Will you still earn/retain Velocity status beyond 2025?

[ceetee]

Well, that is just great! I’ve been VA Plat for years and recently this past 12 months moved most of my Dom/Intl flights to Qantas, even before VA made this blunder. Now that I am mm’s from QF Plat all of you Virgin flyers are going to move over to QF also. There goes the priority queue!
I’m being facetious of course, and I agree with many of these posts. VA is only a Dom airline with, as Steph eloquently puts it, a dogs brekkie of Int’l agreements. I hesitate to call them partnerships.
I love the VA staff and Dom experience, but I need to fly Int’l often, so QF has been wonderful.
But for all of you VA flyers contemplating a switch to QF, just stay where you are. It could get better

 

[Steven of Mysore]

Rather than a long Sunday of my disquiet, just a summary. Cannot be bothered with VA status again.

 

[TMP]

Like others, I'll look at QF out of interest now, and will fly if price is right, but JQ is a no no due to all the ancillary charges that end up making it basically the same as VA. Will lose my status, but credit card will keep me in the lounge. Aiming to keep partner at Gold for one more year into 2027 but that will be it for us. At the end of the day, I like VA and will keep a preference for them, but will not chase status.

 

[Jacques Vert]

JQ starter I get pinged at the gate if my carry on is 7.3kg. Not gonna happen on VA.

Overall, the hard and soft product is incrementally different between JQ and VA/QF, as outlined above. Enough to say that JQ starter is a different product to VA lite.

Can't you take 300gm out of your carry-on and put it in your pocket?

 

[ozstamps]

Maybe VA have decided that people like me aren't profitable enough to give perks to. I guess only time will tell if they are correct, but I maintain they are in for a bit of a shock.

The Q3 market share figures will tell us all the story I suspect.

Velocity has become a huge Yawn to mannnnnnnnnny this year.

Big mistake to p!ss off large armies of once loyal Elites in this of all years.

 

[Mattg]

Big mistake to p!ss off large armies of once loyal Elites in this of all years.

We get it. You've made your point loud and clear in this thread, repeatedly.

 

[ozstamps]

Cannot be bothered with VA status again.

We get it.

Many here are hoping Virgin gets it. And fast. Client feedback is golden in such cases. This poll shows 65% of those here will downgrade this year - a total disaster for Virgin if that is even HALF that figure program wide.

Still not too late to fine tune some of these new 'enhancements' to the FF plan and the Lifetime Gold loopy ground rules.

We know you love everything about Virgin, and you also keep telling us repeatedly, but this year not all agree.

ANY loyalty program of any kind on the planet would DIE if they saw these sort of disaster figures after a deliberate program derailing - and 324 votes is a VERY decent cross-section, that is voting here -

 

[RooFlyer]

Many here are hoping Virgin gets it. And fast. Client feedback is golden in such cases. This poll shows 65% of those here will downgrade this year - a total disaster for Virgin if that is program wide.

Haven’t figured out that this was an almost certain outcome of the changes and that VA might have planned it?

I won’t retain VA plat next year, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop flying them.

if you think sitting in a crowded lounge (as VA’s have become) and queueing for a free coffee etc has ever been worth chasing status for, I think you should rethink it.

 

[Mattg]

We know you love everything about Virgin, and you also keep telling us repeatedly, but this year not all agree.

I don't know if you're directing this comment at me, but I don't love everything about Virgin and don't keep telling you that repeatedly. In fact, I think I've made it pretty clear that I think the status changes have led to a lot of disengagement with the Velocity program.

I'm sure that people from Virgin are reading this thread, and are taking the feedback on board. The thing is, if you keep making the same points over and over, it drowns out the feedback from other members who also have opinions (many of which you would likely agree with).

Virgin would be much more likely to act if they get the same feedback from lots of different people, rather than the same points over and over from one person.

 

[MooTime]

I'm no less engaged with the velocity program, collecting points where I can to take my seat in a Q Suite, yes please.

Sure few less VA flights and drop status, but nothing stays the same forever.
It is what it is.

