Velocity Gripe

[davy57]

Hello All

First post for me! And seriously need to have a gripe.

I am currently a velocity member, silver staus, and only a couple of thousands points away from being gold. This is because I undertake considerable business travel. I joined velocity four years ago.

My Wife and I have not long returned from a holiday in the UK. We booked and flew Malaysia Airlines (velocity partner airline) and quoted my velocity number at time of booking through Flight Centre.

Well the red mist descended on me when I contacted velocity to claim my points and I was informed that the points were non-claimable because our Malaysia Airlines flights were booked as Economy S class.

i mean, seriously!!!.......Was this my fault for not checking the status of the ticket or do I have a case?

I wanted to run this by the learned members of the forum prior to venting my spleen to velocity.

To cap it off, I also put a points claim in for two overnight stops in the Crowne Plaza, Kuala Lumpur (also a velocity partner), to be informed that the Kuala Lumpur Crown Plaza Hotel was not an eligible partner. Gawd!!!!!......Just what is going on here??

Any advise would be very much appreciated

Regards


Davy
Traralgon
Victoria.

 

[jas]

Traralgon
Victoria.

Not another one!

(sorry, offtopic and irrelevant I know... just the small country town thing )

 

[davy57]

And your point is caller:?:

 

[oz_mark]

I wish I could offer you good news, but I don't like your chances on either count.

For Malaysia Airlines, S is not an eligible class (Velocity - Malaysia Airlines)

For the Crowne Plaza, to get Velocity Points you need to join Priority Club and Select Velocity as your preferred earning alliance (Velocity - Crowne Plaza)

 

[Travel Guru]

I dont think you've got much of a case, but where did you book, online, agent etc?

TG

 

[davy57]

Thanks for the responses

I booked through my local Flight Centre, would appear they were unaware as they added my velocity number at the time of booking.

I contacted them upon return, and they informed me that they would "get back to me"......that was over a week ago.

 

[Travel Guru]

Thanks for the responses

I booked through my local Flight Centre, would appear they were unaware as they added my velocity number at the time of booking.

I contacted them upon return, and they informed me that they would "get back to me"......that was over a week ago.

no problem, if the agent (and im one myself who once worked for FC so can speak with some authority) knew you wanted frequent flyer points then you have a case against the agent but not velocity.

I wouldnt wait for the office to get back to you as they never will, its not in their interest, but instead contact their national complaints hotline (available at whitepages.com.au - Search for an Australian Business, Government or Person) and ask for some resolution as they have to resolve every case or they cant close it, whereas your local store will just hope you go away.

On every fare sheet it states whether FFP can be accrued so they should have checked.

The best you can hope for is some financial compensation for what the points would have been worth.

Good luck

TG

 

[SnowYeti]

TG that's great advice you have there for the OP! Thanks for sharing Hope the OP gets something ..

 

[mannej]

Davy,

Whilst it is unfortunate that you purchased a fare that does not accrue miles, it is advertised by the terms and conditions of that particular program. I have never inserted my velocity number into my MH bookings because of this.

I think your gripe should be with the travel agent, as they should be aware of what fares are not eligible to earn. It may be worth insisting compensation on this.

I think TG has the best advice, as it is a FC issue, not a velocity issue.

 

[sampson]

Hey Yeti, I hope the leg's better.

The posters here are really knowledgeable.

Would the ordinary travel agent actually disclose the flight is 'point-less'? FC might escape if the industry practice is to not disclose 'pointless flights'.

Did FC get you a cheaper seat because there were no points? Was FC getting sales by offering lemons compared to the apples on websites you saw?

I wonder if the consumer regulators are worth a call because most consumers wouldn't know what these 'A B C D ... S' booking numbers. Most won't know they won't get points if the airline or FC makes them an S class. (Whatever "S" is).

The expectation of points (and getting gold status) is a big factor when many decide to chose paying a cash fare on a partner airline or grabbing a Qantas or whoever at a similar price. Can you say you would've, if yiu knew Malysian was 'point-less', flown (say) Qantas for $x more because you'd at least get qantas points?

How obvious is the disclosure that points won't be given? Is it sufficiently obvious or is it hidden. Did you have the option of booking a "A, B C with points' seat or did the airline take your money and then give you these pointless S seats?

Sounds to me like there was insufficient disclosure that should be aired with regulators.

I'd expect something very prominent BEFORE I booked because most mugs think qouting a scheme's membership number will result in points.

Speak to Gad Ellinson at the ACCC and Andrew Levans at Consumer Affairs Victoria and see what they think. (Both are looking if VCAT has jurisdiction under new laws on itnl flights and maybe VCAT can help against FC and/or velocity and/or Malaysian).

Best of luck.

 

[oz_mark]

Hey Yeti, I hope the leg's better.

The posters here are really knowledgeable.

Would the ordinary travel agent actually disclose the flight is 'point-less'? FC might escape if the industry practice is to not disclose 'pointless flights'.

Did FC get you a cheaper seat because there were no points? Was FC getting sales by offering lemons compared to the apples on websites you saw?

I wonder if the consumer regulators are worth a call because most consumers wouldn't know what these 'A B C D ... S' booking numbers. Most won't know they won't get points if the airline or FC makes them an S class. (Whatever "S" is).

Industry practice is for the airlines to specify the earnings rates for the various fares. Velocity do this for all their partners. They publish these.

How obvious is the disclosure that points won't be given? Is it sufficiently obvious or is it hidden. Did you have the option of booking a "A, B C with points' seat or did the airline take your money and then give you these pointless S seats?

The airlines publish earnings rates.

Sounds to me like there was insufficient disclosure that should be aired with regulators.

Velocity publish an earnings chart. It would be up to Flight Centre to ensure that the points were earned, if that is what was requested by the OP.

