity points transfer to an eligible family member online is still not operational. Some serious feedback has been given to Velocity as the inconvenience and delay getting to the Velocity contact center just too much. Not to mention the non use of WhatsApp or other cost neutral communication methods by Velocity for members calling from overseas. Surely the computer people at Velocity have the skills to fix the online family points transfer portal.

 

[33kft]

You have to wonder if it's ever coming back - I suspect they've decided that it's more trouble than it is worth for them

 

[Hadun]

You have to wonder if it's ever coming back - I suspect they've decided that it's more trouble than it is worth for them

Are they past Air Canada's Aeroplan transfer freeze yet? That one lasted 1.5 years before it got resumed I think?

Kinda funny that over at Qantas they've even made things looser and removed the previous 600k transfer quantity cap it looks like?

 

[serfty]

You have to wonder if it's ever coming back - I suspect they've decided that it's more trouble than it is worth for them

Agreed, see post #3 - having to call takes the bot/scripting out of it ...

 

[Airlinedealschris]

Agreed, see post #3 - having to call takes the bot/scripting out of it ...

If it is a permanent situation then in the wording “temporarily suspended” is deceptive and misleading contrary to the Australian Consumer Law.

 

[kpc]

Yeah it is a pain that online family transfers are suspended...rather than taking 1-2 mins to do online, it takes around 10 mins to call.

 

[33kft]

Yeah it is a pain that online family transfers are suspended...rather than taking 1-2 mins to do online, it takes around 10 mins to call.

I don't think that is a fair assessment. I manage accounts for the whole family and in their case they probably just won't call, and I can't do it for them, so it doesn't get done

 

[Hadun]

I manage accounts for the whole family and in their case they probably just won't call, and I can't do it for them, so it doesn't get done

I'm in the same boat, at least it's still possible to extend their points expiry through ground spending.

If it is a permanent situation then in the wording “temporarily suspended” is deceptive and misleading contrary to the Australian Consumer Law.

The only recent comparable scenario seems to be the Air Canada one, so I guess we'll need to circle back when this suspension hits the ~2 year mark lol. Just don't understand what else they''re still waiting on after adding 2FA.

 

[ben95]

I manage accounts for the whole family and in their case they probably just won't call, and I can't do it for them, so it doesn't get done

Can you set up family pooling instead? At least that’s what I do and I don’t have to worry about transferring points at all.

I understand they disabled this due to the rampant black market mileage dealer and VA points being quite valuable (at least it used to be) in the black market due to generally decent business class redemption availability on SQ/UA/QR/NH. So if that’s a cost we pay as legit users of the program for a bit then that’s a good trade at least while VA figure out a good system that stops those abuse. It probably needs to be something a bit more sophisticated than just checking the IP of people signing up.

 

[Hadun]

Can you set up family pooling instead? At least that’s what I do and I don’t have to worry about transferring points at all.

Not sure how strictly they enforce it but doesn't the t&c technically require everyone to be living at the same address for pooling?

I understand they disabled this due to the rampant black market mileage dealer and VA points being quite valuable

Wasn't it also in response to that spate of direct account hacks and points getting stolen from the lack of MFA back then? Hence the confusion about why they haven't resumed online self-transfers after adding that basic security feature.

 

[serfty]

Not sure how strictly they enforce it but doesn't the t&c technically require everyone to be living at the same address for pooling?


Wasn't it also in response to that spate of direct account hacks and points getting stolen from the lack of MFA back then? Hence the confusion about why they haven't resumed online self-transfers after adding that basic security feature.

The cynic in me might say there's more chance of 'breakage' this way ...

 

[ben95]

t&c technically require everyone to be living at the same address for pooling?

I’d assume most people manages their children and partners account so naturally they would be in the same address. If you manage your cousins account then it might have been easier to do the transfer the other way when you need to redeem.

Wasn't it also in response to that spate of direct account hacks and points getting stolen from the lack of MFA back then? Hence the confusion about why they haven't resumed online self-transfers after adding that basic security feature.

There’s the account hacking, and there’s also the “voluntary” sale of points. I’ve seen ads on social media platforms (specifically rednotes) from dealer trying to acquire VA points from me at roughly 2 cents per point.

I don’t specifically know how they would transact if I agreed. Presumably having me hand over the login and any 2FA and the dealer perform an online transfer would be easier than having someone call and pretend to be the account holder.

 

[33kft]

Can you set up family pooling instead? At least that’s what I do and I don’t have to worry about transferring points at all.

I have done to the extent that I can since then but there are still balances in those accounts from pre-pooling. There's also the issue of the SC black hole when pooling but that is well covered in other threads

It's not the end of the world but at the same time, I think an expectation of self servicing of these things and not having to call during certain times and explain ourselves to offshore call centres is a fair one and I wouldn't agree with hand waving that capability away, I think it really needs to come back.

 

[Hadun]

I’d assume most people manages their children and partners account so naturally they would be in the same address

Yes I understand that is the original intent and purpose of the feature. I guess @33kft falls into that category so it should work for them in the meantime. In my case I help out with my middle-aged parents + a few others.

I’ve seen ads on social media platforms

And an entire dedicated section for trading on the ozbargain classifieds lol. Qantas seems ok with simply periodically banning the egregious ones instead of indefinitely disabling the entire feature. Not to mention they even have lounge pass transfers etc too which Virgin has never allowed.

I wouldn't agree with hand waving that capability away, I think it really needs to come back.

Well even Air Canada eventually resumed it. Just don't understand the holdup over at Virgin Australia considering they don't appear to have done anything else since adding 2FA.

 

[Airlinedealschris]

Greetings AFF,
Some focused feedback to Velocity about the costs associated with making international telephone calls from different time zones just to conduct a velocity points transfers to family members.

Velocities response included this gem -

“Aside from getting in touch with our Membership Contact Centre via call, our member can also request a Family Points transfer through our Live Chat agent, simply;

• Visit our website: Frequent Flyer - Velocity | The loyalty program of Virgin Australia
• Log in to your Velocity account
• Click the “message icon” located at the below right corner of the screen

However, please note that our Membership Live Chat agent operating hours are 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Brisbane time, 7 days a week.”