I have been a VA Gold FF for many years and I have offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. When I fly between Sydney and Melbourne (as I do 2 or 3 times a month) it is usually at short notice, and I take the cheapest economy fare I can get for the one hour flight. Longer flights e.g Perth and internationally (Europe or USA), I take Business or First, and I have made at least 4 First Class international flights in the last 12 months, two of them on VA partner airline Etihad (excellent service).
Over the years I had accumulated a lot of VA FF points so last year I started to use some of the points to redeem flights on VA. I redeemed a number of domestic flights and also some International Business class on VA ( from USA). The net result of all this (non paid tickets), was that my membership status with VA was lowered late last year from Gold to Silver which annoyed me immensely. I wrote several letters to VA FF requesting they review my position. Although I received an immediate response to my letters (advising only that I would get a response within a short period of time) I waited weeks and often much longer to get a response. In the end I received a phone call from the VA FF offices in Brisbane (after I had complained to the head of the FF program and still not received a response), advising the my downgrade would still stand, so I am now Silver.
I still have access to the VA lounges as I am a Centurion member so my complaint is both about the woeful speed and lack of response to my correspondence, and also my strong belief that my detailed emails were basically not even really considered by anyone with a brain and a customer service mentality.
I have also been a Gold/Platinum member of Qantas FF for many years (as well as a foundation member of the Qantas Club), and when a similar situation arose with my Qantas FF membership due to many flight redemptions, I received a delightful letter from the Qantas FF program advising that my Gold membership had received a complimentary continuation of status even though I had not strictly met the criteria for same. So much for Virgin's consideration of loyalty, and number of flights taken!
Due to a recent death in the family I have just this week returned from DFW, flying First class with my wife, and with my four adult children in Business class - guess which airline got my business!
Over the years I had accumulated a lot of VA FF points so last year I started to use some of the points to redeem flights on VA. I redeemed a number of domestic flights and also some International Business class on VA ( from USA). The net result of all this (non paid tickets), was that my membership status with VA was lowered late last year from Gold to Silver which annoyed me immensely. I wrote several letters to VA FF requesting they review my position. Although I received an immediate response to my letters (advising only that I would get a response within a short period of time) I waited weeks and often much longer to get a response. In the end I received a phone call from the VA FF offices in Brisbane (after I had complained to the head of the FF program and still not received a response), advising the my downgrade would still stand, so I am now Silver.
I still have access to the VA lounges as I am a Centurion member so my complaint is both about the woeful speed and lack of response to my correspondence, and also my strong belief that my detailed emails were basically not even really considered by anyone with a brain and a customer service mentality.
I have also been a Gold/Platinum member of Qantas FF for many years (as well as a foundation member of the Qantas Club), and when a similar situation arose with my Qantas FF membership due to many flight redemptions, I received a delightful letter from the Qantas FF program advising that my Gold membership had received a complimentary continuation of status even though I had not strictly met the criteria for same. So much for Virgin's consideration of loyalty, and number of flights taken!
Due to a recent death in the family I have just this week returned from DFW, flying First class with my wife, and with my four adult children in Business class - guess which airline got my business!
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