Finnair Plus - Tier points into black hole

My Emerald period ends in the end Feb 2012. Appr 1000 points missing of renewing my Emerald status.

Call to Finnair Plus center revealed that points I'm collecting after reaching 300.000 (I have still the old 2 year collecting period to be changed into 1 year now) will go to black hole. I was kindly asking "what good am I getting" collecting the points for nothing. They said you will be rewarded somehow. Even asked what the reward could possibly be, I just got the answer the they look the situation case by case. I told them to reveal a bit the reward telling them that e.g. getting a Moomin tee cup would not be consired as reward from my side.

Any of you have had similar situation?

Evaluating should I catch BA card and collect the remaining of the points into that.

Are you referring to tier points that wil get reset at the end of membership year? I am not familiar with how AY+ worked before, but this is the standard of many programs. Your reward point will not get reset ofcourse, so crediting your fligth to AY is not a complete waste.


I am not sure what you want to accomplish by crediting flights to BA at this point? If you are short 1000 points of emerald I can't see why not credit the next flight to AY to get emerald for another year?
Even if you are about to switch programs, it would be better to get emerald secured for another year first.

If you are switching to BAEC, make sure you reach gold before feb 28, as the thresholds for tier status will be considerable higher after that.

Are you referring to tier points that wil get reset at the end of membership year? I am not familiar with how AY+ worked before, but this is the standard of many programs. Your reward point will not get reset ofcourse, so crediting your fligth to AY is not a complete waste.


I am not sure what you want to accomplish by crediting flights to BA at this point? If you are short 1000 points of emerald I can't see why not credit the next flight to AY to get emerald for another year?
Even if you are about to switch programs, it would be better to get emerald secured for another year first.

If you are switching to BAEC, make sure you reach gold before feb 28, as the thresholds for tier status will be considerable higher after that.

For BA Gold (Emerald) the tresholds are going from 300 for bronze (new tier) 400->600 for silver and finally 1200->1500 for gold, so not really a drastic change if you do fly frequently enough.

Euro-gold has been 800 TP:s annually for years, not 1200 TP:s.

If a silver or gold on 01st May 2012, old re-qualification thresholds are applied for two years. Moving from silver to gold within that time period would however require 1500 TP:s.

I believe it is march 1.st that is the deadline to earn BAEC gold if you want to be able to renew at 800TP.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/17299223-post13.html
Meeting that deadline will postpone the new qualification levels for another 2 years, for all who do not meet this deadline gold qualification will jump to 1500 "immediately".

So a qualification level jumping from 800 to 1500 is in my mind a drastic change. That new level equates to 25 r/t LHR-BKK in low econ or 7 r/t in business.

However, there is also a new earnings table that is supposed to earn (relatively) better on long haul (and I think this is published on nov 16) so until that is out, it is not possible to determine the exact ramifications of the new program. What is clear is that qualifying for BAEC gold before march 1.st is much better than not.


-- -- --

The new earnings table IS already published, my bad. 5,5 r/t LH flights in business or 21,5 r/t flights in low econ will yeild BAEC gold after the earnings increased on nov 16.

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/ec-frequently-asked-questions/public/en_gb

Right, 01 March it is...

TP's will not reset after you achieve a new tier, so in total from blue, gold will be 1500 instead of 400 for silver and 800 then for gold for the 1200 you need now. Not too much to be honest, 300 TP's.

It is true that TP's will not get reset when walking up the status ladder in BAEC after Nov 16, a change that will make it much easier to go from blue to gold in one year than before. (AY+ did a similar change in 2009 and I took advantage of it then to qualify for plat in 6 months.)

Even so, you will still need to earn all those 1500 TP every year, and that will take more flying than before. If 1500TP is much or not, that depends on who you are asking. For my travel pattern it will take 70% more butt-in-seat-flying on BA than on AY to get emerald. YMMV.

However, OP is not happy with AY+ tier points getting reset at the end of membership year and this will happen in BAEC too, so no advantage either side there.

I would probably also choose the AY program over the BA one now, but as I can't gain status on the AY one yet, there's no point.

Called to Finnair's CS today, asking if my 370.000 tier points were worth of any extra than getting a Platinum tier again. I was able to select 4 european upgrade or Silver tier for one of my friend.

They said that one must call them before they credit you any extra.

Are these similar bonuses you might have got once making over the platinum tier level?