Velocity introduces Forever Gold lifetime status tier

[MarthaWolf]

and contrary to some angst earlier.

I have the opposite information, have used pooling (instead of gifting) over years to help family member attain/maintain plat & will miss out on FG because of it. Also with multiple less-than-reassuring reminders in the chat about their “enhancing and changing phase”.

 

[bjbrian]

Called Velocity and spoke with offshore. They told me I'd have the statement within 2-3 business days...it was in my inbox within 30 minutes.
Current total is sub 7K, so Forever Gold isn't going to be a target for the moment.

Same for me. Expected it would be more.

 

[SYD]

I have the opposite information, have used pooling (instead of gifting) over years to help family member attain/maintain plat & will miss out on FG because of it. Also with multiple less-than-reassuring reminders in the chat about their “enhancing and changing phase”.

Did you request an actual listing from VA? If stuff you’ve pooled out are included, then that’s a positive start.

The comment earlier about “angst” was pooled SCs ended up no where. The earlier post indicated that might not be correct.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

I knocked together a little script today for fun to try and summarise where I'm at with Forever Gold (much less than I assumed!).

I was able to scrape my data from 2013, and have a look at how it was classified. Interestingly, some of the older double status credits promos applied as double on the overall value on the actual flight line item, whilst more recent promos have them listed separately and classified as a promotion (rather than a flight).

I also can't see (from the data I was able to get) any obvious way to tell if a pool transfer out was for any particular classification of activity (such as a VA flight vs flybuys).

 

[trisreed]

I knocked together a little script today for fun to try and summarise where I'm at with Forever Gold (much less than I assumed!).

Great work! Looks like we had the same plan (but I imagine your script is written a lot better than mine)! Would love to run your script over my account if you ever wished to share it - namely as I don't trust my own work

 

[MooTime]

Just received email (2nd time) regarding my SC tally. Some 5 weeks after initial email.
I received earlier email of the tally within 24hrs of requesting it, not sure why this one with more detail & different layout took so long or even eventually arrived.

Note it has flights in Nov/Dec 2012 when the start date is 1st Feb 2013 (as stated in my email):

Also not that it matters, but doesn't say who pooled from.

Then for VFF points as WP it states the points twice as WP gets 100% bonus. few other oddities, now to add it all up again later, 99% sure it'll differ from previous received tally.
Roll with the punches.

 

[kpc]

My SC total from 1 Feb 2013 is a miserly 3193....(via chat)

 

[ozstamps]

Same (though I didn’t get an activity statement) despite 12+ years of status - rather than gifting gold, once I maintained plat I always pooled to my partner so apparently all those SCs aren’t counted, although my chat agent reiterated three times that they are still in the “enhancing and changing phase” of their Ts&Cs

In the exact same boat -- for Velocity STILL to be banging on about them still 'fine-tuning' this poorly thought through promo is typical - a month after announcing it.

Seems like they are making it up as they go along.

I am over 12,000 it seems, but not 9000 on Virgin yet, reading their gibberish pooly formatted Virgin Mumbai response eventually received, but gawd knows how many of MY flights pooled to partner to reach her status.

More relevant, expensive EY flights booked direct on EY website as Virgin's was hopeless for some bookings, is annoying. All the flights credited to my Velocity account - many 100s SC each paid biz flight, so WHY make the distinction?

Cost was the same in all cases, either way as I recall - indeed booking with Etihad seemed smarter as IF there was any issue re change dates or flights making booking direct with Etihad was smoothest to sort. . At the time it mattered not. There was hardly a warning note - 'WARNING booking direct with ETIHAD might affect your Forever Gold count'.

 

[AIRwin]

My status credit count shows I'm not even halfway there

 

[SYD]

My status credit count shows I'm not even halfway there

Was that from VA or DIY?

Last time I looked, I was miles away despite ~10yrs VA WP.

Oh well, not flying VA now anyway….

 

[SYD]

Was that from VA or DIY?

Last time I looked, I was miles away despite ~10yrs VA WP.

Oh well, not flying VA now anyway….

Just noticed from another thread that the website has been updated.

I’m just shy of 7000 of 12000. Which I think is more than I calculated. Would have been happy with FS, FFS…

(Well, at least after ~10yrs WP).

