V-Flyer

Hi,

I was just caught out by the unexpected end of my membership year. I was planning two flights in the next two weeks in PE which I thought would renew my gold status.... however, I just checked my account and my membership year ended one month before I thought it did, so my tier points have reset to 0.

I only had 25 TPs, but my account is still Gold and I had the following message:

- For renewing your gold card we've awarded you a companion ticket

Any ideas what has happened here? Of course I am not complaining!

Welcome to v-flyer!

When you say your year ended unexpectedly had you noticed whether this was 12, or 13 months after you became or renewed gold last time?

It should be 13 months, you can check back in your FC account for your last renewal to be sure, and then you'll know whether you made a mistake, or VS has.

I think it was end of Feb 2011, but I cannot go back far enough in my online account to get to the last renewal.

All seems a bit strange...

If end-Feb '11 then your FC year ended on 31 Mar '12 so your forthcoming flights will not count.

However, if VS has renewed you, stay schtum and await your new card .

If you've seen that companion message, then it does sound like you've been renewed. There is anecdotal evidence that VS do manually review Gold accounts that are expiring and take a pragmatic view where there's obviously still flying activity. This strikes me as a very sensible approach, as a customer who has been loyal enough to earn gold is probably worth keeping sweet; and if you've only just missed renewal by a handful of TPs, it's a great gesture by VS to renew you anyway.

I hope that is the case. I have been loyal to Virgin for quite some time and the only reason I missed my renewal target this time was due to illness that meant I couldn't fly for 3 months.

I am back in the saddle now, so them renewing my gold means I will continue with Virgin rather than switching to BA (where I was already silver)for trans atlantic.

y)