Flying club

There is a complaint about this already on the FB page.

Basically - "I have flown miles and miles with you so why make people who haven't silver and not me?"


It would be quite easy for VS to validate these upgrades by sending an email asking for the persons IoD membership number - no IoD number and the status gets rescinded.

The thing is, this isn't really being touted everywhere on the Internet. Only travel nerds (excuse the turn of phrase it isn't meant as an insult) like us have seen it and not everyone will have done it.

I can appreciate why you feel a bit miffed but really does it matter whether someone is a member of the IOD or not?[/quote]

it IS being touted on lots of sites/forums/facebook/twitter etc

VS will have to send out thousands of Silver FF Packs, which I guess all have a cost & postage attached, plus the thousands of extra miles that will be given on the now silver status flights.[/quote]


Exactly!!! It's everywhere and not just on travel sites so folks are even signing up for FC then taking this offer!! Un bloody fair IMHO[/quote]

I typed a whole reply to this that somehow disappeared from my phone, so apologies if two posts appear essentially saying the same thing. I'll delete one if I see it has popped up.

It is fairly useless though if it isn't going to be used to fly. There are absolutely no benefits to be had if someone never books a ticket on virgin and has signed up to the ff programme.

If they do, then that's great pr for virgin, new customers. Plus, it is a fantastic way to entice floating flyers who aren't tied to any airline. What better way to ensure they choose you than by offering what is essentially the first ring on its ff programme.

I am interested to know about the investigation as I would like to learn more about it. If you have a link to something then mores the better.

As for it being all over the Internet, well the offer expired today. But as I said, I've not seen it anywhere other than flying sites. And even if it is everywhere, not everyone who sees it will be interested in signing up.

Anyway, I guess we'll see what happens.

I'm just going to say I disagree and apologise for having been vocal on the subject but its my opinion. Now on to drinking my bottle of Lanson...... :-p

Reminds me... I still owe trip reports from the recent MIA trip especially new (nasty) dream suite outbound...

In my opinion yes it does! I go to great pains these days to maintain Silver although it doesn't offer the advantages of Gold but its better than Red and if god forbid I don't when flying for business manage to get round the new Econ mandate as least I get PE checkin

Having turned left once a few years ago and had the opportunity to sample BA first I've not flown economy long haul since and I plan to stay that way anyway possible!! Four flights this year in UC and one more already booked.

And the offer was supposed to be Open to IOD only....

I agree with this.
So I didn't sign up

So I didn't sign up

Ditto.

Also because of admittedly very slim risk that they could close my FC account down and loosing my 90k+ miles for breaching the T&Cs.

Now if others want to / did sign up well that's up to them but they will get short shrift from me if they complain if and when they get demoted back to red and/or have their accounts closed.

Though this has reminded me that I have a WEXAS account that I really should check it more often for offers !

So I didn't sign up

Ditto.

Also because of admittedly very slim risk that they could close my FC account down and loosing my 90k+ miles for breaching the T&Cs.

Now if others want to / did sign up well that's up to them but they will get short shrift from me if they complain if and when they get demoted back to red and/or have their accounts closed.

Though this has reminded me that I have a WEXAS account that I really should check it more often for offers !

And rightly so, you takes your risks you pays the price.

And let's see what the price is ....

[Neil]

If people have decided to sign up to something they aren't entitled to then they can have no complaints if they are changed back.

However posting comments that are meant to imply potential punishments isn't necessary or needed. Virgin have a poor record of allowing such loopholes to be abused and with it seemingly being an automatic process and the large amount of people that could have stoned up I very much doubt they will do anything. They certainly didn't with the free Gold status a couple of years back and that would have cost them more as there are real benefits with Au.

[Nottingham Nick]

I agree with Neil - I would be VERY surprised if VS impose any sort of sanctions here. As others have alluded to, IMHO this is a win-win situation for VS. The silver benefits are minimal and the cost of membership packs is pennies.

If the 'promotion' instills loyalty in the form of flights booked that may have gone to other airlines in only a handful of once / twice a year fliers, then they will be in profit.

