Withers Without You

Virgin Blue, the airline that made flying fun and accessible all those years ago made a big boo boo today.

At 2:45pm (Friday, 13th November 2009) West Australia time an email was received by many Australian’s, possibly thousands, notifying them of a surprise in regard to their Velocity membership, here’s the email I received: Since that email was received social networks and forum board lit up across Australia, this was a very generous offer but some thought it was needed, in a competitive air travel market Virgin Blue had figured out how to gain everyone’s loyalty!

The Velocity Gold Card requires you to earn 50,000 points each year to keep the card. You can earn points with Virgin Blue Velocity partners but the main way to earn them is by flying Virgin Blue at 5 points per $1 spent - $10,000 a year on flights.

I’m almost certain I’m not spending $10,000 on flights this year … but I’m up for the challenge! And I think many Australian’s were as well.

At 4:25pm (Friday, 13th Nov ‘09) Virgin Blue corrected what we found out was a mistake: Now we all watch with interest as Virgin Blue manages this PR nightmare. Thousands of Australian’s have been offered something they don’t deserve … and we want to keep it!

Well I do … how about you?