Virgin Atlantic Flying Club - Are there benefits of accruing>40 tier points p.a.

I currently have 40 tier points for the year and am 6 months in ... Obviously enough to renew my FC gold status for the next year.

I was wondering if anyone knew whether there are any benefits in accruing more than the 40 tier points. I have an SQ RTW coming up with about 23 more potential tier points available (and about 30k miles) however don't know if there is any value booking them to VS or parking the mileage in UA (where I would at least get closer to more System wide upgrades).

Any thoughts. Called VS flying club who were unhelpful other than to say "no additional benefits".

Ahhh now if we tell you the answer to that we'd have to eliminate you :D.

VS has an unpublicised top tier of frequent fliers, once upon a time known as GPTops. The entry level is much, much higher than 40 TPs and is by invitation only and has qualification rules like which carriers you fly on, and almost certainly several other other factors ;). The level of service is awesome.

However, if you don't plan many more VS trips then I'd do as you suggest and put the miles and elite earning points into *A. System wide upgrades are very nice.

Thank you for the advice. I think that's probably the best value for the credit.

As Slinky says the level of service (on the ground at least) is awesome although they still seem to make little effort on-board to acknowledge you.
So you know how far off you might be you need at least 100TP on VS (plus other stuff) to qualify.
Between 40-100 there is no benefit which is a missed opportunity. A level of 75TP would be a good move I think. This is one of the few things that I think UA do well - they keep you hooked in with a higher level to always chase after.

Regarding above, the 1k status, which is the upper tier that UA has, is something that a lot of their flyers strive for in the past years, although the CO/UA merger has left many of their flyers much to be desired.

The beauty of the *A scheme is that it is not that difficult to achieve some level of status, while still having status on VS. You don't even have to be in UA's program to be in *A and many *A carriers are VS partners. So the crossover is not difficult. In fact, this is why many VS flyers on this thread, IMO, support VS joining *A.

Regarding above, the 1k status, which is the upper tier that UA has, is something that a lot of their flyers strive for in the past years, although the CO/UA merger has left many of their flyers much to be desired.

The beauty of the *A scheme is that it is not that difficult to achieve some level of status, while still having status on VS. You don't even have to be in UA's program to be in *A and many *A carriers are VS partners. So the crossover is not difficult. In fact, this is why many VS flyers on this thread, IMO, support VS joining *A.

*A does not give you any status with VS so the cross over is one sided. Even *Gold does not get you any VS privelidge or lounge access. If you book a VS flight you cannot choose to credit your *A account (has to have a * partner flight code).

Between 40-100 there is no benefit which is a missed opportunity. A level of 75TP would be a good move I think.
I may be mistaken but I thought that something happens at 60TP? -- maybe it is insignificant?

*A does not give you any status with VS so the cross over is one sided. Even *Gold does not get you any VS privelidge or lounge access. If you book a VS flight you cannot choose to credit your *A account (has to have a * partner flight code).

That's not what I'm suggesting though, and neither is what you're saying others on this thread are suggesting as well. To clarify, if you have status on VS, and if you are in the *A program concurrently, you can choose where to credit your miles to, if you are flying a carrier that is both a VS partner and a *A partner. It's true, you can only credit to one program/scheme per trip but that's typical of most airline programs.

Yes, the so-called VS cross over is one sided as you put it but as mentioned before, that's the reason why many FTers on this forum are advocating for VS to join *A.

As for booking a VS flight and expecting credit on *A, have you tried booking an SQ flight operated by VS and credit the miles to *A? Just asking...

I may be mistaken but I thought that something happens at 60TP? -- maybe it is insignificant?

Yep, I recall something about 2 guest CH passes being issued when you hit 60 TPs (not sure if they all have to be earned on VS metal or not). I'm likely to hit that level this year so we'll see. If that is all, it's not much of an added bonus, and certainly wouldn't influence my choice of airline.

I'm certainly not likely to get to 100 TPs anyway, which is when I think we all know that certain extras creep in. In my case, 'divorce' would probably be one of those extras :D

RC

In my case, 'divorce' would probably be one of those extras :D
RC
In my case it would be bankruptcy too. :D