 

[PaulllM]

I'm maintaining the status quo for the time being but I'm not thrilled at the program changes and the continued reduction of benefits. I had a change in employment which has seen me fly much more and got me back to Platinum before all the SC rates changed. I am one of those golden handcuff flyers that just goes straight to VA to book something but at some stage next year I'll be enquiring into a status match with QF as much as my total spend would get me much more with QF than under the new arrangements.

 

[eastwest101]

I'm maintaining the status quo for the time being but I'm not thrilled at the program changes and the continued reduction of benefits. I had a change in employment which has seen me fly much more and got me back to Platinum before all the SC rates changed. I am one of those golden handcuff flyers that just goes straight to VA to book something but at some stage next year I'll be enquiring into a status match with QF as much as my total spend would get me much more with QF than under the new arrangements.

Congrats on obtaining Plat status with Virgin, sounds like you do a fair bit of flying and a strategic status match to Qantas might be a good idea, assuming your work travel is your choice of airline. I don't think you are alone in that the Velocity changes have prompted many/some people to look at the competition again and start comparing the reach and benefits of both airline programs and the cost to obtain and retain status.

With Virgin's very limited international partners, no alliance, a limited lounge network, no regional presence in Australia, less domestic frequency and now more difficulty/expense to retain status, and lounges still bursting at the seams with Amex cardholders I expect that many will find that Qantas is only marginally more expensive to fly but offers possibly more benefits.

As the Sydney-Adelaide Y fares example above shows, once you add the cost of SC earn bundles to Jetstar they are sometimes uncooperative and not really worthwhile considering, but the difference in Virgin Lite and Choice fares means you would be paying $25 for checked baggage on Virgin and then only need to spend another $4 and then you are in a Qantas Red-E fare which includes baggage anyway, and you get fed something and get something other than water tea and coffee to drink onboard. So yes - as far a business fares are concerned Virgin is still a good value proposition compared to Qantas business fares but if you consider the economy products and prices, then Qantas is very competitive and possibly an overall better proposition at the moment for some.

Get back to us on how you go with the status match, and how your travel patterns change in the future, if you can.

 

[SBD]

Definitely a lower tier next year. Have dropped from Platinum (from its invention until the pandemic) to Gold, for which I just barely requalified for another year (much flying this year was reward flying so no points/SC).

The lounge quality has dived but it's always better than no lounge in a long weather or equipment delay, and one or two partner airlines sometimes treat Golds better than VA does itself.

But there's no chance I'll re-qualify gold again with the new formula.

So all my trans-Pacific flights will be on non-partner carriers, and all my UA flights within the United States will be credited elsewhere.

It's a pity as I've been a strong supporter of VA for many years. It's not perfect but it's often been solid and occasionally very good (the early years of V Australia flying 777s to/from LAX were great). It has certainly kept QF a fraction more honest than it would otherwise have been.

I'm not telling VA anything it doesn't know, but passenger loyalty is very hard to earn and very easy to lose: the quasi-LCC ethos is here to stay, it seems, and that means I'm done.

(Will also ditch my credit card that auto-deposits points into my Velocity account. Not any more, thank you very much.)

 

[drron]

Well I am very likely to fall short of requalifying gold now. Had the old system applied would have made Plat by mid next year. Not going to pay an extra $1000-$1500 to fly a VA code rather than SQ.
However it is not going to change my flying habits which will still be VA not QF unless the QF fare is significantly lower. Why? Because I can redeem awards to here we want to go on airlines i want to travel. namely SQ and QR. In the next 12 months 6 J awards for 2 on SQ and 4 on QR. Whilst find it next to impossible on QF flying our usual preferred way of leaving Australia or returning namely SIN or BKK from SYD or BNE.

So the only change I have made is taking double points instead of double SCs in the latest promotion.

And all of that after Mrsdrron was pinged at the gate on our last SYD-MCY flight for her 7.6 Kg carry on.

 

[Happy Dude]

(Will also ditch my credit card that auto-deposits points into my Velocity account. Not any more, thank you very much.)

Velocity points are still well worth collecting IMO for SQ/QR and domestic awards. Having status doesn't really affect redemptions like it does over at QF so I won't be throwing the baby out with the bath water.