mr27

Thanks VX ! Congrats to those members who will get to enjoy Silver and Gold perks
soon ^!

RichardInSF

I am impressed. With two round trips in business class on Virgin Atlantic, one could come quite close to making gold on Virgin America. Too bad I refuse to fly Virgin Atlantic because they won't set their upper class carryon bag allowances to match everyone else's.

With that one change on a related 'non-related' carrier, and this announcement, I'd seriously consider Virgin America for all my transcons. I suspect for the first year or two, main cabin select upgrades will be routine for gold members.

ethanwa

As a casual traveler (non-business) with my family out of Seattle, and a Virgin America cardholder with annual fee and $5900 in credit, I'm probably one of the FEW people who are not happy with the new Elevate tiers.

One of the major reasons I loved this airline was that I had the ability, just like anyone else, to upgrade my seat to First Class for a small fee at the 6-hour mark. It was unique in the airline business and allowed anyone to feel the perks. I often spend $50k+ on my card per year, and I may change that now, especially considering that level of spend won't even get me Silver. Seattle only has SFO and LAX, so I may not be able to travel enough to get to Silver even with the 10,000 bonus. And my family won't even come close.

From the new tier chart, it looks like the -6 hour window to upgrade to First is completely gone now for standard Elevate members. Boo. Now I have NO chance of a discounted upgrade.

I understand why Virgin made the change, and I'm sure many of you are happy, but for me, who's had and used the Virgin America card quite a bit to build points, who has always talked up the company as the best airline, who has always tried to travel around Virgin's schedule and flights when going to LAX/SFO, and who got the card based on perks at the time (it was 24 hour upgrade for First, then changed to 6, and now nothing for non-tiered members), I feel like I have gotten the bait-and-switch. I don't want to close the card because of the potential I may have on my credit score.

In my opinion, at the very least, Elevate members who have had the Virgin America Visa annual fee credit card for at least one year should have at least been grandfathered into Silver tier for the life of their card in my opinion. It would have just seemed to me like the right thing to do for people like me who had expectations at the time of signing up for the card in the first place.

Ethan

PeterNem

I'm a casual traveller in the UK, so would only ever use Virgin America infrequently to travel one-way between cities as part of a holiday (typically have a week or so in california, and a week in florida, so something like SFO -> MCO). Loved flying VX last time and being able to upgrade myself and partner to 1st. No doubt now there will be no upgrade availability unless you get lucky on a flight where nobody has status. I doubt they care about losing a couple of casual travellers but it's still rather frustrating!

I have a stash of Virgin Atlantic miles but these aren't any use for redeeming on VX either as receptions can't be made for one way flights from what I understand. I guess the loyalty of an infrequent overseas traveller isn't that valuable

ethanwa

I just contacted Virgin and the -6 hour window STILL exists for non-tiered members, it's just not listed on the chart. So that is good.

I still stand by my thoughts on having existing VX Visa card members grandfathered in as having Silver though.

PeterNem

That's interesting - thanks for the update!

flyingcat

What airline in their right mind would ever give free unlimited upgrades to anyone regardless of spend just for having the credit card. If anything giving all credit cardholders silver will take away the one thing you want most.

PeterNem

It's not unheard of for an airline to reward status just for holding a card. I hold a UK Amex Platinum chargecard which gets me Cathay Pacific Gold status (equivalent to One World Sapphire) which means I can access lounges even when flying economy on a One World airline, can choose seats on booking without paying a fee (e.g., when flying BA), even though I've never set foot on one of their planes in my life.

You could argue they've sold out their lowest tier for what I assume is a small amount of kick-back from Amex, but as a casual traveller I'll not complain.

flyingcat

That is lounge access and seating preference I was more referring to upgrades. IS CX giving free unlimited upgrades to J?

CX only gives upgrades to Diamond level and even caps that by limiting it to tickets in certain classes.

There is a reason the upgrade piece is held back.

lemfc

The program seems to be a hybrid of LUV and BA. Throw in a third tier at 100,000 that allows complimentary first upgrades and then I'm completely sold. Not bad though! Think a flyertalker will win the galaxy flight?

Mr. Style

Are you kidding? Their nicer than any other airline I fly - nicer flight attendants, better seats, food, video screens, outlets, and jets. Only disadvantage to them is they fly to limited locations. I fly them whenever I can, and SWA for everyplace else (flights every hour - like taking the bus!)

PeterNem

Since when are the upgrades 'free'?! I think I see your point, but at the end of the day, VX were just generating revenue for unsold product which would otherwise not be filled. The last flight I took 6 of 8 F seats were sold even with the 'free' upgrades to anyone. Perhaps that was because it was a Saturday flight and to a tourist destination and so less business users flying.

edit: my bad, looks like you're talking about Main Cabin Select - I'd overlooked that... needs to be either First or nothing

ethanwa

"Grab a seat in Main Cabin Express starting later in the summer of 2012."

What is Main Cabin Express???

aviators99

I fear that this is the new name for the main cabin, i.e. pretty soon you'll need to pay to reserve coach seats, unless you are elite.

PeterNem

Sounds like it'll be a few rows at the front of the main cabin (immediately behind main cabin select) which offer the same hard product as the main cabin, but with priority boarding/disembarkation.