Flying Club Membership Changes

Just received the following from FC regarding changes to tier points and flying club miles

"Great news: From 1 June 2011* your Silver Flying Club membership will be even more rewarding.

We’ve made a few changes to help you earn tier points and Flying Club miles. So now you can reach your goals - and your dream destinations - even faster.

From June, your Silver tier bonus will increase from 25% to 50% of base flown miles, meaning you can reach rewards even quicker.

If you choose Premium Economy in booking classes W or S, you’ll also earn an extra tier point (it’s gone up from 3 tier points to 4).

Plus you’ll earn an extra tier point when you book Upper Class in booking classes J or D, (6 instead of 5).

Silver renewal tier points are also changing, from 1 September 2011 you will be required to earn 15 tier points in your next membership year to maintain your status.

And once you become a Gold member, we’ll double the bonus miles you’ll earn on base flown miles from 50% to 100%!"

[mitchja]

Gold status will now also require 40 TP's to maintain from Sept 1st too instead of the current 30 TP's.

Not sure this is really good news

[mitchja]

I'm not convinced either.

[honey lamb]

I'm not convinced either.

Nor me. !

just another reason to swap more business to the dark side. !

So with this graet news..4 TP's per sector for flying my usual PE twice a year, that's 16 for 2 return trips.
Now it's 15 TP's needed to renew Ag..I'll just about do it.
Previously it was 12 TP's per year for the same trips,(LHR/JNB/LHR) with 10 to renew....not so great news. v(
Sounds like the FC spin doctors have taken a leaf out of the furniture sale ads on Telly.....a DFS sale con coming on don't y'all think?

Made me laugh when I got the email - glad I am not renewing Au.

So, in a nutshell:-
You are getting more T/P's BUT they have rasied the bar by a greater proprtion. Tell me how that is a good deal.

Previously - 5 P/E returns to renew
Now 5 in S or W or 7 in K


Previously - 3 in U/C to renew
Now - 3.3 is J 0r D (so lets call it 4 !)or 4 in Z.

Like their style.

[Darren Wheeler]

or

Increasing the exclusivity of the tiers.

One of the comments about Gold was that it was far too easy to get and maintain.

Just sayin'

Not good news - I gave up on SQ (after many years Solitaire status) because they made the requal criteria tougher....now it looks like Virgin don't want my business either. Their choice. n(

[Neil]

Well we have all said it is to easy to reach/maintain elite status on VS - and these changes are going to hit the less frequent, but still equally as loyal travellers.

Probably won't affect me, but I think we can safely say the number of gold and silvers is going to drop quite by quite a significant number.

Proper spin... v(

How many Silver holders (who would value the extra tier points) actually buy an S or more so a J ticket ?|

The increased renewal limit vastly worse than the offer of 1 tier point on a full price ticket ? note they haven't included Y fares

I can get that flying MAN to LHR

Is this the start of "alignment" with an alliance :w

Probably won't affect me, but I think we can safely say the number of gold and silvers is going to drop quite by quite a significant number.

Joining rules for getting into bed with someone ??

Doesn't really effect me as I'm still red at the moment, but hoping to make it to silver with my next flight. Not sure that I'd be able to renew it but who knows. I'm not really seeing this as good news imho, but hey ho, I guess it'll make the elite status more special. Though VS are still way better than the dark side to get to Silver and maintain, so I'm not that bothered really.

I know it will incur wrath from some but I feel the tiers are so easy to obtain they are not that valuable as so many qualify.
I know occasional travellers will be miffed but the point of a FF scheme is to encourage FFers to stick with it.
By limiting the numbers who qualify the benefits can be maintained more easily. The club house is over crowded much of the time but not with UC passengers.

I agree that silver and gold have been easy to achieve, but the "rewards" have been on par with it. But now it's "harder" to maintain status, it has become worse value IMO. Even with the few extra miles.

Now they have upped the requirements to maintain status, they need to up the benefits.

Spiceke - not convince by your calculations there.

However, I think the subtlety in the email is (in W or S....in J or D).

Previously, to renew AG I needed to complete 3 legs in PE and something else - which could be a leg in Economy.

