Originally Posted by
RTWFF
I also was a 1K with United for a number of years and to have 6 SWUs a year was good because I flew internationally a lot. However they also had CR-1s for domestic travel, and those certificates are, more or less, the equivalent of the 4 upgrade certificates each Platinum gets as a matter of course.
Yes I did not mention the CR1s or regionals which were also most useful and also gratis (
2 per quarter for most of my membership) the Regionals and Globals were fully transferable to others too of course - online if needed.
And I will not go into the '500 mile' upgrades that came on top top of all this as WELL! Also fully confirmable in advance. So every MEL-SYD or SYD-BNE were all fully upgradeable.
Anyway, all this was the real world in a Global leading Elite plan. It must be said that erred on the GENEROUS side, and Virgin have erred on the absolutely MEASLY end of the same spectrum.
No-one sensible would ask Virgin to anywhere near match United or American re upgrades, but tossing a few more Bennies at Platinum level would see a LOT more flyers aspire to it. There ust be some room to @:-)
We flew this evening ADL-MEL and got seated in row 24. 1 seat empty on the plane. 2nd last row, Business Class was
empty. Weird way to inspire Platinums to fly a lot.
And being a 4.10pm flight no glass of wine even despite the HIGHLY misleading ads on TV, airport billboards, and double page ad in Velocity magazine with FA carrying a drink tray with wine on it, and ZERO fine print outlining it.
