Air New Zealand Air Points - Gold Status lead in time

Hi everyone!

So, it's been a long time coming but I am finally on track to achieve NZ*G status within the next 2 months.. In fact, in order to ensure that I would make it I decided to book a status run trip in the first week of May (just in case) :D

So here is the tricky question: I remember from reading a couple of months ago that there is a significant lead-in time from achieving a new status and when it takes effect. I have a big long-haul trip with the partner made up of flights on various *A metal in mid-June, so of course this provided the necessary motivation to achieve NZ*G and I am extremely keen to ensure that we will be able to utilise the *G benefits (lounge access mainly, as there are quite a few layovers at the airport along the way, as well as extra baggage allowance) for this trip.

I assumed that the new status would take effect from the beginning of the next month (1st June if I achieved 5 May) especially if it was achieved at the beginning of the month prior, but just read on an earlier post of someone that achieved NZ*GE and the new status did not take effect until 7 weeks later.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Is this something I should be worried about even, or is there some way of getting the status to take effect earlier once achieved?

Look forward to your comments - Thanks guys!

I hit the 900 on March 11th, and apparently my Gold year isn't starting until May 1st. I think it will show me in the system officially as Gold on April 1st-(I'm pretty sure they'd let me use my *G privileges now if I were to fly before Sunday), and that will be when my qualification period starts.

I won't get my recognition upgrades until May 1st however.

I hit the 900 on March 11th, and apparently my Gold year isn't starting until May 1st. I think it will show me in the system officially as Gold on April 1st-(I'm pretty sure they'd let me use my *G privileges now if I were to fly before Sunday), and that will be when my qualification period starts.

I won't get my recognition upgrades until May 1st however.

I qualified on 24th January and my Gold year started on 1st March.

I presume your boarding passes didn't show you as Gold until February?

I recall a guy behind me coming into the Koru lounge once and the lounge lady declined him because he was silver, and he said that he had just qualified for Gold, so she had a look and then let him and his guest in.

Whilst you're not officially gold, they will in some ways treat you as gold. You should be able to get lounge access by explaining you're qualified for gold. However this is unlikely to work for non-Air NZ lounges.

It is also possible to get recognition upgrades moved forward, which is something I did last August for when I'd qualified gold but it wasn't yet effective for a trip to the UK. But it's something you need to specifically ask for and the premium team has to process it.

However on your boarding cards, you'll just show up as NZ*S until the effective date.

For anyone hitting gold elite, the exact same applies, so you can get extra guests into the lounge, etc., just by asking them to look up your status.

Thanks for the advice everyone! ... Based on everyones comments my suspicions were confirmed: That even by achieving NZ*G in early May it was highly unlikely with the lead-in time that I would achieve the new status by 1st June (less than a month later) in time for our big trip.

I decided to give AirNZ a call on Monday and have a chat to them about it, mainly I wanted to see if it was possible for them to speed up the lead in time once I had met the qualification period and get the new card out to me before 1st June. I explained the situation (and the example of 7 weeks for a new status to take effect) and the CSR I spoke to on the phone was sympathetic but explained that it sometimes took that long for the cards to be printed, etc (7 weeks, really?).

In any case, he said that he would send an E-Mail to the premium team and see if there was anything that they could do, and that once he had received a response from them, he would give me a call back and let me know the outcome, which could take a few days.

I haven't received an official response as yet but have been up late tonight sorting out things for the coming trip.. Thought I would login to myAirNZ to check some things and -wouldn't you know it- the upper right hand corner is now bathed in gold. :D

A very unexpected surprise but I guess they could see I was only 8 SP's off and was going to achieve the new status anyway with 3 flights over the next few months so decided to give it to me early :)
I was hoping that the new status would take effect from 12 months from 1st June, but beggars can't be choosers ;) I guess I'll give them a call later today and ask them to put the remaining time on my Koru membership on hold, but good to see that there is still some good customer service out there, great stuff AirNZ!

Thanks again for all your help guys, really much appreciated, and hope this helps anyone else out there in a similar situation in future :)

You can also request that they send you a letter by email which confirms that you are now NZ*G which can be used for non-Air NZ lounges to get access, get the extra baggage allowance, etc.