On the other hand if they use the T&Cs to impose draconian punishments on people who, by definition, are social media users, then the negative publicity will harm them a lot more.

I also can't see the point of getting worked up about the fact that some folk may have got something they aren't entitled to - who is it hurting? I doubt it will have a massive impact on the availability of reward seats. If it means more people fly with VS and they stay in business, then everyone benefits in my book.

Nick

I don't really understand people talking so much offence from it. If they really wanted to limit and control it, the link should have been within a members only part of the IoD website or required some sort of verification on Virgin's part.

As said before, people are routinely offered status for various different reasons that may seem unfair to those who work/spend hard to achieve it. That's just life I guess.

Memberships packs really cannot cost that much. I'm sure the once a year traveller who may be taking a break in the US may now be persuaded to travel Virgin rather than BA. Prices these days always seems to be within a few pounds of eachother, especially in economy, so silver membership might just sway them.

Lanson done... V nice

To be honest I'm only surprised this hasn't arisen before.

VS silver status is freely available via my employer's intranet to 20,000+ staff worldwide. No password, no checks, just a link like this IoD one. Anyone could post it online. Maybe they have, I don't know. But it's been available for at least a year, possibly longer. And I'm sure the same's true for many other employers.

Which leads me to believe VS are happy to have as many silver members as possible, because even if less than 1% of them go for gold that's a lot of business that might otherwise go to BA or whoever.

Is it unfair? I don't think so. It's just another corporate deal that's meant to be a staff perk. I can also get discounts with Apple, O2, gyms, restaurants, insurance - you name it. That's business.

This sort of thing's been going on for years. It's just that, until this IoD link went viral, only those in the know knew about it. It's like the first rule of air travel - the person sitting next to you invariably paid less than you.

[honey lamb]

I'm kinda smiling at this debate. I suspect that a lot of people will be pitching up at the various desks announcing "I'm Silver" and being looked at indulgently by the staff as they do, just as happened to me many moons ago!

Or what about being able to use the PE desks when traveling in EC? Ah yes, Golden Jubilee weekend 2002 when a conspiracy of earlier events (including an Aer Lingus pilots' strike) conspired to create maximum chaos in LHR! :0 I arrived at the PE line, having passed the EC line where a guy with a Union Flag floppy top hat (you know the kind) was at the end of the queue. OK so I was in PE but could I find the end of that line? Eventually I could and it took me an hour and a half to check in while Mr Union Jack Hat bobbed along merrily and was through before us! Any EC passengers would have been better to stay at that area!

Oh and what about gaining status without flying the miles? Several years ago I had booked a flight for myself which would bring me to Gold. My teenage son was accompanying me but he would only retain silver. However, after we had booked the trip the Flying Club announced as part of its Golf Swingers' Club (of which Aer John was a member) that if a member played and posted photographic evidence in five different courses at any VS destination they would gain 5TPs which is exactly what he needed to achieve Gold. I had booked a golfing holiday with him at a VS destination and so we did just that. When he achieved Gold, the outcry from some members were vitriolic :0 God love the poor boy! He was only going to be travelling with me and in UC so the only loss to VS/gain to him was the number of VS miles

my only concern was the potential cost to the Company if thousands of people took up the offer, knowing what the beancounters are like, if this extra take up meant that the current benefits we have would be downsized to make up for it...

my only concern was the potential cost to the Company if thousands of people took up the offer, knowing what the beancounters are like, if this extra take up meant that the current benefits we have would be downsized to make up for it...

See, I'm not overly convinced that is is going to cost them that much. Not everyone who signs up will use it, so all it's cost is admin. And like I said before, they will recoup that from floating flyers who suddenly now think that they have some status and will choose VS over other airlines.

Hi all

Reading the post with interest, I am one of the people that click the link (didn't realise I was doing something that wrong) we travel with virgin once a year and have used our last airmiles last year. Gradually rebuilding the mileage with new flights in 5 weeks along with the virgin cc I am now scared they might take away the airmiles we already have acrude.

