For many travellers, the COVID-19 virus has caused significant problems in terms of planned travel and in some cases, already travelling. Business travellers and frequent flyers are definitely being affected by this, and there’s a lot of people wanting to know what will happen with their elite status considering the number of flights regularly being cancelled. As many routes are being cut, this means many travellers will be unable to earn the requirements they need for their tier and could face the possibility of looking the status.
Airlines are now starting to announce how they will combat this problem, and Qantas was the first one to do so this evening in Australia. Shortly after, Virgin Australia announced their intentions, and this is precisely what this post is about.
In a significant move from the airline, the carrier will be gifting frequent flyer members status credits month by month over the next three months. To me, this seems a lot more generous than an extension and applaud Virgin for doing this.
Virgin Australia Will Gift Flyers Status Credits To Help Maintain Their Tier
Virgin Australia Platinum Tags
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Platinum members
As a top tier Platinum member with Virgin, you’ll be given a total of 210 status credits. Each month until the end of June, you’ll be given 70 status credits. Just a reminder, if you want to attain Platinum, you’ll need to earn 1000 status credits while re-attaining the tier requires 800 status credits as well as eight flights onboard Virgin Australia.
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Gold members
As a gold member with Virgi, you’ll be given a total of 105 status credits. Each month until the end of June, members will receive 35 status credits. As a reminder, flyers that want to reach gold status will require you to earn 500 status while re-attaining will require 400 credits and four sectors on Virgin Australia.
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Silver members
As a silver member with the airline, you’ll be given a total of 70 status credits. Each month for three months, you’ll be given 20 status credits. To earn Silver status on Virgin, you’ll need to accrue 250 status credits and to keep the status; you’ll need to earn 200 credits as well as flying onboard two Virgin Australia sectors.
The airline has said the status credits will land in accounts during the first week of the month but haven’t said when exactly.
Virgin Australia Platinum
Overall
it’s great to see the airline introduce something like this and honestly think it will be more helpful than a status extension depending on your travel plans and the type of traveller you are. It’ll also be helpful for people who will just be short of a tier and needed a little boost.