 

[Flashback]

Velocity publish an earnings chart. It would be up to Flight Centre to ensure that the points were earned, if that is what was requested by the OP.

That being said, I often find in these cases that the OP "assumes" they will be earning points and "assume FC know this", when in fact they don't specifically say "I want a fare that earns points". IME with FC, mentioning this has prompted them to offer me a fare in a higher bucket.

 

[MrGreg]

Just though i might point out incase you didn't know that you will not get status credits for points rewarded on malaysian airlines.

Cheers.

 

[Leumas]

I doubt the OP would get very far with the authorities... As mentioned, the earn rates are published. There are no issues to resolve with Velocity. The issue is with FC.Something may come from FC, but I suspect that'll be on a pure goodwill gesture.I think it's the customer's responsibility to establish whether a fare earns points. Of course, if you've evidence that when you asked FC to look for a fare that specifically earns points on Velocity and now it turned out it doesn't, then there's a fault on FC's part.If you asked FC to get you a ticket, they did that.

 

[davy57]

Many thanks to all of you for taking the time, your advice is invaluable.

Yes, I did choose Malaysia Airlines as I was assuming that I would qualify for the velocity points.

Who's right or wrong here? When I booked at FC and presented my velocity card they immediately entered my number on the booking. Should I have checked first that I would be eligible but I honestly never gave the "s" class any thought.

Should FC have checked as well? Anyway I will most definitely pursue the avenues that you propose.

Many many thanks.

 

[SeaWolf]

I think it's just one of those annoyances that unless you're pretty familiar with what a booking code is and what they mean, you're going to get tripped up by this sooner or later.

It's a constant irritation to me that some airlines (QANTAS, Virgin Blue) make it very hard to find out what you're booking into from their website. Some airlines make it very easy (Lufthansa) and I just can't understand why some resist letting you know when it's such a key part of their FF programs.

 

[albatross710]

As a general principle that I'd like to see is as genuine effort to educate the market that there are fares that wont earn points. Perhaps in proportion to the advertising expenditure to promote a scheme.

If 25% of fares on aircraft are non-earning then 25% effort towards helping people understand that not all flights really do earn points.

 

[cmon0005]

I had a similar situation about 1.5 - 2 years ago, and is one of the main reasons I left Velocity and am now a happy QF FF.

MEL-KUL return booked online on the MH website, however didn't have anywhere to put my Velocity number so after booking I called MH and they 'added' my Velocity number to the booking.
Note: my ticket was booked in the correct class for earning velocity points.

Anyway flew the sectors, came back to MEL waited the 60 or 90? required days before points were meant to come over to velocity and nothing...

Called velocity they said they would confirm with Malaysia airlines and then credit me the points.
I then got a call back from a team leader a week later who said that they need my Original Ticket and boarding pass for both sectors otherwise they can't credit me the points. Had the ticket but no boarding passes. You would think they could have just checked with MH considering they are 'partners'.

Long story short, I didn't get my points in the end despite me putting in a complaint and I suggested that they notify people that they need to keep their boarding passes for points claims on MH. within a month their website stated this.

Very poor service from Velocity in this regards.

In general it seems Velocity have very poor systems and processes in place for their "partner" offers/points.

Also staying once at a Vibe Hotel (Velocity Partner) in June 2008, took til December 2008 to get my points, only after heaps of phone calls, and velocity saying they were 'waiting' to here back from Vibe hotels.

This year I have only flown Virgin Blue once due to last minute flight, now I fly Qantas all the time couldn't be happier..

Note to Velocity: look after your frequent flyers properly next time!

 

[N860CR]

I think you'll find its standard practise to require boarding passes to claim for frequent flyer points.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Many thanks to all of you for taking the time, your advice is invaluable.

Yes, I did choose Malaysia Airlines as I was assuming that I would qualify for the velocity points.

Who's right or wrong here? When I booked at FC and presented my velocity card they immediately entered my number on the booking. Should I have checked first that I would be eligible but I honestly never gave the "s" class any thought.

Should FC have checked as well? Anyway I will most definitely pursue the avenues that you propose.

Many many thanks.

Hi davy57

I agree with the other advice in this thread that you may have an action against FC. But this will only be the case if you made it clear to FC at the time of booking that you required a fare that earned points.

You will also need to be able to prove this.

If you made clear that the fare was required to earn points then you have been sold a product that was not fit for purpose, so you may have an action under consumer protection laws, and you may also have a remedy under contract law.

A quick call to your local (state) consumer affairs line will be able to advise. Bringing an action is not expensive, but will take time.

Make sure your initial call to consumer affairs is very simple in terms of the language - 'I asked for a fare that gained points, I didn't get one'.

On your other questions - pthe agency isn't required to assist with all sorts extras. Plenty of people complain to me all the time that the agent didn't advise about luggage allowance, or didn't advise about a visa requirement, or didn't advise about where to change currency... these are all things that the agent could advise you about - but you may need to ask.

Of course a good agency may volunteer all this information.

As for you presenting your FF card - there are occaisions when people hand over an FF card even though they may not be earning points for a flight... for example you may want the FF number beside the booking to assist with better seat allocation, better chance of an upgrade or lounge access.

If it turns out that you can prove you were asking for a fare that attracted points - the next question is what sort of compensation? Given a flight Asutralia to Europe is about 20,000 miles return, that would get you a return MEL-SYD domestic (plus a bit left over), or around about a third of a flight from Australia to Asia (I using the QF scale, other airlines vary slightly from this). That gives a realistic value to those points of about 300-400 dollars. Alternatively if DJ has the option to 'buy points' then you may ask the FC buys the 20,000 points for you.

But - if you can't prove you made points earning a condition of the fare then you're out of luck.