Virgin Australia Accelerate Program

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OzEire

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There is only one or two threads I can find which mention this:

Virgin Australia Accelerate Program | Virgin Australia

...and they appear to be somewhat dated, and lack any real commentary on the program itself. Mods, if I've missed the thread where this has already been discussed in detail, apologies and please delete, but if not...

Has anyone had experiences, good or bad, with this program ? I run a business on the side of my salary employment but as my 'little' project starts to get momentum I am taking more and more time away from my main 'job' to work on the business. Naturally, when I came across the VA program I realised that I could be getting rebates for my increasing travel budget and applied to Virgin.

I was shocked that, despite a five figure travel budget (well over their minimum $20k) and some 80 flights last year, Virgin were not interested. As I conduct my business work from home Virgin would not accept my residence as a 'place of business'. The irony is that I travel so frequently because I don't have a bricks and mortar office, my clients are across the country and I go to them - which only increases my travel budget! Next year I may break through to a 6-figure travel spend, particularly as I have added two part-time consultants in the last month to keep up with all the work.

Virgin may have their rules and procedures about what constitutes a 'eligible' business but have shown no flexibility in this case. The upshot of which is that I continue to enjoy my travel on Qantas (as a Plat) as there is no more incentive to fly with VA (as a Gold). It seems obvious that the opportunity to 'earn' rebates would entice me to put more of the travel budget to VA... loyalty 101 I would have thought.

For the record I have contacted the VFF rep who replied very kindly but there was no change to the Virgin Accelerate stance on my little 'home' business.

OzEire
 
Hi,

Have you tried to get a similar deal via the AMEX travel department (assuming you have an AMEX?).
As I've met some people from their Corporate Travel Strategy department who can pass on similar rebates/rates if you have a big travel budget/spend.

Cheers
 
I'm quite surprised, as a home address is quite often a business address for many sole traders. I would contact the VA Accelerate person directly and find out more.
 
Have used it at a small business.

You need to use a special portal to book (or I believe give your code to a TA)
Corporate Login | Virgin Australia

Benefits
- Get a small discount
- Portal site still shows Economy and Business fares together
- Portal enables you to create traveller profiles

Cons
- Design of the portal is worse than the main website !
- Information doesn't flow (eg. phone numbers moved to fax fields), cc details not being kept
- No online track of where you are up to spend wise - you can email them however
 
As for OzEire,
suspect you could find an accountants address or similar to use
 
As for OzEire,
suspect you could find an accountants address or similar to use
I used my own home address and got accepted so I'm not sure why they are being given the run-around.
 
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My firm uses Accelerate. I find it generally painless to use, I haven't really had any problems with the portal but it's certainly not as slick as the normal site (and yes, I realise the normal site is not as slick as could be!). I have no idea of the size of the rebate my firm is receiving, but there is no issue with individuals receiving points and status credits. One thing I noticed is that when you log in you can see all the bookings your company has made - that is, I can see where any of my colleagues are flying to/from on any given day. That's a little Big-Brother-ish for me ...I like to fly under the radar and don't particularly like my colleagues seeing my own bookings ;)
 
If you live in an apartment, I often find making it say 'Suite 7, 123 fake street' works a treat. As others have said, many sole proprietors are based in their residences, so there should be no reason to assume that just because it's a home address, the business is not legitimate.
 
If you live in an apartment, I often find making it say 'Suite 7, 123 fake street' works a treat. As others have said, many sole proprietors are based in their residences, so there should be no reason to assume that just because it's a home address, the business is not legitimate.

Plus you have to provide an ABN, its very easy for them to check that it matches your name and/or business name.
 
Hi all, there appears to be a bit of confusion so I'd like to clarify. In order to accept an Virgin Australia Accelerate application, we need to be able to verify an applicant has a registered Australian business. This includes an active ABN listing and a company registration with ASIC.

Hi there VFF - while this program is of limited interest to myself, I'm curious as to the requirements of the program - does it require an Australian business (with ABN) or an Australian company (with ACN/ABN)?
 
Hi all, there appears to be a bit of confusion so I'd like to clarify. In order to accept an Virgin Australia Accelerate application, we need to be able to verify an applicant has a registered Australian business. This includes an active ABN listing and a company registration with ASIC.

Thanks for all the info AFF and thank you VFF fir the clarification.

Regarding my particular application the reasons given were that a home address was not acceptable. I have no plans to rent an office space so anything else was moot. If "home address not acceptable" provided by Velocity Accelerate, is not correct then that is quite a different case.

The ASIC issue is one of convenience for Accelerate I suspect. ASIC register is fairly easy to check to help 'verify' a business, but having a business name is not essential there is no law which requires me to have one. My official entity name is my name, if I register a trading name with ASIC it protects that name as my Intellectual Property but nothing else, legally the business is still in my name, even if it is known publically as the trading (ASIC) name.

If ASIC is the hurdle I will register and reapply to Accelerate. Thanks for the update VFF, I wish your colleagues at Accelerate had been clearer.

OzEire
 
We use accelerate though Ive never figured out how to "add a traveller" meaning passenger details have to be entered every time a booking is made. I usually check the regular virgin site for flight pricing and availability before using the accelerate portal to book.
 
We use accelerate though Ive never figured out how to "add a traveller" meaning passenger details have to be entered every time a booking is made. I usually check the regular virgin site for flight pricing and availability before using the accelerate portal to book.

You click on a link on the log-in page.

Started playing around with it last night, its not very user-friendly.
 
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