penguintalk

I am considering getting a Virgin America card since the airline covers just about all the places I travel to domestically.

If I get the Premium Visa, it has a $149 fee. I have family in San Francisco and live in DC. Having a checked bag free each way saves me $50 right off the top. That puts me at $99. At Elevate Silver status, I get 25% off one non-refundable Main Cabin ticket per year. I need 20,000 points to be at elevate silver. If I get the Premium card, I am already at 15,000. A few questions:

If it is the purchase of a ticket that puts me over the points limit to get silver elevate, can I then use the credit on that same flight?

ie, A $625 round trip flight to SFO from Reagan would be worth 5,000 and give me 20,000 points total (assuming I get the 15,000 point bonus). 25% of that is $156.25 It seems to have already paid for itself.

Even if it can't be used on the ticket that puts you over the status, it still seems like a card where the difference in fee is worth it for the higher one. Especially if someone is qualifying for the status point bonuses. Is my math way off here? Am I missing something? Has anyone done the math to know the spending cut-off where it makes more sense to use one over the other?

I get that points do not expire. But counting towards my gold or silver status resets each year, right? And there is no lifetime status with Virgin?

Lastly, can companion tickets be saved? Like if I get the card today, but don't use the $150 off in 2015, can I use that benefit twice in 2016?

Thanks for all of your help!

Edit: Extra question. The website also says there is a 100% bonus for Gold status. If I had gold status and booked something with the Virgin card, does that mean I'd earn 16 points per dollar?!?! If so, wow!

sfozrhfco

Once you have the card, the status points are earned by charging $10,000 for each 5,000 status points. Once you have charged $30,000 to the card in a calendar year you get 15,000 status points. The status points post 5,000 at a time once the statement in which you charged $10,000; $20,000; $30,000 in the calendar year has been reached.

You only earn points for flying after the flight is taken and only for your flights. You do earn 3 points per dollar for any ticket you charge to the card but these are not status points. They can just be used towards a free ticket or other rewards.

You do get $150 off a companion fare with the card. Thus if two of you are travelling and booked together $150 will be subtracted from the total with the one time per year promo code that you get. You will be given an expiration date for the promo code. Once that passes you have to wait until you get the new code for 2016.

If you don't earn enough status points in one year the points you earned will carry forward to the next if you have the credit card.

Thus if you ended the year at 10,000 status points, you would start the new year at 10,000 and only need 10,000 more to get silver.

cringle

Not exactly. If you have the $149 card, the only points that carryover are those in excess of the 20k or 50k taken to keep your tier status. Anything less than 20k is lost.

SFGuy37

You'll earn the base 5 pts per $, plus 100% bonus if Elevate Gold for a total of 10 pts per $. if you paid with VX card you'll earn additional 3 pts per $ for a total of 13 pts per $. The base and bonus pts are on the base fare only, excluding taxes and fees, although the 3 pts per $ on the card should be for the full fare.

penguintalk

Thanks everyone. It seems maybe the card isn't as great as I thought. I appreciate the insights! I'm thinking just flying with them when I can is good enough.

GrayAnderson

Well, remember: The card comes with some fee waiving as well. Both cards offer a free first checked bag, and the premium card waives all change/cancel fees. Arguably those benefits are a Very Good Thing if you're traveling Main Cabin.

cringle

The bag fee waiver is good for yourself and a plus 1, and they won't waive the fee to cancel a booking made with Elevate points, even with the premium card.