For those frequent fliers seeking the ultimate status, the Virgin airline group is offering its mightiest elite level yet: Galactic Status.
Yes, the time has come where elite status has gone to the stratosphere, and with Virgin dealing with ground travel-related headaches in England, this promotion offers a welcome distraction.
Virgin is cleverly tying it all together with a promotion geared towards those folks most likely to be the most keen: their current frequent fliers.
The promotion is called Mission Galactic and the offer is simple in theory: whoever flies the most miles on Virgin America, Virgin Australia and Virgin Atlantic will get a free suborbital space flight on Virgin Galactic.
All passengers enrolled in Virgin's Elevate frequent flier program are eligible, and will earn points for their travels on any of the three Virgin airlines.
Points will be counted up based on miles traveled up until August 7, 2013, and passengers can still redeem point for award travel without affecting their standings in the contest.
The top flier will receive a suborbital space flight, and the number two flier will experience a Zero-G flight, courtesy of Virgin Galactic.
This promotion is quite clever, as it not only promotes Virgin's space program to the most ardent of air travelers but also encourages said loyalists to fly even more in the coming year than they might have otherwise.
In the end, there can only be two winners, so Virgin is likely going to reap a travel windfall by inciting the competitive spirit of the frequent flyer program.
The promo also does a good job at hyping Virgin Galactic by reminding the flying public that Virgin is about to start offering commercial space flight in earnest.
Passengers that want to participate have to sign up for the promotion, and then Virgin takes care of the rest.