Came across this when looking for other status matching airlines. For frequent flyer who have any gold status with One world, Sky, Star and other independent airlines, Virgin velocity are running an 3 month discover trial. To maintain you need to do another 80 status credits to extend for another 12 month.. Its not bad considering you need +500 status credits to qualify for Gold. Some decent benefits if you travel regularly.
Does it have to be on VA metal?
Carbon fibre is also OK ;-)
How to apply? I can't see any link or button to apply for the status match
Good q. From what I understand you need to create a Velocity account and submit your status match request to the Velocity customer service team.
Great deal! Easiest/cheapest way to earn 80 SC?
I think there is a few levels of fares. The mid level get your 15 status credit each flight.. soooo it’s almost 3 return flights to either the Eastern seaboard countries will get you 90 SC.. Good specials running right now
Link your flybuys and shop at Coles you can earn up to 10 SC per month: 1 per $100 spent in that month. Definitely easiest and cheapest although not the quickest.
Not quite. That'll get you 30 points (at max) in the 3 months, but you'll still need another 50 points at least in the 3 months to continue. Plus you'll need 1 sector but that will be covered by any of the flights you also need.
Plus you'd need to spend at least 1k every month just for those 10 credits at Coles so it's also not the cheapest way. i.e. a $100 flight can easily get you 10 credits as well.
Ah. Didn't realise you had to earn the SC within the 3 month period.
The grocery spend is essentially free if you are spending it on groceries anyway. $1000 a month is certainly doable these days, especially as a family.
Brisbane to Melbourne one way in Business Class at $299 and 80 SC
strange Singapore airlines isn't on their status match list and you cant use KF / star alliance gold to access virgin domestic lounges
I dont think virgin wants to poach their own star alliance members.
Did this and completed it last time they had it and only got to use it a few times
Now thay they've upgraded the Singapore gold lounge it might be worth it
Singapore lounge in Changi is so much better now.
Agreed
I mean it was fine before
But now it's closer to the silverkris lounge
Which is pretty insane
You can access Virgin Lounge (and other benefits) if you are Singapore Ailines Gold:
https://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/au/plan-travel/local-prom…
KrisFlyer Elite Gold members are eligible for the below benefits upon presentation of your membership card.
Access the Virgin Australia lounge when departing on flights operated by Virgin Australia. You may invite one guest, provided they are departing on a Virgin Australia flight on the same day. Please present your membership card and boarding pass to enjoy this privilege.
Increased check in baggage allowance- Virgin Australia stand alone domestic and short haul international services: Check in one complimentary piece up to 32kg.
Increased check in baggage allowance- Virgin Australia stand alone long haul international services: Check in one additional piece of baggage when flying to the USA, or an additional 15kg when flying to other destinations, regardless of your travel class.
Increased baggage allowance- Virgin Australia interline or codeshare itineraries with Singapore Airlines and SilkAir: Singapore Airlines and SilkAir's extra checked-in baggage allowance privileges apply.
Priority airport check-in
Priority boarding
Priority baggage handling
Agree, just to get access to some of the international lounges like Singapore and Etihad is next level fantastic…
So you can access The House lounge in Melbourne Airport?
Is there any way that they can verify this? Can you upload a dodgey form?
When hacking becomes fraud.
Yes they will catch you and ban you and you will lose all your Velocity points.
How in the hell could they catch you? Trivial to edit the source on a webpage and take a screen shot.
Maybe if you matched from an allied airline they could, but other airlines ain’t going to confirm or deny anyones frequent flyer status for Virgin.
Yes they will catch you
Please explain how they catch people.
You do know they can check the metadata in the photos right?
@nightelves: Keep going. What metadata is in a screenshot where you’ve edited the source of a webpage?
Fair enough, use MsPaint and you’ll potentially be in trouble.
There's not really any way of them checking your true status on another airline
So I guess you could do it
But yes
It is straight up fraud
I had a mate photoshop a card once to change his expiry date and he got it.
Plus Virgin gold is so easy to keep, you only need 400 a year , a $1500 return business class syd to Bali is 280. You can get about 400 on a $3k business sale fare with Singapore via Singapore to other Asian destinations as they pay status per leg. Compare that to earning status on qantas.
You obviously still need the 4 flights on virgin metal but it’s one of the easiest gold memberships to keep and maintain
Doesn't even have to be Virgin metal to get your sectors, can be any other partner as long as it's VA coded.
Any qantas status match options?
I wish, I'm just under 100 points from platinum with virgin and would like access to Qantas lounges since I now have to fly them sometimes
Thanks OP. So how can someone apply for it?
I believe you just need to create a velocity account (if you don’t have one) and submit a status match request via email.. Hope that helps..
Any idea how long this is valid for?
Guessing this is expired, no link on the page to apply.
I believe you just need to create a velocity account (if you don’t have one) and submit a status match request via email.. Hope that helps
Anyone know if there is one for virgin platinum?
Lol no and as a long time VA Gold status holder, Platinum is the only level of any use with VA. This promotion at least gets you a leg up towards that level.
Gold gets you lounge access though?
The difference between gold and platinum is wayy smaller than silver to gold
Lounge access is like the lowest benefit that comes with status, so many different ways to get it and tbh the VA lounges are nothing to write home about.
