rodondo4

Hi all...

I would like to know if FD can allow for circumstances where I am unable to travel (all my travel involves long haul) throughout the past 9 months due to my wife being pregnent.

Since she has been pregnent I have opted out of any overseas travel until the baby is born. This is will this effect my FD status points as I need another 30,000 to stay at Gold. Is there anyway in appealling for this??

Missing out on Gold will/might mean missing out on Skyteam Elite Plus

onlysuites

I doubt it very much. Infact i have heard of people missing out on qualifying for PE or GE status by a few hundred miles and not getting any help from them.

Maybe someone else might have had better luck? What ever you do don't bother calling the FD helpdesk unless you want to waste your time

Aviatrix

Every year a certain percentage of members of every FF programme will find themselves in situations where, for reasons outside their control (illness, family illness, bereavement), they are unable to travel as much as they normally do. I was in that situation myself four years ago when my father was terminally ill.

The old FD scheme made allowance for this, in a way, by allowing members to carry points forward to the following year - I managed to hang on to my Royal Wing status in 2000 because I had enough points in the bank from previous years. One of the things many of us criticised when the new scheme was brought in was the fact that it does not allow for any carry-forward at all, and a point that was frequently made was the very point that is being made again now - "How about people who have to temporarily cut down on their travelling for reasons such as illness?"

I can't see how an airline could make a special case for every FF member who suffered illness or bereavement (it would take hours of staff time to check through all the doctors' notes, death certificates etc), but a system which allows some limited carry-forward would be an easy and unbureaucratic way of allowing frequent flyers to maintain their status when they have to cut down on their travelling for limited periods.

Torsten71

Sorry I can't give you any advice on this, but I'm a bit curious, because I did it exactly the other way 'round. I have travelled a lot while my wife was pregnant in order to be there and have more time for her and the child after the birth. That worked quite well for me (two times), especially as I also got away from those typical mood changes during pregnancy .

Cheers,
Torsten

johan rebel

I had to cancel half a dozen flights after my father's death earlier this year. KL gave me a full refund on a nonrefundable ticket, and FD refunded the miles for an upgrade on this ticket, including the 2,500 cancelation fee. Both KL and FD required copies of the death certificate.

johan

Aviatrix

I know KLM will refund non-refundable tickets in cases of bereavement - I got a full refund from KLM when my father-in-law died some years ago, which was quite unexpected as all I had asked for was a letter for my insurers confirming that the ticket was non-refundable.

I wasn't really talking about ticket refunds, though - I was talking about FD members asking to retain their status for compassionate reasons when they haven't flown enough to re-qualify. Who is going to decide what is or isn't a deserving case? Who is going to sift through all the supporting evidence that people would have to supply? Where would one draw the line?

Very sorry to hear about your father, Johan.

Exraf

They will simply say that you didn't fly on every "concievable" occasion

Exraf

(Sorry couldn't resist)

Counsellor

Well, I guess one can't judge by what happened last year (KLM renewed all PEs, even those without a single flight, and all GEs that had taken one flight), but it's always worth asking if you fall short. Even if they won't give you a full year more as GE, perhaps they will offer you some sort of "challenge" (e.g., fly 12,500 miles during the first quarter or some such).

As with last year, I've fully requalified for PE, so the odds are they will again give the status to anyone who has not set foot on a KLM flight this year.


Ah yes. At least with PMS the mood changes only hit a few days a month.

Steve Fenton

Please note that to say nothing is the best policy as they encourage non revenue spenders to enjoy all the best perks of FD and thos high revenue spenders get nothing regardless of what they have done in the past

davistev

Sounds like an old LH policy. As far as I now Lufthansa was the only airline that allowed for preganancy to be an excuse to not drop status. KLM . . . . .well!

Aviatrix

Own pregnancy or partner's pregnancy?

Counsellor

I believe either, although it may apply only when the person takes some sort of formal leave from work.

Discussed in the below thread (as well as others):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67116

Aviatrix

So it's not pregnancy, but parental leave (i.e., time off work AFTER the baby is born) that will make LH extend a passenger's frequent flyer status.

Counsellor

Maybe. I haven't tried it - but in some countries maternity leave can start during pregnancy, i.e. BEFORE the baby is born.

Aviatrix

Getting way off topic now... but these are two separate concepts in German law. Maternity leave (Mutterschutz) is a mother's entitlement to have time off work just before and just after the birth of a baby. Erziehungsurlaub (parental leave) refers to the right of either parent to take up to three years off work to look after their child until it is old enough to start Kindergarten.

Lufthansa's rules refer to Erziehungsurlaub - i.e., time off to look after a young child rather than maternity leave.