Originally Posted by
NWIFlyer
Status miles, frankly, are anyone's guess - it's difficult to imagine someone who needed 2,000 miles to re-qualify (which is the buying cap we're expecting)
Do you mind me asking where this discussion (if you mean Flyer Talk) was held?
While I fully agree that there will be a cap, I think that 2,000 miles is far too low an amount. I suspect there may be a different cap for Silver members (perhaps 4,000 miles) and for Gold members (perhaps 6,000 miles). Presumably, they won't just allow you to buy your status outright [although Lufthansa does allow this - so who know?], or even to buy up to the a higher status.
A cap of 2,000 miles would be of little use to a Gold who (for whatever reason) failed to accumulate the necessary 4 A3/OA segments but yet has a substantial balance but is short of 22,000 status miles (the obvious route to retention for such passengers would be to take an A3 biz class trip), or even for a Gold with the necessary sectors but still languishing below 10,000 miles.
Surely, the idea is to monetise the programme, and in the cases where 2,000 miles is all that is needed, such people would surely have sewn-up their retention with a strategic booking (of course, last minute changes and cancellations can get in the way). But restricting the number of miles buyable so drastically would really limit the potential market to a tiny number of people.