Tier points earnt on VS US cards!!

Hi crew,
Can anyone here explain why it seems OK for the US version on the VS credit card to earn TP's on spend (up to a certain number) but us little UK users do not get such a benefit???
Seems a little unfair from where I am standing.
Am I right is assuming that they get the rest of the vouchers for spending a certain amount as well??

Might be something to do with the competition in the US for the different Amex programs.. I am fairly certain that there are more in the ways of airline credit cards than in the UK - increasing benfits of chosing the VS version than any other etc etc.. Otherwise it is something I did wonder myself.

HL had a theory about smarties in another thread..

I think one of the main reasons for this is that in the USA the VS card is run by a different bank than in the UK (I have a feeling it might be BofA)and they have to compete with some of the very generous other cards/airline affiliations out there.

Also, because earnings of TP's are very limited within the US to get connecting pax an incentive to fly VS some extra benefits need to be offered to compete. For example, if you live in Dallas and want to fly to the UK there are several non-stop flights and even more connections with one airline that earn you benefits all the way through.
If you want to take VS then you have to use two airlines and do ot get any VS benefit on the domestic sector.
Now I know you may say that VX offers this but their route network is very limited and there are no through conections so you would hang around for hours compared to the more streamlined USA carriers.

There is a certain ridiculousness about the fact that status can be 'earned' without ever setting foot on a plane. The challenge for VS will be how they dig themselves out of that particular hole, given that it clearly generates direct/indirect revenue for them (otherwise why do it).

That's assuming they are even bothering to look for a spade of course...

[Neil]

There is a certain ridiculousness about the fact that status can be 'earned' without ever setting foot on a plane. The challenge for VS will be how they dig themselves out of that particular hole, given that it clearly generates direct/indirect revenue for them (otherwise why do it).

That's assuming they are even bothering to look for a spade of course...

You can't earn any real status on VS purely by the CC. The number of TP's you can earn is limited, so you could only earn max 24 TP's per year, and that would require a min spend of $5,000 per month, which would only get you VS Ag status, which is pretty worthless really.

There are plenty of people out there with status at VS (and many other airlines) that have been earned without flying, so it is unique and I think the number of pax that it really benefits would be quite minimal.

As said, competition for US based flyers - noting that many ways to incent exist including:

- Company deals with VS to fast track Au status or give it away.
- Status matching (though not something we hear VS doing much of).
- TPs on the US Amex.
- In the past Au cards given with some high status credit cards for no flying at all.
- etc.

All airlines do it, VS has its own creative ways to lure passengers. Whether it works or not, only they will know!

As someone who was Au for a few years before this benny came along, then got the card when it was announced, for me this provided an incentive to fly less with VS and try other carriers' C products, not needing the flights to requal for Au. Ultimately this led me to leave VS. I doubt that this is the use case VS had in mind when they designed this offering.

It's commonplace for US airline credit cards at the "top tier" card level to provide elite qualifying "points" of some kind - certainly UA and AA do this, and tie it to spend. It's not even a case of offering something more to fly VS, they had to do something like this to make the card offering closely competitive. It would be most interesting, as Slinky says, to see whether this has had any significant impact on flier loyalty out of the US.