orbitmic

I'm really sorry to hear about your stolen passport and the Russian authorities lack of co-operation in issuing you with a replacement document.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely nothing unusual about FB's response and I certainly cannot think of a single FFP with which you would have had the remotest chance of being given a status that would not correspond to the flights that you had actually flown in the qualification period. I think that you should switch to *A if you think that they would be better for you but certainly not if you think in any way that they would have been more sympathetic to a similar request there is 0% chance that they would have been.

As for passport checks, unfortunately, there is never a guarantee that you could fly anywhere at all without passport checks. Even though many Schengen countries do not have a policy to systematically impose checks at boarding for flights to other Schengen destinations, almost all could impose such checks on a temporary basis in case of, say, a terrorism alert, which is a permanent possibility in this day and age. In that sense, I am not entirely sure if it is worth the risk for a Platinum card which is not worth much more than Gold if it means that you cannot return to the Netherlands as planned. It is also worth noting that even with documents, finding 9 segments between now and 31 December which happens to correspond to a heavy travel period (at least from 15/12 onwards) is likely to prove very expensive.

In short, I think that if there is no way of getting an emergency travel document from the Russian consulate or in Russia itself, there is no realistic chance of a safe plan that would enable you to fly the 9 segments that you would need for Platinum qualification between now and the end of the year.

Incidentally, I am very surprised about their earlier reference to the commercial representative and really wonder what they had in mind!