Virgin Australia Velocity - Virgin Australia compensation to be taxes only?

I booked my annual free flight from Sydney (Australia) to Queenstown (New Zealand) on my Platinum Reserve AMEX.
While I had a good time there, on the way back there was a 16 hour mechanical delay, which was quite annoying. I've been told that I would receive compensation, but I was told that I would be compensated A$157.08 only. I believe that this is purely the tax part of the flight of it as the cheapest fare from Queenstown to Sydney is $289 one way which excludes luggage.

I called up Virgin Australia and spoke to a person there as well as a supervisor and the only thing they could suggest was to call customer relations which would be a 30 to 40 day wait.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Clearly I'm not happy after missing the best part of a day and then being told that my time is far less valuable than anyone else's.

Moved to Virgin Australia forum because quarrel seems to be with compensation offered by airline, unrelated to method of payment.

Moved to Virgin Australia forum because quarrel seems to be with compensation offered by airline, unrelated to method of payment.Probably not.
The flight was from Amex as "my annual free flight from Sydney (Australia) to Queenstown (New Zealand) on my Platinum Reserve AMEX."

Virgin Australia's compensation policy for a flight delay of greater than four hours is to provide a credit to the full value of the affected fare. In this case, that would be however much American Express has paid Virgin for this fare. Ulimately, that comes down to what the commercial arrangements between Amex and Virgin are for these fares. See here for reference: http://www.virginaustralia.com/TermsandConditions/GuestCompensationPolicy/

Personally, I find the compansation to be quite generous.

Personally, I find the compansation to be quite generous.Agreed. On a flight MEL-CHC in 2007 that was delayed 6 hrs I received a credit for the full amount less real goverment taxes / airport fees. The credit was more than needed fo the next MEL-CHC flight (including real goverment taxes / airport fees)

I would agree that the compensation policy on face value is generous, but other people will be receiving a minimum of twice what I will be getting. I don't really see $10/hour of delay as generous remuneration in my case.

I'll be calling up AMEX tomorrow and see if the can swing anything.

Maybe slightly OT, but does Amex issue Saver or Flexi fares? Thanks.

Maybe slightly OT, but does Amex issue Saver or Flexi fares? Thanks.

They seem to be quite easy to get and it includes 23kg of checked luggage, so it's not a standard saver fare. Not sure if it's a flexi fare or something else again.

I was advised yesterday by Amex travel they book into "Romeo" or "Tango" classes.

R is obvious, but T class suprised me.

Certainly R class is "Saver".

They seem to be quite easy to get and it includes 23kg of checked luggage, so it's not a standard saver fare. Not sure if it's a flexi fare or something else again.

I expect that it is some kind of private fare, with some specific rules. One of its other features is that you don't get Velocity points.

I expect that it is some kind of private fare, with some specific rules. One of its other features is that you don't get Velocity points.

Do you get Status Credits?