We are honest people (there was no t&c on the link) I appreciate that people use there hard earned money to retain silver and gold. We only travel for leisure

We have considered ringing virgin but have decided to wait a few days, I am happy to return to red. Just don't want our airmiles deducted we are flying UC in 5 weeks which we have paid for

I just wanted to let people know that we are normal human beings that just jumped that the chance at being silver and apologise to anyone for that

Sharon

[mitchja]

Sharon

You have nothing to apologise for as far as I'm concerned, and that is as A FC Silver member myself here as well who pays for all of my flights using my own hard-earned money. I'd have probably done the same as you in if I was in your position.

Let not forget something here as well, VS is a UK airline, yet they reward their US based passengers with tier points allowing them to gain status in FC for simply spending on their version of the VS AmEx card.

[Neil]

I 100% agree with James, and I'm sure that over the years we have all used a discount code, voucher, special offer that we might not have been fully entitled to.

As I said before, if Virgin allow these promotions/targeted offers to be abused because they haven't put sufficient checks in place then they can't complain if it gets used by the great general public.

As I said before, if Virgin allow these promotions/targeted offers to be abused because they haven't put sufficient checks in place then they can't complain if it gets used by the great general public.

I agree with you that they can hardly complain, but personally I don't think it is a good idea to obtain things (e.g. extra FC miles) to which I am not entitled, and the uneasiness expressed on this thread suggests to me that some other people may feel the same way. Isn't it the thin end of a wedge?

One issue is that of free upgrades. In the rare event of the cabin being full and upgrades necessary I would be a bit annoyed if it was offered to another Silver member who had earned their membership level on a freebee.

-Steve

There is a complaint about this already on the FB page.

Basically - "I have flown miles and miles with you so why make people who haven't silver and not me?".

I take the complaint on the facebook page as the poster thinking they are now entitled to free gold status and somehow thinking VS may give it to them.

One issue is that of free upgrades. In the rare event of the cabin being full and upgrades necessary I would be a bit annoyed if it was offered to another Silver member who had earned their membership level on a freebee.

-Steve

I always thought that gold status was where they looked for that.

One issue is that of free upgrades. In the rare event of the cabin being full and upgrades necessary I would be a bit annoyed if it was offered to another Silver member who had earned their membership level on a freebee.

-Steve

I always thought that gold status was where they looked for that.

Depends upon who's on board, some flights such as the B&S routes may not have any gold members flying.

-Steve

I take the complaint on the facebook page as the poster thinking they are now entitled to free gold status and somehow thinking VS may give it to them.

Lol, with you on that one...

One issue is that of free upgrades. In the rare event of the cabin being full and upgrades necessary I would be a bit annoyed if it was offered to another Silver member who had earned their membership level on a freebee.

-Steve

I always thought that gold status was where they looked for that.

Depends upon who's on board, some flights such as the B&S routes may not have any gold members flying.

-Steve

Hmm a slightly more involved question given the unknown factors at work in the op-up machine.... that being said I am sure that it will move them up the packing order. It is hardly much to complain about in my view given for an op-up to fulfil its promise you are effectively getting something you didn't pay for anyway.... see where this is going?

Just weighing in on this debate - an interesting situation and I have to confess I take the simple line of people who took advantage of this offer, good for them. VS made the 'mistake' of leaving it open and people took initiative and advantage. I certainly would not hold any malice towards people that did so. In truth it is probably not something I would have done (don't need to at the moment :w ), but there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of an offer open to so many on the table - we have all done it ii)

Drawing a parallel between this and the TP offer last year, VS raised the qualification levels for AU in order to reduce the membership then offered 12 free TPs bringing the line of qualification below that which it was before ?| Personally I qualify AU with a few TPs to spare and thought, wow it is going to be easier this year for some and also afford the opportunity to enjoy AU for those that may not make it. Of course deep down I was thinking, damn the CH is going to be busier for another year ):

My point being, people who took that offer and this one and benefitted from it, good for you and answer me this.. are you now more or less likely to book your next flights with VS?

Good luck all, hope VS leave the Ag upgrade in place for those that nabbed it 8D