VS corporate deal... free Silver/accelerated Gold

A note came round from our corporate travel department this morning to say that Virgin would give free Silver status to anyone in our company flying with them, and if they then got 20TPs in the following 7 months, they would be bumped to Gold.

Obviously totally useless to me, and I wish it was something similar from BA, although I understand they don't tend to lower themselves to the point of handing out free status en masse... But just curious if this is something that has been seen elsewhere, or if it's a new attempt by VS to woo the corporate market...

The flyer that went with it suggested it was VERY geared towards travelers between LHR and JFK/EWR, which is where we employees tend to get the most individual choice between carriers (given the pricing similarities).

hm we havent had that ...shame

[preiffer]

It's their standard corporate package, if the company's business is relevant enough to them.

It's a neat way of giving away not a lot, but getting some accelerated loyalty. Silver doesn't really cost them a penny in the grand scheme of things, and 20 TPs in 7 months is hardly a massive cut down from 40 over 12 (or 13 in reality). The theory goes, hook you in early, and you'll like the lounges too much to switch later that year... :w

VS did this offer quite a few years ago with the Daily mail staff

I was on a flight from SFO on Friday, sat next to a lady from Google. She said that all their staff get Silver status automatically if they fly with VS. As Paul says, it doesn't give the flyer much apart from PE check in, a few extra miles and accelerated loyalty. Cost to VS is very little.

I get this and have done for years, as I am always in Upper (i have my standards ), the main and very valuable benefit is the additional miles..