Dogmatick

I've been trying to get a straight answer to this for weeks and now EtihadHelp has posted one. GuestPlatinum has refused to give a straight answer stating there is change coming....

It seems that from now on you get 12 months from the day you qualify plus three months. That's it

No rest of the year plus a year plus three months any more.

No Jan to Dec qualification, your own personal year

Of course this is to make things infinitely more complex for us and therefore is an enhancement to the easy to understand system that went before it.

There has been no notice given and I'm unsure of when it came in but it is sneaky considering how many people are out there currently running miles for this very purpose. VERY unfair

Oh well I best cancel my really expensive mileage run in Jan then as it won't last 27 months anymore.

Isn't this now in line with Emirates

DatBoi

Very much so...
And to think I am roughly 6k tier miles to gold - I mean is it even worth qualifying for status anymore.

danial21

Tbf it's the same case with every other airline. But, Etihad's communication on this has been weak. Even now the website says different things about this in different places.

I'm quite concerned by the miles devaluation though, let's see what sort of changes they make. Lack of communication here has been an issue too. Let's see what happens.

British Balikbayan

I have also been following this issue with interest recently and feeling somewhat concerned as more info has come out. When they first announced that they were reducing new tier qualification from two years to one year for gold and plat, I was a little disappointed. However, I was also aware that if you time it right, you can also get up to an additional 12 months. Previously we could get up to 3 years but that has now been reduced to just over a year. That's like a 2/3 reduction, a massive drop.

From the Etihad Terms and Conditions today:


4. Guest Tiers

4.1. The number of Etihad Guest Tier Miles and/or Etihad Guest Tier Segments, required for qualification/re-qualification into each Etihad Guest Tier Status, and the benefits and privileges provided to members at each Etihad Guest Tier Status, are detailed on the Etihad Guest Website and are subject to change at any time without notice.
4.2. You may earn Etihad Guest Tier Miles and/or Etihad Guest Tier Segments by travelling on Etihad Guest Tier Qualifying Flights as specified on the Etihad Guest Website and/or as otherwise specified in our valid publications, as issued from time to time.
4.3. Once you have attained an Etihad Guest Tier Status (prior to 30 September 2017) , your status is valid for the rest of that calendar year plus:
4.3.1. one year for Etihad Guest Silver Members, and Two years for Etihad Guest Gold and Platinum Members
4.4 If you have attained an Etihad Guest Tier Status after 30 September 2017, your Tier status is valid for:
4.4.1. one year for Etihad Guest Silver Members, Etihad Guest Gold and Etihad Guest Platinum Members.
In addition you will enjoy the benefits of your Etihad Guest Tier Status for a bonus two month period immediately following the expiration of the periods mentioned specified in clauses 4.3.1,4.3.2 and 4.4.1 (as applicable).




I note that clause 4.3.2 is omitted. Please also note than the bonus period in the terms is shown as TWO months rather than THREE.

I feel relieved that I got my first gold qualification earlier this year which means my validity doesn't expire until the end of March 2020.

Will this change make me question my loyalty? You bet. I will likely reconsider my options in 2019 if things remain the same. I also haven't forgotten about losing lounge access as a Silver member before my card expired. Retrospectively removing privileges we have earned leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Mike

Dubh

I just had a quick look at my plat card and it says valid through 3/2020. Is there a chance they will go back on that?

British Balikbayan

You have the same expiry as me and it will remain the same. It's one of the first things I checked. There is a clause saying that those who qualified before the changes will not be affected. I'm so glad I qualified when i did.

Mike

Dogmatick

I'm so jealous, I'd planned it all to do the same this year and coached others to do the same. Then despite it all a sudden promo kicked in I couldn't get out of and I requalified in December

At the time thought nothing of it, now it is reduced from potentially 39 months to 14

Also note the lack of any sort of lifetime reward, stop flying and they stop caring

Yay, my flights to do the mileage runs in Jan are about to be cancelled. Nothing like a mid year no notice change to make you feel loyal, oh hang on I think the word 'loyalty' is right up there with 'Hogan' in etihad towers

DatBoi

My silver status is valid through 04/19, when I (inevitably) reach gold will the validity change?