 

[Warks]

Yeah I'm well under halfway after twelve years or more of consistent domestic flying. I don't think I'll get there before retirement at this rate

 

[henrus]

Clearly its rather new but I noticed this earlier hence posted it in the DSC thread (Virgin Australia Pick Your Bonus Promo - Double Points or Double Status Credits - Promo Ends 13 June 2025).

You can find it on the status page when you loging to velocity:

Status

www.velocityfrequentflyer.com

Shows like this:

 

[SYD]

Just noticed from another thread that the website has been updated.

I’m just shy of 7000 of 12000. Which I think is more than I calculated. Would have been happy with FS, FFS…

(Well, at least after ~10yrs WP).

Oh, just clicked through and it confirms my own calcs that I’m only 1/3 the way on VA flights despite being close to 60% of the 12k earn.

Big pass going forward with VA…..

 

[ozstamps]

Big pass going forward with VA…..

Same here.

I got to the 12,000 SC easily, but these clueless cheapskates adding in the '9000 on Virgin' leaves me short.

'50% on Virgin' or even '75% on Virgin' would get me and many other ONCE loyal flyers well over the line. An arbitrary number is dumb .. a percentage is far smarter, and simpler, and fairer.

A pretty heavy duty flyer doing 20,000-30,000 SC to date, but with only 6000 on Virgin now gets told he is not valued - Crazy. Little brother VA should have learned from big brother UA how things are done in the real world, with Lifetime Elite levels.

I am Lifetime Star Gold on UA anyway, so get all the Virgin boarding, baggage, check-in and lounge benefits even if I have ZERO status with Virgin, but I can empathise with the vast number of other once loyal Virgin flyers who do not have that back-up, who will be insulted by this clueless system.

My feeling is they'll tweak this a bit, if the feedback is strongly negative.

This fairly basic 'Gold for life' is hardly giving away Platinum for life for goodness sakes. And now after SIX MONTHS, that they have finally figured out how to load it to the website, it will p!ss off MASSES of once loyal flyers who likely assumed they bolted it in.

Never in the past did it matter if one booked Etihad Biz flights on Etihad or Virgin .. some I did, some I did not. Was easier dealing with sked and seating changes etc if booked with Etihad. Price was usually the same ~$8000 per ticket etc.

Dumber than dirt.

After 10 quite profitable years for Virgin, I'm done with playing the Chasing Virgin Platinum game from this year on, and will not be alone, as heaps of posts on this board show. Double qualified for Platinum this year already, but with this cheapskate ill-thought through deal, and the new silly SC earn Regime, just of no interest to chase.

We will now just book Lite fares or use miles if we need to fly Virgin - making them way less money, but getting all the Platinum benefits. Win for me - LOSE for Virgin - clever stuff from our American owners.

''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*.''

 

[MH_fan]

Urgh...just checked my account and I still need 3000SC on VA flights to reach FG/LTG, which is another 3 years of maintaining WP through the way I'm currently flying with them. I'm surprised that I've reached my 3000SC limit from family pooling and partner airlines, as I thought it was much less. Oh well...

 

[stm1sydney]

Yes, much the same for me as most others. Only 1200 SCs away from the 12000 target, but 4000 SCs still needed on VA operated/marketed! So that is $48,000 spend just on VA. Not going to happen unless I get some J work trips to Doha or Europe (which is not going to happen). Similar conundrum for maintaining Plat. So it's BFOD for me going forward.

 

[serfty]

I expect to Qualify Platinum Plus early next year, but will still be 2000 VA SC's away from the 9K. 12K not an issue.

 

[Scarlett]

They must have got something wrong with mine.
Apparently I have ~9500 SC total of the required 12,000 but only 2500 of the 9000 required on VA. So basically I can forget about that Forever Gold.

I know I’ve done some J travel on EY and SQ, and have both pooled out and been pooled to, but that seems a percentage quite skewed away from VA flights.

Additionally, I remain pissed off that all SCs involved in family pooling are excluded. The person who earnt them originally and pooled them out doesn’t have them in lifetime earn tally. And the person they were pooled TO didn’t earn them, so they don’t count.

 

[MH_fan]

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