Virgin Australia drops seat selection fee for Velocity Platinum, Gold frequent flyers

LOL. Winning!

For many of my colleagues (myself included) this is too little too late. The damage has already been done. VA has lost my trust and I'm sure many other loyall FF'ers as well. 

Well I am happy at least!

Good to see some common sense shining through at last.

I was downvoted in the previous article for saying that it was a system limitation, turns out I was correct!

Good on them for listening and admitting they were wrong

Management have listened and respected their loyal base . It reflects positively on management unlike Cathay Pacific management which  did not listen when it reduced the Marco Polo club benefits which has seen a dramatic reduction in loyalty and front end support resulting in a recently  reported profit reduction of 82% and historically low share value.Listening and taking positive action is a win win .Glad VA listened.

Hey David, 

Great update, any news about Fly Ahead that is one major benefit that I use as sometimes when I travel for work I finish off early!

Good move - thanks VA. Company policy dictates lowest fare which sometimes will be the "Getaway" - no other option (except equiv QF Red eDeal) and pre-selecting a a seat is really important.

That's great news.

What a complete stuff up.

Great new VA.   The charge was a complete rip off, however I have to repect a company that has taken the feedback recevied seriously, and removed the charge before it was enforced.  I wish more companies would do the same......

Common sense prevails; for now.

Thanks for the updates here. I believe that the Fly Ahead benefit was the only thing worthwhile in the program and being able to get home to the family early. The accountants have obviously got ahead of the accountants but are not doing their sums correctly. If, like me, you only get a few family status credits but you qualify for double platinum - you fly a lot. A far fairer mechanism to measure the value of the traveller would have been nett annual value (number of flights times total spend) and/or number of segments flown by the individual member and not trheir family. That way Virginb actually acknowledges who the true FFs are - no matter what fare they travel on.

Wonder where Virgin get IT advice from? How long would it take to put 1 extra if statement in the code? If passenger staus is gold or platinum then no advance seat fee.

Hey Patricka340, They took on the feedback and reversed the decision. Considering that the change hasnt even been implemented then surely the damage is minimal. But I am sure QF will welcome you

good to see that common sense held out and they seemed to have actually paid attention to the people most likely to champion their brand - now if only they'd backtrack on the FlyAhead changes the program would be worthwhile maintaining loyalty with (shameless self-interest, but retaining the old rules  as a Platinum benefit would be a worthwhile reason to maintain platinum, the domestic J upgrades are barely used with the way flexi pricing went)

rightio,

now we have got that sorted lets start working on them removing the bonus points for us platinum (and our gold friends) frequent flyers. i believe it's just abhorrent that we will earn the same velocity points as a red flyer on the 'getaway' fare, where is the reward in being loyal?

as a loyal weekly coast to coast flyer I can see Virgin are certainly reigning in the services offered on board and now on the ground, where as Qantas (as much as i prefer the virgin brand) are not.

I think we need to pressure them into altering their fare system but leaving our Platinum and Gold benifits untouched.

Plat member, tried booking a seat on a cheap fare. System did not let me do so.