Dogmatick

Undoubtedly

British Balikbayan

Further to my earlier post regarding the new Etihad Terms and Conditions, I have today noted this in their FAQ's:


3. What is the validity of each tier?

Etihad Guest - has no validity limits.
Etihad Guest Silver, Gold and Platinum - is valid for the rest of the calendar year earned with an additional bonus of three months.





These two different parts of the website contradict each other. So which is it, Etihad?!

Some of Etihad's rules can be ambiguous at the best of times. I have noted that vagueness and ambiguity has become even worse in a number of areas in the past year where there have been policy and rule changes. We can now also add contradiction to the list.

Mike

Hoias

on their new guest homepage they indeed now show 2 or 3 different information for the tier validity. Most are already posted above.


Let me share my experience and outcome with Etihad Guest for my question to status validity etc.
I hope this may help others who are in similar situation and will not make it even more complicated...


Before the launch of the new website I was (still be) in the situation that I would need 2 more segments (46/48) for platinum re-qualification until 31/12/2017.

For my understanding their T&C clearly stated that re-qualification is from 01Jan to 31Dec and then the status would be valid for 1 more year. (until 31Dec2018)
But also their T&C clearly stated that for NEW qualification the status is valid for the rest of that calendar year plus one year.


So I had to decide to either requalify in December 2017 and get status for 1 more year until 31Dec2018 or
not to re-qualify, get downgraded to Gold on 31Dec2017 and then fly the remaining 14 segments (46/60) in January to new qualify from Gold to Platinum and get new Platinum status for rest of 2018 plus one year (31Dec2019).


From my experience with Etihad Guest (having EY tier status since 2008!) I already knew that I better should not rely on the written information on their website...
Therefore, I requested a clear statement from them by e-mail about terms for new qualification and the validity of the new attained status.

After back and forth and many "empty" replies I finally got the below clear statement from them on 07 October 2017 confirming their same understanding of the rules:



��Further to your query pertaining to your Platinum tier status, I would like to clarify that currently your qualification period to maintain your Platinum tier is Jan to Dec 2017.

You need to accrue 100,000 Tier Miles or 48 Tier Segments during this period (�)

In case if you are unable to maintain your tier status for 2018, your Platinum tier will be downgraded to Gold (�)

You may regain your Platinum tier status by accumulating 125,000 Tier Miles or 60 Tier Segments within any consecutive 12 months (�)
your status will then be valid for the rest of that calendar year plus one year (�)�



Due to their above statement I customised my travels and �downgraded� 2 segments of a return flight to economy to only get 2 instead of 4 segments and therefore do not re-qualify for Platinum in 2017!

Instead of these 2 segments for re-qualification I have now booked 2 J return flights for January 2018 to collect 14 segments and newly qualify from Gold to Platinum.


I hope they will stick to their word and it will not again take too much back and forth e-mails.
If they try again to �cheat� or not to deliver what they promise, in addition to all the recent cost cuttings, I guess I should finally move on to different carriers (after 10 yrs loyality with EY).


PS: Status is still valid for the extra 3 month (Jan to Mar) after expiry � I only referred to end of year to keep explanations easier 😉

Dogmatick

I w as in the exact same position even with 46 segments

Same back and forth etc and have been told this is now changed.

Email received yesterday stated I have until 31st Jan to get to 48 segments????

Then I asked about validity and told the same as above.

I would recheck your case to see if they'll honour it

DatBoi

Y'all get EY status through tier segments I would have thought most people (like myself) earn status through tier miles, excluding of course UAE bank issued EY CC holders.

British Balikbayan

All this is very concerning. It sounds like Etihad wanted to drastically reduce validity but then failed to correctly formulate a clear plan on all the criteria. The result seems to be that even Etihad staff don't know what is what which means we stand no chance of knowing the truth.

When I first joined Etihad Guest about five years ago, there was a very detailed guide on the EG programme which gave lots of details in timings etc. I think it was even available in PDF format (I might have a copy on my PC somewhere). For somebody new to the programme it was really useful to help understand how everything worked. I haven't seen it on the website for a long time.

In more recent times, service and policy changes have resulted in a higher level of ambiguity and vagueness. This causes problems for both flyers and Etihad staff and leads to policies being inconsistently enforced.

Mike

Gabby2

Im trying to find out what valid for me and Im sure other have same issue.

Im Platinum and its expire 2019/4 , I will probably get over 100.000 Tier miles this year until end of the year.

Will the Platinum extend to 2020/4 or am I screwed?