Gold and Silver Status

Just flew out of LHR. Silver status, with one more point to become gold. Fly upper my last few flight (upgraded from PE with miles) but this time I was on economy as was a personal flight. Can confirm that silver gives you absolutely zero benefit when it comes to upgrades or being treated any different. I was hoping for a bit of special treatment, but got nothing and CC were as rude as they always are on economy.

Anyone got any experience re Gold? Do Virgin upgrade occasionally? Is there any other benefit apart from the miles bonus and lounge access? Am wondering if should try BA next year......

Unfortunate that the CC were 'rude as always', people do comment on inconsistency but often say that CC are great.

As to Ag status, PE check in and extra miles only and you won't see any other difference. For Au status then the clubhouses obviously, but VS does not routinely upgrade elite FC members and while you may occasionally get recognition on board, it's back to lounges and miles as the key advantage.

BTW I don't think you find things any different on BA until you reach GGL status.

Thanks for both replies, maybe I was a bit harsh, the service has never been good from all, but there have been excellent exceptions to the point that I have written to say how good some service was from a particular CC.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed but for me I have only ever had great service from Male CC. Never anything better than 'going through the gestures polite' from the Female CC........don't know why.

Been silver now for five or so years and never noticed any preferential treatment.

Re the CC I have found them to be consistently inconsistent if that makes sense ? Two CC working together in the bubble for example can have totally different characters and will treat pas differently. Also experienced terrific CC for economy (generally ok but no more) but also had poor UC experience and PE so it's really hit and miss.

On the BA experience, in the last 6 months I have flown eurotraveller twice and world traveller plus(PE) and all three experiences have been very good so far.

Hope this helps

I have to concur with Slinky it is very rare to receive any recognition in the air as a Gold level member. Nearly fell out of my seat on a recent trip to LAS in PE when the cabin crew introduced themselves and offered complimentary drinks to myself and the chap in the next seat (another AU, coincidence or what!) first time ever in either cabin!
Other perks are worthwhile however. y) y)
Nearly always given a survey to fill in and the first question is " did you receive an upgrade" , talk about sticking the knife in!

I don't think I've ever received any recognition as a red, silver, or gold member over the years, except for a very very occasional reference to me being a flying club member (no more specific than this).

I'm not particularly bothered about that, though, because VS do not advertise preferential treatment onboard as a particular benefit (and I don't think BA would be much better at these tier levels).

I travel alone, have beeen upgraded twice in five years from PE to UC, both times I was AG, first time I was 4 hours early, second less than an hour, both outbound from Shanghai, there was no specific reason, it just kind of happened.
Stick with VS, I dont know all the criteria, however dilution and spreading out betwen airlines has not worked for me, now looking forward to the magical 80 [maybe 100+] TPs.

Happy new Year to all

John


.

I was recently welcomed with a "Welcome back Mr Narikin" in my UC flight back to NYC, just 2 days ago. I assumed because of Au status, but it was a first nonetheless. and very nice too.

and Yes, the only times I have been op-upgraded (maybe twice in 5 years) both were from PE to UC from USA>UK, never vice versa. It seems US/Foreign based ground crew pay more attention to FC top tiers, whereas it seemingly does not count for much in UK, presumably because they see dozens every day.

[preiffer]

Got picked out yesterday by the FSM to say hi to out of the cabin - was very nice of him, and a very good crew all round. Inconsistency is king at VS, and I've seen the good, the bad and the very, very ugly but yesterday's crew were truly fantastic.

That said, when it comes to the actual onboard experience - if you're travelling in Upper, whether you're blank/red/silver/gold/UNIQ, other than saying "hi" specifically to you, I'm not sure what else they can do as a "perk" anyway...?!