I don't use the increased baggage allowance and priority check-in/boarding is rarely of use to me. Priority screening would be beautiful but as I almost exclusively fly internationally I can count on one hand the number of times it's actually been physically available to me at foreign airports as VA Gold.
Platinum is where all the seat and journey upgrades are at and providing true value.
The only real plus I've found of VA Gold over the years has actually been the partner benefits primarily with IHG Rewards, Hilton Honors and Hertz. All have granted me upgrades due to my VA Gold status.
(Note to anyone reading this, you don't get those partner benefits during the 3-month period of this offer.)
@wavesgreen: VA gold, if you’re in Sydney, gets you access to the dedicated lounge security screening entrance. That’s a huge benefit, at least it was back when I was VA gold (through a system glitch).
VA gold, if you’re in Sydney, gets you access to the dedicated lounge security screening entrance.
Except it hasn't been open for months.
@kerfuffle: very true. Not to mention the lounge (both VA and QF) are jam packed during peak times. No seats available. I usually walk in, go to the toilet, walk out.
@kerfuffle: Ah that sucks. It was one pretty sweet perk that you don’t get on Qantas out of Sydney.
I’d gladly trade lounge access for an hour in the massive security queues. I have status with Qantas and it’s no faster through security.
@ChickenTalon: Yes that one was great, however I very rarely flew/fly out of SYD to take advantage of it.
@wavesgreen: The biggest perk of VA Gold over qantas gold is you can access the lounges on arrival. I did this in Adelaide waiting for a mate to arrive on a later flight, it was brilliant and they didn’t time me they just let me in .
And as a long term VA Plat status holder, there isn't that much to write home about either. Free seat selection to Economy X and a couple Business Class upgrades (only from the highest price Economy flex ticket usually) isn't that interesting.
I'm a VA platinum but I agree that the majority of the value comes in at Gold.
Most of my flights are up and down the east coast and I can fit in a standard seat without discomfort for 2-3 hours but we have 4-5 trips to Perth a year and I definitely value the Econ X seats for those trips.
I often travel with a personal bag + 1-2 tool kits so the extra check-in allowance is very handy and being able to use the priority check-in queues with 2-3 pieces of luggage is very convenient. Especially since I'm often travelling at peak times and the general queues are chockers. Even if the priority queue is busy, the upside is that everyone in that line generally flies regularly enough that they have their shit together and the process is smooth. Granted, if I didn't have any status the extra baggage charges just would just go on company plastic but being in the priority queue is often less stuffing around and means I don't have to be at the airport even earlier.
I think the biggest benefit of gold/plat that everyone sleeps on is priority baggage at the carousel though. The 10min I save there often saves me in excess of 20min+ waiting in the queues to collect my hire car/order my Uber and clear airport precincts.
All that said though, the general priority that comes with being platinum over gold occasionally comes in handy - just this weekend my 10:40 PER - BNE flight got cancelled and I learnt that the only people who seemed to make it onto the 13:40 flight were VA Platinum. If not for that I would've had to stay in Perth another night until the next available flight. The cancelled flight already cost me the Saturday and an extra night would've written off the entire weekend.
How do you actually do this? I am surprised at the total lack of information on the promotion page in terms of how to get started.
Even on the contact page, it just has phone numbers, no emails - so where do I send the proof?
https://experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com/member-support
In the how to guide, there is a list of email addresses per the below. Good luck
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected]
Yeh, those emails are listed under a title, Need to update your name in your Velocity Account?
Do you think this applies?
I believed it would Star and at least it would kick start the process. Virgin is useless for not making this process easier.
Anyone applied and got this status match? What was the process?
Thanks mate. Let us know how you go.
I emailed the day this came out and still nothing 😳
Emailed them as well, no response since Tuesday, cmon now!!
Anyone had any luck getting a response yet?
nope, applied last monday as well
I had my match approved today after applying on the 8th. Non-QF status, with details and photo of the card sent to [email protected].
Cheers for letting us all know, I think I did the same on the 9th so fingers crossed 🤞🏻
Anyone else have their Velocity Gold approved?
Nope. Heard nothing since 8th August.
I applied on around the 10th of August and got a reply today saying they'll look into it
Finally got approved today. Applied on 8th August.
Sorry guys but what is SC stand for in all your posts
Is it Shandong airlines? That's what came up in Google or is it scoot
Status Credit
Thanks lol I tried googling it. Couldn't figure it out for the life of me
Contacted them 3 times with no reply yet….anyone else having issues?
Yes I’ve sent two emails and filled in one “contact us” form, the first being from around the 8th/9th of August and still nothing.
Getting a bit impatient for the October travel I booked based on this offer!
Literally just got an email saying it’s been forwarded to the relevant team and they’ll get back to me in 5 business days.
https://experience.velocityfrequentflyer.com/flying-status/f…
They’ve just put this out, but it does note it may take 4 weeks.
This one allows you to status match against Platinum now which is heaps better.
What do you mean? If says gold trial even if you have platinum with someone else
@AussieMark: Did you even read the link? You can get status match to Platinum as well which you couldn't previously.
@nightelves: I did actually
Part of it says gold status trial only
But can see a new section now saying platinum
Apologies
Thanks OP! This is for those who have never had Gold or higher status with Virgin before. 80 status credits to retain is a great deal!