V-Flyer

Are there any Life Time Gold card holders who are also v-flyers?

not me....

would leave a smiley crying, but there isn't one...

Is there such a thing, formally?

Originally posted by mcmbenjamin
Is there such a thing, formally?

I have never heard of one, but that doesn't mean there aren't any.

I certainly don't know of any V-Flyers who are.

Nick

Forgive me for asking but what does "Life Time Gold" mean? Is it something to do with the FC number of miles a person has earned? Tried running an all forums search to get answer but got this error Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e31'

Cheers,

James

Have heard that there is a 'special' club above gold, tho.

Originally posted by Vegascrazy
Forgive me for asking but what does "Life Time Gold" mean? Is it something to do with the FC number of miles a person has earned? Tried running an all forums search to get answer but got this error Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040e31'

Cheers,

James

I think the OP was asking if VS has given anyone lifetime membership of the flying club at gold level. All us 'normal' people have to renew every year by earning enough tier points from flights. Otherwise you go down to silver, then the following year to red.

It is widly believed there is an unpublicised level of membership above gold, generally referred to as V50. A bit like the Massons, it does not have a public persona, but you will know when you have been awarded V50

There is a 'level' above Gold but it does not carry another card, it does have some other benefits. You'd ned to be travelling on VS regularly to get the level, you would easily make Gold each quarter kind of thing. V50 is the coined name as there was typically around 50 people in the club, but it did grow - I know of people who were racking up 400+ tier points per year. Now the req is lower, and there are two people that look after the group.

As to lifetimes, yes but very, very few and they come from the above level and have held FC Au status for a very long time, some since inception. There is also a member per region who got lifetime gold via the competition that was held in July 2000 to win 1m miles and Gold status for life.

Thanks,
Richard

400+ TP's a year? So at least 40 UC flights! Flying three or four long haul flights a month - that can't really be that much fun.

Originally posted by fozzyo
400+ TP's a year? So at least 40 UC flights! Flying three or four long haul flights a month - that can't really be that much fun.

I came across at least two sets of people who were connecting from/to Joburg or the Middle East via LHR on my BOS round trip.

So, that would be 20 TPs for just one of those trips done in Upper Class.

On that note, as I'm a member of UA's scheme as well, once you're a "Million Miler" (as in one million miles flown on UA metal), you're Premier Executive (and therefore *G) for life. I've still got some way to go with only 238,000 miles on UA metal. If I didn't fly VS as much to the US, and did all my US travel with UA, I'd probably be near to the 500,000 mile mark by now.

Cheers,
Mike

AA's (IMHO) is the worst/best. They award million miler status based on miles earnt; encluding flight miles, hotels, and credit card miles. Is that 'status'?

Anycase, I know a bunch of VF lifetime Black and Golds .

I got halfway with AA purely on flights before I switched allegiance to VS

Originally posted by Decker
I got halfway with AA purely on flights before I switched allegiance to VS

Good [y] That's the way it should be IMHO. I just remember from my ramp days seeing a whole bunch of AA 1MM or 2MM tags. Interesting program over there.

When he was alive, Randolph Fields was Life Time Gold.

Originally posted by fozzyo
400+ TP's a year? So at least 40 UC flights! Flying three or four long haul flights a month - that can't really be that much fun.

I met someone who did 72 VS flights in one year, mostly to Chicago ... was invited to SRB's house in Oxfordshire as a result.

Am currently doing 2/3 long hauls a month so looks like I won't make VS50 [n]

Originally posted by slinky09

Am currently doing 2/3 long hauls a month so looks like I won't make VS50 [n]

If they are on VS metal, then I think you might The rules changed last year.... you'll know when it happens. Remember the phrase v50 is not the proper name.

Thanks,
Richard

For anyone that cares...DL has a similar "lifetime" award. Once you reach Million Miler status (MM), by flying 1M miles in one calendar year, you've earned yourself the Gold Medallion card for life. However we do get a lot of MM/PM's or Million Miler's with a current Platinum status, simply because they still fly a enough to qualify for PM. The little MM does add a few perks for you... agents are pretty much authorized to just take care of you--within reason

Originally posted by webdes03
The little MM does add a few perks for you... agents are pretty much authorized to just take care of you--

Presumably the logical extention of this is that without the MM status, agents are pretty much authorized to not take care of you? I must admit that this ties up with my experience.

Originally posted by sailor99

Originally posted by webdes03
The little MM does add a few perks for you... agents are pretty much authorized to just take care of you--

Presumably the logical extention of this is that without the MM status, agents are pretty much authorized to not take care of you? I must admit that this ties up with my experience.

Oh I certainly didn't mean it that way.

I was simply trying to show that there can be additional perks. Of course with a GM you're allowd unlimited same day confirms without charge, and PM's unlimited upgrades without charge- I was simply meaning that type of thing... you do of course get a lot of respect with the MM tag- but in general (I) like to take care of our elites as best I can. I can't speak for other agents.

I have coworkers that don't follow the same philosophy I do. Say you've got a cancelled flight for example, some of my coworkers will simply print out a pax list and rebook the flight in alphabetical order, whereas I always print out a load manifest (which lists DL and SkyTeam elites at the top), as to rebook them first.

I'm not sure what type of formal training DL agents get for handling elites. I work for a connection carrier, and go to basically the same ticketing and gate classes as DL agents, and I've never formally been told "this is what you do for a gold", "this is what you do for a MM". I think the majority of people that know what the limits are work in crown rooms and dedicated elite check-in.

I tend to use the philosophy, that everyone should, that you earned that status by being loyal to us, in most cases flying us exclusively, and spending your money with us, so if something comes up, the airline should be willing to spend some money on you--you deserve that.

As an example, we had a PM come up the other day... he's a stand-up comedian. His show had been relocated to another venue and he wanted to fly into SFO instead of LAX to minimize his driving time. Technically he's allowed to same day confirm without charge, but that requires your routing be the same, thus the computer wanted something like $380 to reissue his ticket to SFO.

Now my supervisor is one of those agents that doesn't like to go the extra mile, and she wanted me to charge him, but with a little bit of insubordination I was able to convince her to reissue it without charge.

Unfortunately there are a lot of agents that have tightened up, especially since the bankruptcy, and are not willing to go the extra mile (my supervisor as an example). There is a lot of belief among some that we can't afford it, and to a certain extent they're right, we can't afford to be spending money like we have it. But our Elites are the ones that will keep us flying. Your average family that goes to Florida once a year doesn't pay our paychecks, loyal customers like you do, and if you're not happy, and you leave, then we have nobody to fly around, no revenue, and thus-----no airline.

Of course I knew you didn't mean that. I am fraid I was being somewhat naughty following my recent not totally great experience with DL. It was unwarranted, and I appologise.

Well as you pointed out and I admitted there are a lot of problems with the system--problems which are hopefully being addressed.

Back to the thread ... VS does award lifetime Gold status on a very selected basis to a limited number of people who fly regularly and have been a Gold member for a period of time. It is at the discretion of the CEO; Steve Ridgway signs all the letters himself...