After 15 years of virgin loyalty finally Gold

So at last it has finally happened, after 15 years I finally made gold yesterday. Started choosing virgin for (then) rare transatlantic hops back in the days when they flew to New York from LHR and LGW.

I fly more frequently now, but not so often at the front of the bus and so have been Silver for years. Thanks largely to last year's tier point promotion, and a rare PE round trip to Sydney I scraped into 40 points exactly with two weeks to spare.

To celebrate the event I paid into LHR Club House enroute to HK (PE) two weeks ago. This was I think agreed as I asked nicely if I could pay at Club House reception explaining that I was about to make Gold. It was reasonably busy so I do think it was only the pending tier step up that swung it for me. Excellent experience in there as always. I wonder how much luck I will have in April when I try to get the family in (flying ECON) now it sounds like Delta hordes will be decending

Not sure I really have enough to say about my recent trip to Sydney via Hong Kong to justify a trip report. Seat comfy, food OK, crew good, far too many PA announcements - in English then again each in Mandarin (or is it Cantonese?) drives me crazy. Priority boarding in reverse at Sydney so Upper boarded last, which was interesting ?|

When I got back into LHR yesterday I was also able to persuade revivals to let me in even though my Gold status not yet "official".

So now I have 12 months to try and maximise the gold experience. I seriously doubt I will retain the tier as I just am not in the air often enough. I do wonder if having reached these dizzy heights at long, long last I can be persuaded to stay loyal?

Anyway, chuffed to be gold y)

Congratulations! How about some Little Red flights to up your mileage and tier points if you have nothing major planned?

Well done!!

Good luck with the retention

Well done.
I've often thought that there should be an honorary year only membership of Gold for all those people who have loyally flown for many years as Silver and who never quite make the Gold level. Say, ten years of Silver gets a reward of one year Gold.

Nice idea, except it's perfectly simple to become silver without setting foot on a plane or spending a penny with VS if you work for an employer that offers automatic silver FC membership as a perk. Would it be fair to make them gold?

Dare I admit that I had no idea that one could be a Silver member by that route ! No, that certainly wouldn't be fair to then make such members Gold ..... ?|

[buns]

Congratulations ^) ^)

Don't do anything rash in order to retsain it though - many a relationship has run into deep water as a result ):

buns

Thanks for the congratulations. I do not plan to try and retain Gold, it is simply futile. I rarely fly more than 4 long haul trips a year and maybe 2 short on VS routes. With my current employer these are never paid at the front alas.

I shall enjoy it while it lasts though