Now, I must fly 5 PE legs in k, or 4 legs in W or S etc etc.

In my view, for AG - they've raised the bar, but only slightly, making sure that they further refine those that will achieve AG to the higher revenue earners for VS.

Couldn't comment on AU, but maybe the same sort of comment applies?

In return, you get more miles for your flight (unless you're a child, of course).

I'm personally not too upset by this, and can see it makes sense for VS in terms of slightly narrowing the field for AG and AU status acquisition...

(I wonder how long it took a consultant at 1.5k a day to make that recommendation:D).

All in all, a strange one - I was kind of expecting things to remain unchanged for a while pending a more substantial overhaul at some later stage was DeutscheBank (2k a day minimum) had completed their strategic review. Perhaps they did and this is part of the output?

This is good for me as I will have Ag as of my flight on the 25th of this month and will earn a bunch more miles next year.

But......I won't have enough flights at the end of next year to renew. Shame!

Sorry - I agree with the need to make it more difficult to gain AU and AG status, however the benefits need improving in each to make it worth it.

Hmmmm

[Darren Wheeler]

Compare the difference between getting status with BA

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ec ... blic/en_gb

Needless to say, this will polarise opinion between those negatively and those positively affected. I'm on the fence because although the extra miles are nice, I always get booked into R class for UC so won't get the TPs. But 40 points is still doable.

To echo the comments made already though, definitely doesn't sound like totally unilateral action from VS... fingers crossed for a decent alliance!

Personally the 100% bonus miles for me will be welcome but I'm now far more likely to consider other carriers in view of the changes overall. There is little point earning more miles if I can't spend them easily with either VS or one of their partners(and having tried recently to book with NZ I gave up !).
I hate to say it but I agree with locutus - BA are becoming a more attractive proposition both in terms of routes, award redemption and their 2-4-1 scheme.
DL

By limiting the numbers who qualify the benefits can be maintained more easily. The club house is over crowded much of the time but not with UC passengers.

likely with the secondary airline agreements and bought entry.... :w

I agree in principle there is need for an overhaul, Silver isn't really worth much, you can use the PE desk, which has occasional advantage and the extra few (25%) miles goes someway to offsetting missing kids miles in our household.. hardly a deal breaker for those slightly frequent fliers. Gold however is a easy win and deserves more exclusivity & can see why they upped the renewal.

How many have said it already on here, quite happy flying in PE even Y when I have CH access... :w

If they are to up limits, would hope for some beneficial extras in return, or are VS really tightening their spend that hard..

Await with anticipation higher miles requirements and UG's & reward seats..

This appears to be some slight tinkering aimed at reducing the numbers of Ag's and Au's, but once you reach Ag or Au status the miles earning potential rises - which is great.

I personally believe that since the cost of a W PE fare to say NYC is similar to a Z, that the TP earning should be closer (and have posted such before), so I am in tune with that. And I do agree that it is easy to renew and the bar needed to be set higher.

BUT, this will not please all people.

HOWEVER, I wonder why the tinkering now ... is it related to an imminent announcement on joining *A or SkyTeam :w , and possibly some need to normalize with one of those in terms of higher status? Is more change on the way? If not, why tinker now ...

Await with anticipation higher miles requirements and UG's & reward seats..

yes very good point. Maybe they are giving with one hand and taking with the other.

Or maybe they are alligning more with *A who give double miles for gold members.
If they really want to update the tiers then they need to introduce a 75TP level

Spiceke - not convince by your calculations there.

Concord - Sorry, I should have been clearer - I was looking at my Au renewal. I think my maths is right on that one (?)

30 TP tp renew was peviously 5 P/E returns or 3 U/C returns.

I agree with the previous posters that it was felt by some to be too easy to get AG or AU status (although my wallet and I didn't think so, so I don't share this opinion) and this may be in comparison to other airline's FF programs.

Then again, as discussed on here many times, as Au isn't worth much then you may as well have a low bar. If it is 'difficult' to get then make it rewarding once you are there.

I have noticed that AU will get 100% base mileage bonus.