Velocity introduces Forever Gold lifetime status tier

[ols]

I thought family pooling counted towards the non-VA count of up to 3000SCs.

Who knows?
It's so damn confusing

 

[Bagpuss]

''Upgrade to Gold. For life.

To qualify for Forever Gold, your balance (calculated from 1 February 2013 onwards) must reach a total of 12,000 Status Credits, with a minimum of 9,000 Status Credits earned on eligible Virgin Australia marketed flights, flown by you*.''

I wonder if this is the short term issue.

I don't think a total of 12,000 status credits is a bad thing.

However maybe the minimum should be 6,000 VA SC for when it launches. Then after it launches put the minimum up to 9,000. This way it solves the historical issue.

Though I suspect the bean counters have worked overtime on this.

 

[jase05]

I’m over the requirements already so will get the Gold to fall back on if need be but hopefully that is many years away. Probably helps that about 90% of my SC’s are earned on VA metal and I don’t see any reason why that will change as their J fares domestically are nearly always significantly less than QF’s

 

[aaronm]

5k VA SCs short of Forever Gold, just need to spend a cool $60k to tip me over. I think it's cheaper to just book J fares for the foreseeable future

 

[EuroKick]

 

[MooTime]

I'm just 7.5k into the 12k.

9 more years of Gold & I'm there GFL.

Suspect I'll get there eventually, just not as quick if this $12 a SC thingy wasn't slapped in.

Ah well better to have this LTG carrot dangling than not

 

[bsb]

Well I got a nice surprise when I logged in. Already qualified to P+ and not far off LTG which I’ll get in a few months now I’m getting 4K in status credits on Virgin a year (yes only started with them a few years ago). Imagine how much money QF could have got from me if their domestic J wasn’t over priced and awfully average (but I still get Platinum from their international which I still rank highly and before you comment, I’m currently sitting on an SQ flight and it’s not “all that” and yes it has wifi m, but slow and only part time). For a small biz owner, VA has managed to get all my domestic spend so I’m quite happy. (Which is good as I think I’m their target market). Can’t wait to see what the other benefits they say they’ll announce before 1 October will be.

 

[MattA]

I thought family pooling counted towards the non-VA count of up to 3000SCs.

Yeah I think they add to the overall total of the person who received them, but not that person's "personal travel on VA" component, obviously.

But they also don't count towards the "personal travel on VA" component for the person who pooled them. Which seems a little unfair, but not surprising.

As I posted in the DSC thread -- Virgin Australia Pick Your Bonus Promo - Double Points or Status Credits - Ends 13 June 2025 -- my kids' accounts (they have flown on many VA metal flights, but always pooled SCs) are sitting on 0 for both the overall and VA SC counts (well, actually one of them is sitting on *-40* VA SCs, somehow??)

 

[Caversham04]

I requested my history back in March.
It has every flight I have credited to the program since 2006.

Yet VA say they can only effectively track Status Credits from 1 February 2013 due to a system change?? Sounds like a convenient excuse.....

 

[kyle]

So i got this email from an hour ago:

Today, we are pleased to announce that from 1 October 2025, Eligible Sectors will continue to no longer be used, but we'll be expanding the minimum number of Status Credits qualification rule to include eligible Virgin Australia operated flights sold by our partner airlines as well.3



This means that from 1 October 2025, you'll be able to earn the minimum number of Status Credits to upgrade or maintain your Status on eligible Virgin Australia marketed and/or Virgin Australia operated flights flown by you.



So when you fly on a Virgin Australia aircraft, whether you are flying under a VA flight number or an airline partner flight number, the Status Credits you earn will contribute to the minimum Virgin Australia Status Credit eligibility requirement for your Status.

 

[Caversham04]

So if I've pooled more than 3000 SC's to my wife since 2013, only a maximum of 3000 SC's will count towards her LTG (because 9000 of the 12,000 she needs must come from VA flights she's flown herself), and the "excess" SC's just vanish and won't count towards my LTG tally either???

Would be good if you could somehow allocate historic SC's that were family-pooled to either the earner or the beneficiary - even if on an "all or nothing" basis.......

 

[oz_mark]

Yet VA say they can only effectively track Status Credits from 1 February 2013 due to a system change?? Sounds like a convenient excuse.....

It is when they changed from Navitaire to Sabre, but I am not sure of the link to the Status Credit count.

 

[ozstamps]

I wonder if this is the short term issue.

I don't think a total of 12,000 status credits is a bad thing.

However maybe the minimum should be 6,000 VA SC for when it launches. Then after it launches put the minimum up to 9,000. This way it solves the historical issue.

Though I suspect the bean counters have worked overtime on this.

