How best to fly 4 eligible sectors to maintain Velocity Gold?

Flights & Airfares
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I’m keen to get away somewhere either within Australia or NZ for about 5 days and coincidentally I need to fly 4 more eligible sectors in order to maintain Gold velocity status so I thought I may as well try and do both…

Reaching out if anyone has any suggestions on locations and how should structure the flights so that I get the 4 sectors? It will be myself and a 7 year old on the trip :earth_asia::airplane::dark_sunglasses:

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Hi lisap,

Which airport will you be flying out from? How many status credits do you have?

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We’ll be flying out of Melbourne and I have 592 status credits

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Thanks,

So Status Credits aren’t the issue – you just need the sectors.

I’m fairly sure that even with family pooling, you need to fly the 4 sectors yourself (hopefully someone will correct me if I’m wrong). That means that you need to fly to somewhere via somewhere else (return) to get the 4 sectors.

I live in Melbourne myself; I think your best (and probably cheapest) option is to fly to somewhere in Queensland via Sydney. Gold Coast, Brisbane, Cairns … take your pick. They’re good options for a getaway and prices can be pretty cheap. Occasionally Virgin has pretty good prices to places like Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour too, which also involve flying via Sydney. And they’re great places for a short break.

Just make sure that you’re not paying too much extra just for the sake of maintaining Gold. If you’re paying more than $300-$400 more than you otherwise would pay, you’re probably paying too much. (compare this with the cost of a Virgin Australia Lounge membership which gets you most of the same benefits as Gold).

Also make sure that you’re on the Virgin Australia mailing list and that you’ve downloaded the Virgin “Flight Specials” app, so you know when there’s something on sale.

All the best!

1 Like
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@sixtyeight
Thanks so much for your detailed reply, I really appreciate it. Looks like we might be heading to Queensland!

Have a great day :grinning:

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The trick is to fly a route with two sectors in each direction, even if that means not taking a direct flight, since you can’t pool the sectors.

I’d also qualify @sixtyeight’s comment about paying too much. I note that you need still need four sectors, so I’m guessing you got all of your status credits on international flights with Virgin partners. A lounge membership is only good for Australia, while Gold gets you partner lounge access overseas, priority boarding, baggage etc.