Originally Posted by
jan0809
- I received my email from FB this morning - I assume they are "personalised" at least to be directed to specific status holders. Mine, under "Experience and Explore" reads: "To keep your Platinum level, you'll need to gain 300 XP between 1 January and 31 December 2018. (...).
This gets me superconfused, as - if I was to read it literally - it means that in such specific case, the Platinum status will be extended from March 31 expiry until the end of year.
Not sure what is confusing you about the statement.
The new target, in XPs, is 300 for Platinum. You already have platinum, so you don't need to first worry about first collecting 100 to get Silver, or first collecting another 180 to get Gold.
You currently are Platinum, so your membership year won't change. Therefore, for as long as you remain Platinum, your membership year will stay aligned with the calendar year. Hence, you have from January 1 to 31 December to collect the necessary flying - albeit that from 1 April 2018, the "necessary flying" changes from 60 segments or 70k level miles, to a single blanket 300XP.
That your status was "extended" for an extra 3 months, to the end of the following March, has been a fixture of FB from the very beginning. This is to allow themselves enough time to wait for late or delayed flights to post, even after the end of the (currently, fixed for everybody) membership year; create the new cards reflecting everyone's new status, and send them out in time for the "expiry" of all status on 1 April.
Originally Posted by
jan0809
Another scenario that would be logical but contradicts the email above, is that: I collect Segments/Level Miles till end of March, get downgraded to Gold, get my Segments/Level Miles transferred to XP and have another 9 months of the year to get to 300XP in order to "requalify" for Platinum.
Which one is it? Thanks in advance.
You
cannot be downgraded in Status on 31 March 2018 either as a result of the "change" to the programme, or on the basis of your flights taken so far in 2018. EVERYONE is still only 3 months into their current membership year. As such, NO-ONE CAN BE DOWNGRADED, AS NO-ONE IS AT THE END OF THEIR MEMBERSHIP YEAR ON THIS DATE. [Anyone whose status card expires on 1 April and is getting a new, lower status is someone who "lost" that status on the basis of the decision taken at the end-of-year level check that happens in FB every 31 December. Anyone losing status effective 1 April 2018 therefore loses it because of the decision taken on 31 December 2017 based on their flights taken in calendar year 2017 - it has nothing to do with the introduction of the new programme, or the change to XPs, or the flights taken so far in 2018] Status downgrades are only decided at the end of the membership year; they become effective 3 months later. Anyone failing to maintain status in calendar year 2018 will not have that decision to downgrade them taken until 31 December 2018 (and it will actually only become effective from 1 April 2019) so the switch to the "new" programme cannot force you to downgrade as you seem to fear.
There is a once-off shortcut for "maintaining" Platinum, though. Anyone who has 60k level miles [60k * 5XP = 300XP, the new Platinum threshold], or 43 segments [43 * 7XP = 301XP, exceeding the new Platinum threshold of 300XP] on 31 March 2018, *should* be upgraded to Platinum as a result of the one-off conversion of level miles/segments to XP using this (very beneficial) conversion formula.