Clearly making it a PERCENTAGE was smarter, simpler and fairer to all - i.e. 50% of 75% of the flights to be on VIRGIN over 12,000 SC base entry level fixed requirement.

I have easily qualified on both those metrics, as have many others who now do NOT CARE about Virgin and this wackadoodle new system. .

I am sure if they get a stream of negative feedback from once loyal flyers they'll tweak this dumb requirement.

Telling someone with 30,000 SC with 'only 8000' on Virgin, that they are not 'loyal' is insane. And quite insulting. And WILL lose them even more once loyal flyers.

Over SIX months after announcing this Brain Fart, they are still not clear at all on Family Polling etc shows it was always a half-baked work in progress. Now all members can finally SEE on their online statements how far short they are on this loopy '9000 on Virgin' metric, there will be a lot of anger. DUMBER THAN DIRT now they are listing on the ASX in 3 weeks if some mainstream media pick up on this. Velocity is the money machine, not Virgin.

I will have pooled 1000s of virgin SC to partner to get her to Plat many years along with others here.

Grandfathering in a base of already loyal members is smart, and having a rules 'adjustment' moving forward, is how these things usually work.

 

[IainF]

I'm not sure why it still isn't clear to you.
I've hit the required numbers, which is what the whole point of the exercise is.
Loyalty to VA.
If you want to fly on another airline, then that's not loyalty.
If you don't have the numbers then fly more.
It's really that simple.

 

[ozstamps]

Telling someone with 30,000 SC with 'only 8000' on Virgin, that they are not 'loyal' is insane. And quite insulting. And WILL lose them even more once loyal flyers.

So that is not 'loyalty' to Virgin in your view? Interesting thought process.

Flying on Virgin PARTNER airlines is actually loyalty to their program, and partners. This is actually why savvy airlines have long haul partners.

If you want to fly on another airline, then that's not loyalty.

 

[IainF]

So that is not 'loyalty' to Virgin in your view? Interesting thought process.

Flying on Virgin PARTNER airlines is actually loyalty to their program, and partners. This is actually why savvy airlines have long haul partners.

I have 20,000+ Scs on VA.
I also hold Qatar Gold, Etihad Gold, SQ Silver & United PP, all of whom are/were VA partners.
I push my points to the airline I'm flying typically.
I don't need to prove my loyalty by flying other airlines.

 

[clifford]

If you don't have the numbers then fly more.

Very simple to say, but pity VA didn't tell us what these new rules would be several years ago. “New” SC's aren't quite the same as “old” ones, in terms of their cost. Those that achieved the majority of them in the past are at a slight advantage, I think.

Personally I just write it off to the new reality, and will spend little with VA in the future. I don't particularly want nor need VA LTG, as I have UA lifetime Plat, which provides many of the benefits of VA Gold. However, as someone with little skin in the game, I fail to see how all these changes to Velocity will actually bring in more revenue to VA, and isn't that what they think it’s all about.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[IainF]

Very simple to say, but pity VA didn't tell us what these new rules would be several years ago. “New” SC's aren't quite the same as “old” ones, in terms of their cost. Those that achieved the majority of them in the past are at a slight advantage, I think.

Personally I just write it off to the new reality, and will spend little with VA in the future. I don't particularly want nor need VA LTG, as I have UA lifetime Plat, which provides many of the benefits of VA Gold. However, as someone with little skin in the game, I fail to see how all these changes to Velocity will actually bring in more revenue to VA, and isn't that what they think it’s all about.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Because the strategy isn't about lifetime Gold, it's about Platinum Plus.
Having to have at least 2000 SCs of which 1500 are on VA metal.
That's a minimum of $15,000 spend per year under the new SC rules on VA metal, where as previously you could Platinum with essentially just 8 flights on VA, which could be had for as little as $640 or less, if you were flying on a partner airlines and pushing to VA.
And let's be clear, Lifetime Gold doesn't mean much these days when you are aiming for Plat+ year on year.

 

[MooTime]

Because the strategy isn't about lifetime Gold, it's about Platinum Plus.
Having to have at least 2000 SCs of which 1500 are on VA metal.
That's a minimum of $15,000 spend per year under the new SC rules on VA metal, where as previously you could Platinum with essentially just 8 flights on VA, which could be had for as little as $640 or less, if you were flying on a partner airlines and pushing to VA.
And let's be clear, Lifetime Gold doesn't mean much these days when you are aiming for Plat+ year on year.

$15k to attain platinum+

$640 to attain Platinum under old rules.

Yeah if you fly partners & spend a sheet load more.

$2k you could reach 800SCs, lot more flying international partners I'd think.

 

[openseat]

If they included I whole lot of flying on codeshares on Etihad that I did for work in 2010-13, then I would be there. Alas, I'm a long way away. Part of me is wanting the challenge, but I'm not sure I can be bothered.