I got this mail too, and I believe this has been in the air for a while now. Yes, the new design of cards is good, definitely better than before where from a distance, plat didn't seem different from silver. Some observations
a. JetKonnect is also eligible for tier count/miles ^^
b. Tier count, as opposed to flight count, depends on class of travel so it is DEFINITELY easier to retain status/upgrade ^^. Also, my recollection is that flight count wasn't given earlier for codeshare/partner airlines (could be wrong), but tier count is given credit for now ^
c. A quick look says miles required for status retention/upgrade are possible lower than before (could be wrong on some counts here, though)
d. Good thing that you can transfer miles to other JP members ^, but restricted to only 4 such transfers in a calendar year for Plat and Gold, and twice for other tiers
e. Its only the Jetlite flights that qualify for back-dated tier count/miles, not 9W or JetKonnect (or many J and F flights would have qualified for a higher value of tier count!)
But what a date for the changes to come into effect - September 11 !!!!!
