Anyone know if VX does a status match?

VX doesn't have status currently.

No status match. It's kind of nice for those who don't fly for business, because then they are not competing with others who have more miles than they. On the other hand, I'm sure those who do travel for a living find it to be a PATA. I sort of like the egalitarian approach, personally LOL.

great thread title

haha.. was thinking the same thing. In most other forums, it would've been flamed in about 15 seconds.

Back on topic (or not), does anyone expect VX to start a true elite program at some point when their mileage program is matured? They seem so revenue focused that I can see it offering pluses and minuses. Certainly the main plus is incentivizing loyalty in pax. On the negative side, they would loose some revenue potentially on F/MCS paid upgrades.

What disappoints me is how long it takes to build up VX miles relative to their award levels. Then again, awards seem to be all over the place based on the few searches I've done, in terms of required miles.

This is likely because the point burn is based upon the actual $ fares at the time you are shopping, no?

I'm not up to speed on the policies, but if that's the case, then it would indeed make sense.

Completely different than other carriers I frequent like UA and NH. But I see the benefits in this for both the pax and VX in certain cases.

Am disappointed to see there is no status match - VX will have the SFO-IAD government business starting Oct 1 instead of UA, and I do this 2-3 times a month. Even on the cheap fares I could get an upgrade 50% of the time as 1K and MM. the good news is T2 is much nicer. Is the VX SFO club worthwhile and how does it compare to red carpet? Thanks

VX doesn't have any clubs. They use the VS Clubhouses. That means many things ...
At SFO, the club is in a different terminal (International, pre-security) than the VX flights in T2.
The operating hours are limited. Restricted to the London flight.
It's an International Airline's lounge. There is absolutely no comparison to UA's RCC. None. Period. Think cool, excellent service, options from snacks to full multi course meals, etc.

Steve

mh94024:

Welcome to Flyertalk!

If you want an upgrade on VX, you pay for it. They follow a European/Asian business model when it comes to upgrades.

A policy I agree with as it preserves the value of the forward section (and by all accounts it does have inherent value in a way the legacies' F cabins do not).

But there's no doubt Elevate is dead in the water. The only airline partners are the other Virgin-branded airlines, and you can't even redeem on V Australia or Virgin Australia. The rules and vocabulary are different from traditional FF programs and hard to figure out. But there's so much uncertainty around the value of an Elevate point, it's simplest to dismiss them as worthless.

With so many aggrieved DL and UA customers in the mood to experiment, now would be a great time to revamp Elevate and make it competitive. You don't need elite tiers or free upgrades to F, but a more intelligible earning plan and more redemption partners are vital. You could boost people into Main Cabin Select for a few points without violating the integrity of F, which would make sense because VX has done a terrible job of explaining the value of Main Cabin Select anyway. In the west coast corridor Elevate's competition is the AS MP which permits redemption on QF, CX, KE, AF, BA, KL, you name it. With Elevate AFAIK you have to redeem on VX (not sure about VS). The program's a total non-starter.

How to fix Elevate in two easy steps.

1) Elevate points accrue at 5x(fare), I believe. Create status levels based on numbers of flights and have the benefit be the multiplier goes up, perhaps to 6x/7x.

2) Allow Elevate points to be used to purchase day-of-flight upgrades like cash is today.

This gives people the ability to spend their points to upgrade (and from what I've seen, VX longhaul sells out most of the time, so the financial hit is minimal, at least points get burned off the books) and rewards loyalty (by making upgrades easier to attain for "elites").

VX isn't going to get any meaningful partners outside the Virgin group, though, for obvious reasons, the same way WN doesn't get them. It's one thing to be AS, who covers regions (Alaska, Pacific Northwest) other airlines don't. But everyone flies to SFO/LAX. What's the point of allying with VX if you're AA/UA/DL? Why would you let VX into your alliance?

They should try to line up a redeem-only domestic partner and also expand international redemption opportunities. (You can't even redeem on V Australia, only earn.) EK has no program partner in the States, for example.

VX could easily do something like what AA/B6 did: structure codeshare and mileage earning opportunities exclusively on routes that that other doesn't fly.

VX's hard product is so much better than the legacy carriers that I would jump off AA's ship in a heartbeat if VX offered status and enough earn/redemption opportunities.

Which is why it will be a cold day in Hades before AA would ever consent to this- they'd lose your business, and that of many other people.

B6 has a hub in a hub city for AA and because they have a developed route network that isn't a frontal assault on AA, they can add coverage to some destinations AA does not serve. VX's route network out of SFO/LAX adds pretty much nil to either AA or UA- AA has skedaddled out of SFO (save for "cornerstone" routes) in no small part because of VX poaching routes like SFO-BOS and encroaching on SFO-JFK, and UA and VX's networks out of those cities are almost entirely redundant (and, in fact, VX made UA downsize their SEA-LAX operation from all mainline to almost all UX).