NWIFlyer

Oh yes they are! (Well, it is panto season here in the UK, isn't it?) .

I don't want to repeat the point too much, because it'll become boring for everyone else and it's not right that I dominate the thread, but every other FFP I've been in has continued to show the higher status in the account management part of their website up to the point the card expired.

I can only assume that is the data that's being transmitted onward to each Alliance's central database. That's where A3 differs in that it has downgraded status online exactly at year-end, with the consequent knock-on effect.

Giamasetti

I was downgraded for 1 day.
As soon as the retroclaimed miles were correctly credited into my Miles&Bonus account, I was "upgraded" again (to be specific, after I received the email informing that I was downgraded to silver, I received another email confirming my gold status)

lento

I have one experience of expiring status and downgrade. In Finnair, my status was downgraded at the end of November last year and online showed the downgraded status. However, I still got all perks until January (2 months grace period) upon showing the card.

YOWkid

I had the two month grace period with AC as well. Technically expired on 31 Dec and got all the benefits until 28 Feb.

So A3 is certainly the odd one out right now.

Kataskopos

I am very surprised that OP's status was not respected. 2014 my card was already expired and new one nowhere to be seen (we all remember the huge delays in receiving the Gold cards I suppose). I had not even noticed the card had expired and checked in @ GOT with 2 bags and was told by the checkin agent card expired, but not to worry that they are used to cards arriving late so they would still honour. I know it sounds stupid, but did you smile/were friendly with the agent? I have found it amazing how far a smile at checkin / lounge can get you (unless you are dealing with Lufthansa).

irishguy28

But A3 has given the same grace period - the validity of the Gold card for anyone who lost Gold status on 24 November last is until the end of January.

The OP is presumably referring to United at EWR. Just because UA agent at EWR did not follow the printed Star Alliance guidelines for such cases (see my earlier post)- and we have only one data point to go on, so it does not appear to be a system-wide trend - does NOT mean that A3 is the "odd one out right now". If there is an "odd one out", it is that rogue UA agent at EWR who is not doing their job correctly.

I'm not sure what more I can write or say to make this clear - Aegean is not at fault. Aegean is operating just as all other Star Alliance carriers do, as regards issuing a physical card with a grace period. Aegean is NOT the one to be blamed when an agent for another airline on another continent decides to ignore Star Alliance rules and to refuse to recognise the validity of Aegean's card.

Indeed, it is surprising, because it is against Star Alliance rules not to observe the validity date printed on a Star Alliance Gold card.

Your reported experience in GOT is a different scenario, though - you actually still had Gold status. If you had in fact dropped to Silver, then you would have had a different experience!

YOWkid

But I guess the point I'm trying to make is that the *A electronic system still had me as *G -- and I know that because I bought a ticket during that two month grace period and didn't travel until March. I saw their res system show me as *G.

Of course I wasn't stupid enough to go try to get into the RCC as I didn't have a card, but all the other *G courtesies were extended to me, including an operational upgrade.

irishguy28

It doesn't matter at what stage during the "grace period" they reduce your status in the system; or how long that drop in status takes to propagate through the system. [Upgrades in Skyteam members' systems can take up to 3 weeks to propagate to all members, as evidenced by Alitalia's supporting documentation for their soon-to-end status match offer.]

Whenever an agent notices that there is a "discrepancy" in the status reported via different means, there is very clear guidance for the agent to follow. The highest level of any of the displayed levels is to be honoured - even if that highest level is on a soon-to-expire SAG card.

Aegean cannot be held at fault for a UA agent in EWR not following Star Alliance rules in this scenario, which are very clear:

NWIFlyer

irishbuy28 has made the point very well, with practical illustrations, that many airlines do now downgrade status quickly at year end. That does not now seem to be in any doubt, and A3 is no different in that respect.

What we don't know is whether those airlines differentiate between the status they report "internally" compared to the one they send to the central database. It's speculative, but I'd expect to see more issues across the Alliance if every airline operated as A3 has here. My suspicion is that most airlines have two dates - a "real" year-end date and a card expiry date, and they report the card expiry date into the central database to avoid a conflict. It's the fact that A3 clearly doesn't do so that's causing the initial issues, even if the UA check-in agent did not apply the *A rules correctly.

I was about to claim that this would therefore be quite an easy fix for A3, but then I thought about the state of their IT ... .

st1575

Also, remember that some FFPs also have a "qualification" year (e.g., Jan-Dec) and a "benefit" year (e.g., Mar-Feb) that are different and may give the false sense of a "grace period." For a UA agent, whose airline uses that model, it would be rare that a card would carry a later date than the computer (if anything it would be the opposite with many people waiting for new cards for just-earned status).

YOWkid

Actually, this is probably what we are seeing.

I agree with you, irishguy28, that the UA agent should have honoured the date on the hard plastic card. Or at least consulted someone else based on the policy.

But that being said, I suppose the UA agent might have thought the card was a fake given the system and card did not match -- apparently there's quite a bit of fraud on that stuff going on in North America. And so the individual might argue that they didn't think it was a valid card (after all, how have they defined valid?). But, that would bring us into the world of playing armchair dragon lounge so best we don't go in that direction.

DrHalxx

I had the exact opposite experience with CX, physical card expired but gold status retained on OW for at least a month afterwards

Eddie_Liu

Hi,

I failed to re-qualify for A3 Gold and was downgraded to silver(sadly).

So my question is, can I still have the SA gold benefits (lounge access etc.) from today to the expiry date on plastic card (I think it's 01/24/2016)? Are there any recent data points?

I have a trip ORD-YYZ-IST-FRA-NYC in Xmas, and will have a long layover in FRA so lounge access is really important to me.

I tried to contact A3, and their email replied that "you can still have access to A3 lounge as the sole privilege".

Thank you!

Palal

No you can't because in the system it'll show that you're no longer *G. You can give it a try of course, but the official rule is no. YMMV of course

NWIFlyer

Eddie_Liu, welcome to Flyertalk and the A3 forum.

I've moved your post into this thread where you'll find some of the information you're looking for, which hopefully will give you a starting point.

Contrary to some negative messages in here, your card should still work, but you may have to be fairly insistent and produce a copy of the *A rules to be allowed lounge access. There's a number of references to the particular rule in this thread.