New Changes For Virgin America Elite Status Including Counting Award Flights Toward Status

An e-mail just went out to Virgin America customers about some new benefits/improvements to their elite program, Elevate. While “improvements” is normally airline-speak for negative changes, it appears that the changes are good!

New Changes For Virgin America Elite Status

The new benefits for Virgin America elite status

Here are the bullet points about their new benefits from their e-mail:

• Increase to Bonus Rewards points earn for Gold and Silver Members:
  • Elevate® Silver Members will now earn 50 percent more points above base rate of 5 points per $1 of spend, up from 25 percent. This represents a total bonus of 7.5 points per $1 spent.
  • Elevate® Gold Members will now earn 140 percent more points above base rate of 5 points per $1 of spend, up from 100 percent. This represents a total bonus of 12 points per $1 spent.
• New flight counter and ability to earn status on rewards bookings:Today’s announcement means that Virgin America travelers will now be able to earn status based on either the number of flights they take or the amount they spend purchasing flights – with all flight activity since 1/1/2016 included.
• Reward flights will also be counted towards achieving status. The new flight counter will make it up to 70 percent easier to maintain and achieve status with Elevate®. Members can view their flight counts in their account onvirginamerica.com.
• Addition of JetBlue Mosaic for Gold Status Match:We are also expanding our Status Match program with the addition of JetBlue Mosaic status for eligible upgrades to Elevate Gold Status. JetBlue Mosaic members will be upgraded to Elevate® Gold simply by joining the program and applying online. Members can enjoy Gold status perks for three months, plus the opportunity to retain Gold status through the end of 2017.

Summary

In addition to JetBlue losing out on the bidding war for Virgin America, it looks like Virgin America is still trying to get some of those customers with this status match. It should be worth applying for just to have in case of flights, especially with award flights now counting towards status. Plus, there is no telling how the elite status program will look as the merger with Alaska Airlines moves on.

This is a pretty good deal for people who travel on Virgin America since they can now earn elite status simply by flying on reward flights! This is the only airline in the US that allows this so it is a nice perk for those of us who like to travel as cheap as possible while still enjoying elite benefits. Go here to see all the benefits that apply to Virgin America elite members.

For you Virgin America elite members, are these changes that you are happy about?