Virgin America Offering Status Match Plus Up to 25% Discount on Hawaii and Mexico

by Gary Leff

Matt Zuzolo writes that Virgin America has a formal status match campaign for folks with status with a competing airline. (Honestly, I didn’t realize the ongoing offer had ended, but it’s worth noting that it continues.)

They’ll give you temporary status and an accelerated path towards keeping it. Here’s what they’ll match:

You need 5000 points within 90 days to keep silver or 12,000 to keep Gold. However if you’re a Virgin America co-brand credit card holder you only need 3000 points to keep silver or 8000 for Gold. Completed status challenges provide benefits through the end of the 2017 membership year. You just need to email statusmatch -at- virginamerica.com with your membership number and proof of existing status.

There are a few restrictions.

  • Matched members don’t receive 25% off discount codes
  • Matched members get one day pass to the Virgin America airport lounge at LAX.
  • They also “may not have access to all reciprocal benefits on Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia that require the member to present their physical membership card.” In other words, you don’t get a card until you complete the match so your benefits with partner airlines may vary.
  • Finally, if you did a match in 2015 you cannot do a new one this year.

These are Virgin America Gold benefits:

  • Golds earn 100% bonus on paid travel
  • Golds receive complimentary upgrades to Main Cabin Select 24 hours out, and can purchase first class upgrades within that window as well.
  • Golds get complimentary access to the Virgin America Loft lounge at LAX
  • Naturally there’s priority check-in, boarding, baggage, and security
  • Twice a year Golds get 25% off an economy ticket
  • Free checked bags, free award redeposit, and waived telephone booking fees
  • Partner benefits: priority check-in, boarding and security with Virgin Atlantic and those benefits plus priority luggage and lounge access in Australia with Virgin Australia.

Note that top tier Virgin America members do not get complimentary upgrades!

Through the end of the day today (Tuesday, March 29) Virgin America is also offering a 25% discount on Hawaii and Mexico bookings. (HT: Frequent Flyer Bonuses)

Virgin America serves:

  • Honolulu
  • Maui
  • Cancun
  • Los Cabos
  • Puerto Vallarta

Discount code VACAY25 will take 25% off Monday through Thursday travel bookings made by 11:59pm Pacific time March 29 for travel April 6 through June 11 in economy. Friday through Sunday travel receives 15% off, and May 27 and May 30 are blacked out for the discount.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. I found this status to be useful on a recent transform trip I took with 7 people. Flying out from EWR to SFO over spring break, the cheapest tickets were $152 (way cheaper than other airlines). I was able to check 3 bags for free, get two exit row seats, and priority boarding for most of the group. I could’ve maybe upgraded to main cabin select but the only seat was a middle seat which I didn’t want to do. The status is definitely not as good as other airlines, but it saved us around $200 because we needed luggage and extra legroom (status members can choose exit row seats but not the main cabin select exit row). Also, the priority baggage tags actually worked!

  2. What’s the Silver benefits, or should I Google it? Do they even have Silver benefits? 😉

Comments are closed.