When do you qualify for gold status and when does the 12 month requalifying period begin?

Frequent Flyer Programs
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I noticed that Virgin Australia is holding a double SC bonus for flights from Aus-> NZ at present and I’m interested in not only getting to Gold Status but working towards the requalifying period.

I currently have 80 Velocity SC due to expire in March
I intend to fly Sydney -> Wellington (80 x 2 SC = 160) to gain a total of 240SC
Wellington to Melbourne via Brisbane (80 x 2 + 60SC = 220 SC) to gain a total of 460SC
Melbourne to Wellington via Brisbane (60SC + 80 x 2 = 220SC) for a total of 680SC
Wellington to Sydney (80 x 2 = 160SC) for a total of 840SC

This gives me more than enough for Gold (500SC) but I was wondering how much of the credits would build towards the requalifying period?

Do I instantly get Gold status once I fly Melbourne to Brisbane (which would take me to 520SC), letting me count 320SC towards my requalifying (4000SC)? Or will I not get given Gold until after I land in Wellington and only the final flight’s 160SC counts towards requalifying?

Would appreciate your insight because if the former is true, I’d likely fork out the money to essentially get 2 years of Gold Status

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Hi,

I don’t actually know the answer to your specific question. I suspect that you won’t gain Gold until after you land in Wellington, especially if your flights are on the one ticket. But I’ve never been in that specific situation of qualifying mid-trip.

However, I think you should also consider the fact that by the end, you’ll be only 160 SCs short of Platinum. Is there any way you can get those 160 SC’s (or 240 if you don’t get them by March and your current 80 SC’s expire)? Flybuys? Family pooling? A status run or two?

The advantage of Platinum is that if you don’t requalify for it, you’re guaranteed a “soft landing” to Gold – thus ensuring that at the very least you’ll be Platinum for 12 months and Gold for 12 months after that.

Just a thought.

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