I?ll dive into an area that I am an admitted idiot in. While I am more than happy to be in a position to have an easier re-qualification path to Gold each year, my understanding of the program is that when you are qualifying for the EC the first time your point balance is reset to 0 once you achieve the new level. For example an EU member would qualify for Silver by flying the following route in Club ZRH-LRH (60), LHR-SFO (160), SFO-LHR (160), LHR-ZRH (60). A total of 440 points and enough for Silver. The point total resets to 40 (440-400 for Silver EC) where the newly anointed Silver member would have one year to gather 800 for Gold or 300 to renew. They would have to fly that route two more times to get Gold. At least this is how it functioned for me when I charged through the system.

Regarding the unfair fare structure, I fully agree that the transparency makes the whole situation from the outside seem, well, silly. Case in point is when I was managing a project in Asia for a Swiss client. There were two people from the UK in my project team. My normal fare ~CHF5?500 CW. My UK colleagues, ~GBP5?500. Same flights from LHR, sitting right next to each other most of the time. After I negotiated my fare with BA (in competition against SR and LH) for 25 CW trips I pointed out the discrepancy. To BA?s credit they agreed to a much better blended rate based on a committed number of flights over a set period.