hydrogen

Just wanted to confirm: requalifying early does not change the renewal date and that any further crediting to A3 does not reduce the number of miles needed for renewal for the following year?

If that's true, there is no incentive to further credit until 11/23 - but that doesn't matter to me, still enjoy the program so I'll continue crediting.

Knobbgb

Yes, that's how it works. I suppose the only incentive to continue crediting is to build up award miles. I do that as it's my only program so the miles are all in one place.

hydrogen

Cool - might as well continue. Got another 20K to credit post-requalification that I'll put to A3. Guess I should spend soon before a devaluation comes up...

Reifel

Just to make sure, one question in this regard though. I think I understood it right, but I want to be safe:

I am missing 4 Aegean segments and a couple of miles to get upgraded from Silver to Gold the first time:

-I do my 4 segments on Aegean next week
-2 Weeks later I fly Ethopian to Africa and earn 10000 miles in total
-only 3000 miles are needed to reach gold

If I understand correctly, I will be upgraded to Gold after 3000 Miles and the other 7000 (remaining of the 10000 Miles) will count towards requalification from Gold to Gold, correct?

So I will be upgraded to Gold in May 2017, and will retain Gold til May 2018.
However if I requalify already on November 2017, I will get Gold til May 2018, but all miles I earn between November 2017 and May 2018 will not count towards requalification?

My god is this complicated. Can anyone confirm I am not getting anything wrong?

Thanks

Knobbgb

No. Unfortunately, the extra 7000 miles will disappear into a black hole. Your Gold upgrade will take 2 to 4 days after the flight and only miles earned AFTER that will count to requalification. I know - it seems a little unfair, but that's just how it is.

Likewise on your second point you are correct on the dates and on how it works. Any tier miles you earn after requalifiying for Gold in November will also be worthless (although the award miles will still count of course).

mightydog

No, if you qualify for Gold in May, then your membership year will be reset and will end on the same day in May 2018. You have the full 12 month to requalify.

When they introduced the requalification requirements, they did so in November and this is why many people here have their membership year starting/ending in November. However this has no relevance for new gold members!

Reifel

Thanks very much, this makes it clear now.

Also thanks for the precision regarding the 7000 Miles. "A Little unfair" - I actually wonder if this is actually legally ok . I understand that in practice this is how they handle this, but it's ridiculous.

The T&C say:

"B. SILVER Card:

The Silver Member must accumulate 8,000 Tier Miles including at least two (2) flights with Aegean or/and Olympic Air or a total of 16,000 Tier miles regardless of the partner airline, within a period of twelve consecutive months from the date on which he/she was upgraded to/retained Silver tier, so that his/her Card’s status will be automatically extended for one (1) year. It shall be made clear that any amount of Tier Miles beyond that required for a tier upgrade will be taken into account for the next upgrade but not for retaining Silver tier. If the Silver Member does not manage to accumulate the above Miles within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the Blue Tier.

The Silver Member that accumulates 24,000 Tier Miles, including at least 4 flights with Aegean and/or Olympic Air, or a total of 48,000 miles regardless of the partner airline, within twelve consecutive (12) months from the date of the first oldest flight that registered miles which has not expired or been used for tier upgrade, after being upgraded to/retaining Silver tier, will be upgraded to GOLD tier and will receive the Gold Card.

It shall be made clear that: (a) If the Silver Member has not collected the Tier Miles required for upgrade to Gold tier within a period of twelve (12) months from the date of the first valid flight that registered miles, then the accrued Miles shall not be automatically reset, but shall rather be successively deleted, once one (1) year elapses from each flight event, effected within the said 12-month period. (b) The twelve-month period for the accumulation of the 12,000 Tier Miles will count from the date of the first valid flight that registered miles. (c) For Aegean Bonus Visa and Aegean Visa Cyprus cardholders, only the first Welcome Miles (Bonus), acquired upon completion of their registration to the program, shall be acknowledged as Tier Miles. (d) If the required Tier miles are accumulated and therefore the Member is upgraded to the Gold tier, any amount of Tier Miles beyond that required for a tier upgrade will not be taken into account for retaining Gold tier."

