Velocity vs Qantas Frequent Flyer

What would you do in my situation?

  • Move to Qantas and start accruing now!

    Votes: 12 57.1%
  • Stick with Virgin

    Votes: 9 42.9%

  • Total voters
    21
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Is Gold on both better than Plat on one? Is Plat not worth much? (sorry for noob question - i've looked through the airline sites that explain the benefits but I haven't fully digested).

Do Plats get upgraded more easily/cheaply or is that not a thing?

Honestly it depends on the program. There has been a lot of discussion on here about the lack of benefits for Velocity Plat members. Other than the 4 free upgrades per year (which you only get if you buy an expensive Freedom fare) and lounge access in LAX (which you currently don't get as VA gold) there's really not much differentiating VA gold & platinum. So yes, gold on both QF and VA is IMHO worth way more than Plat on VA.

Whether double gold is worth more than QF platinum, however, is quite debateable. There are some quite tangible benefits of QF platinum status, including international First lounge access, domestic business lounges and oneworld emerald status.
 
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Honestly it depends on the program. There has been a lot of discussion on here about the lack of benefits for Velocity Plat members. Other than the 4 free upgrades per year (which you only get if you buy an expensive Freedom fare) and lounge access in LAX (which you currently don't get as VA gold) there's really not much differentiating VA gold & platinum. So yes, gold on both QF and VA is IMHO worth way more than Plat on VA.

Got it, makes a lot more sense now. Thanks. I thought those 4 upgrades were better than they actually are, especially if you have to fork out the dollars for Freedom fare to begin with AND I don't do too many Perth/NZ trips so I really don't care about business class on domestic.

Whether double gold is worth more than QF platinum, however, is quite debateable. There are some quite tangible benefits of QF platinum status, including international First lounge access, domestic business lounges and oneworld emerald status.

This then becomes the big question.

Why would I need gold on VA at all, if I am already gold on QF and can have a crack at Plat on QF? If QF status matches/challenges me, then I may go all in on QF.

I've flipped and flopped on this thread, but feel much clearer now!
 
This then becomes the big question.

Why would I need gold on VA at all, if I am already gold on QF and can have a crack at Plat on QF? If QF status matches/challenges me, then I may go all in on QF.

I think people are recommending getting both Gold in QF and on VA for a couple of reasons (which may or may not be relevant to you).

Is a lot of your flying is work related? Seems like a fair bit of it is to me. How much freedom of choice or control do you have over which airline to fly? What happens when your corporate policy or travel provider changes and they change from VA to QF ? (or the other way around?) Or change from a mixture of both to one preferred airline?

For your personal travel you have more control over whom you fly, but if you are "locked in" or captive to one airline (or alliance) then you may very well be spending more money by feeling obliged to select the more expensive option to obtain lounge access/better seats/chance of upgrades & all the other perks etc etc. Classic "golden handcuffs" behaviour. If money is no object or its not significant to you at all then this may not be an issue for you.

Locking yourself into one alliance or airline seems a bit silly considering the amount of travel that you have planned, may as well have the option to try the other guys/keep them honest/have the option if the flight times don't suit etc. The other less obvious low probability but bad consequence possibilities are things to bear in mind, in order of more likely to least likely, how would the following events affect you? Either QF or VA going broke, or stop flying internationally, massive devaluations in ether QFF or Velocity loyalty programs (I think thats one thing you can count on :rolleyes:). Partners and alliances - what happens if your airline stops being partners with airlines that are useful for you (i..e QF losing AA or CE as a partner, VA losing SQ as a partner)?

As others have said - you are nearly there with VA Plat anyway and with family pooling its easy to see you getting to VA PLat and then look at a status challenge to get onto QF Gold, dosen't matter if you slip down to VA Gold as VA Gold gives you most of the good benefits anyway, and then spread the love around depending on which one suits your own circumstances. Getting to Qantas Platinum is really quite a big stretch to get to financially and you will need to weigh that up against possibly temproarily losing VA status while you try to get there.

Given the choice and your travel patterns I would take both Gold in QF and in VA rather than throwing in my lot with one of them.

Compare the "earn" and the "burn" rates for any frequent flyer scheme, if you don't like surcharges consider this as well, use this forum to figure out upgrade availibility/or scarceity of reward seats and upgrades, no point having a bazillion points in a scheme that you can't use! :D Also consider the option of warehousing points in a third provider and then transferring to either scheme when you need them, I'm not an expert but some are a fan of this - and this forum has the experts to show how they do it.

No one has commented on this so far but the fact that you are based in Sydney may just help to swing things in Qantas's favour.
 
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Got it, makes a lot more sense now. Thanks. I thought those 4 upgrades were better than they actually are, especially if you have to fork out the dollars for Freedom fare to begin with AND I don't do too many Perth/NZ trips so I really don't care about business class on domestic.

They used to represent better value back when full flexi's were not quite so expensive. At about $599 PER-MEL for a 'freedom' leg, you now have to invest nearly $2400 to use the 4 'free' plat upgrade legs which returns then about $7600 of 'value' compared to usual J ticketed pricing. As you can upgrade with points from Freedom to J on a single leg for 9900 FF points anyway, it saves you 39,600 FF points to have these 4 legs provided free as part of the plat thing. Points value varies depending on who you speak to, but for me its 2.5c x 39,600 = $990.

Also note that as with all J upgrades on VA, nothing is guaranteed until the transaction is complete - one needs to ensure that rewards J seating is actually available for the upgrade - so care needs to be taken when booking the rather expensive Freedom flights in the first place.

I live in PER and regularly travel to the east so I view this perk as a nice bit of icing on the cake and would use it. I'll also utilise the Hilton Honors Diamond complimentary membership (once only and only 1 year) as well as the ability to invite 3 extra guests into lounges. Use of the SQ SilverKris lounge in SIN is something I'll use a lot, as I often transit through SIN given travel in SE and central asia, though as a gold you would still get access to the GoldKris lounge so this perk is nice, but honestly, relatively minor.


This then becomes the big question.

Why would I need gold on VA at all, if I am already gold on QF and can have a crack at Plat on QF? If QF status matches/challenges me, then I may go all in on QF.

I've flipped and flopped on this thread, but feel much clearer now!

Honestly, I think it boils down to your travel routes. There is no question that QF's membership in Oneworld will trump VA's 'partnership' program in pretty much every case. If you travel predominantly on routes that Oneworld services well and that you use often, then QF would be the one to go for, if Plat is achievable. If not, if SQ (or another VA partner) services your routes and has decent lounges, then VA gold and later VA plat, is definitely more achievable, particularly given family pooling.

If you are roughly even split, routing wise, and it seems like you might be, I'd be pretty inclined towards looking at the possibilities of Gold in both programs rather than going all in on only one and maybe not achieving plat at all. Plat, in both programs, isn't the huge jump up that silver to gold is - for most travellers, gold in either program provides tangible benefits, with plat being just a bit of extra polish really.
 
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Oh, the other important thing which I don't think has been mentioned. You might spend a chunk of this year travelling with pleb status and doing it rough to attain gold/plat, on either program, but this status level will only come into play and provide benefits once achieved ... so whats your travel plans for next year and beyond ... similar to this year? If so, great, but if its going to be reduced then you'll do the hard yards this year only to not really make use of the perks next year - if this scenario will affect you I'd definitely select only one program and get up in status as quickly as possible, so as to utilise those bennies during the remainder of this years travel.
 
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