Velocity Status Match/early status

3 replies


Member since 10 May 2018

Total posts 10


I've been living in the USA for a while and am moving back to Australia. I've been a Delta Diamond now for >5 years. Due to some family pooling I've got 920 SC and booked a VA J ticket home which'll get me even more SC. I'm basically just short the sectors. I've emailed them asking if I can get Gold or Platinum early but they reply with long winded emails and don't even seem to have checked my velocity account or the Delta status I have. (I'm going to be working in Australia and travelling a fair bit to US and APAC so told them that).

Anyone have someone specific to talk to or a better way? Seems a bit nuts and I'm tempted to just go and get status on another airline out of annoyance.



Member since 05 Mar 2015

Total posts 23

Congrats on your move!

While I don't have direct experience with status matching to VA, I often find myself in a similar situation--because I do much of my flying internationally on partners, I often end the year with lots of status credits, but a deficit of segments. VA has made it clear to me that as a renewing member, the segment requirement isn't negotiable, but obviously that isn't quite your situation. From what I've heard, and based on the stats, it doesn't look like VA is in the business of formal status matches--but the Velocity support team is empowered to do an early card upgrade at their discretion. This generally happens when you're a few SCs short of your tier, and have an upcoming flight. I've never heard of the same thing happening for sectors, though--maybe that's because this situation is much rarer. If you can get to the premium support team, they're the people to ask--I'd steer clear of calling it a status match, and as you've said focus on the early upgrade aspect. If VA won't play ball, don't despair, though. In the interim, your DL Diamond status has significant partner benefits on VA as well, and with a little careful management, you can most certainly take advantage of your benefits while earning segments on VA.

Expediting your segment qualifications is also pretty straightforward, if you don't mind a little extra flying, especially if you'll be traveling beyond LAX into the United States. Keep in mind that all flights booked on a VA flight number count as segments, so on both ends you can usually add a connection that counts as a segment. For example, flying from SYD to SFO, you can get four segments one way by flying SYD-BNE-LAX-SFO, with a VA codeshare on the final DL flight. There are often cheap domestic routings with extra stops that you can book at little extra cost. When my family or I are down on segments, I'll often schedule a direct turn to OOL on the way to CBR. Thus, for example, a single segment SYD-CBR turns into a three-segment SYD-OOL-SYD-CBR for just a few dollars over direct.


Member since 10 May 2018

Total posts 10

Thanks, understand all that. I've got flights booked that get me to Gold within the next 3 or so weeks, just wanted to see if I could get them to give it to me early. (One reason is to get an extra bag for free on the way to Australia, moving means lots of bags!). (I'm a Delta Diamond, so you can assume I travel a heck of a lot, I'll remain platinum at least on Delta for a few years due to rollover MQMs).


Air New Zealand - Airpoints

Member since 31 Oct 2016

Total posts 204

I can't possibly endorse this, and I certainly wouldn't recommend telling anyone if you chose to do this,

but unlike the US, nobody IDs you before you get on the plane, unless you have to go to the check in counter.

Hypothetically, if any of your friends wanted a weekend, or even a day trip away, maybe MEL-SYD-MEL and they accidentally booked it under your name, that would qualify you for the Sectors...


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