The sentence in bold style suggests that the miles are lost, but then it also suggests miles above Gold are never taken into account for requalification, so technically you can't requalify? It's pretty unclear and thus should be void legally.

I can imagine people here tried to get some solution to this issue before. I have two days between outbound and inbound flight, so I could possibly call A3 to have them Change my Status manually before the flight back, but I wonder if they can do this.
Also, still a couple of miles will be lost since obviously the threshold is reached in the middle of the flight out... This s a bit of a stupid rule and I can't recall other Airlines I have dealt with doing the same...

Anyway, this put aside, and regarding the REQUALIFICATION, the best would be to just not credit any miles anymore once REQUALIFICATION achieved and plan possible subsequent mileage runs in the following requalification period (unless I am willing to earn Award miles of course).

KLouis

It's in their TCS and this is the way, for example, that FB was doing it until a few years ago. They used to allow a small cary-over for Platinums (not for Gold), and then they did increase the numbar of miles. Anyway, nothing really new here and, indeed, very legal.
they will not! Again, this is how all FF programes handle it. Imagine the number of personnel needed if they had to manually deal with all accounts for individual "needs".
All of them do! there is not one programme that will change the status while you're in the air. There are numerous threads in different fora with complaints about that but this is the way it is!
The best? If you want to put your award miles in a different programme, yes, you're correct. But this is certainly not the best for everyone.

headingwest

Just so I'm clear on this!.....

I reached Gold status for the first time on 21.03.17, with my card displaying expiry of 21.03.18. In September I'll be over the threshold of 4 A3 flights and 12,000 miles, so presumably my status will be renewed until 21.03.19, is that correct?

In that event, when will I start accruing miles again for requalification, from 22.03.18?

NWIFlyer

A perfect description. You have it nailed ...

headingwest

Thank goodness for that!

Reifel

Thanks for your feedback,

I think there is a misunderstanding. Of course I understand a status can't change in flight. However from other FFP at least the miles that are "over" the threshold are counted towards requalification, while it seems with A3 they are just "lost" until A3's systems actually change your status to Gold. This is what is a bit unusual. I would expect that I am switched to the new tier as soon as the miles are credited, but that they still count towards requalification and not get "lost".

I am also not expecting them to change the status all manually, but in case the miles are credited and the traveler is actively calling (which will not happen often), it could be a solution.

Regarding T&Cs just because it's written there it doesn't mean it's lawful. Of course I am not an experts but there are tons of judgments over the news - at least in Germany - that companies of different sectors need to change their T&C due to the fact that a passage is unlawful or void since it's not easily understandable by the customer or too negatively impacting customers.

Airlines i.e. have been judged that stating tickets are non refundable is unlawful. Tour operators have been judged that they can't ask for more than 30 percent upfront payments and all that and had to change their T&C.

Lufthansa has lost a case where a frequent flyer went to court as LH devaluated the miles after he has earned them.

I do take what airlines write in their T&C with a pinch of salt to be honest

Generally speaking T&C can't not overrule an existing law, so it's generally always possible to challenge them.

Reifel

delete

headingwest

To be honest I think this has changed. When I reached Gold in March the threshold was passed with a 3 flight (9,000 miles plus) return trip. My status was upgraded from Silver and the surplus miles (from the 1st of the 3 flights) were actually carried over and added to the miles from the 2nd and 3rd flights (which were on the following day) to go towards the next Gold qualifying year.

Since reaching Gold I haven't flown any Star Alliance flights but as you can see the miles from my previous year have carried over.

I don't think that you need to worry Reifel.

Knobbgb

Ah, that IS good news then! Indeed I wouldn't expect the status to change immediately, while in flight, but I don't see any reason why the Gold upgrade has to take a few days and NOT be backdated to the actual day it occurred (or maybe the next morning). that wouldn't (well, shouldn't) require any manual intervention. In my specific case, I took two flights TWO days after gaining the points to reach Gold but these fell into a black hole because my actual Gold upgrade occurred FOUR days after the qualifying flight. (this was two and a half years ago btw.)

It looks, from your example, that they're getting things like this sorted out.