I don't know.....
Here's my situation.....I went for it as basically I had nothing to lose.
My Points year end was Feb 6th. I had zero chance of getting the extra 35 points required in the last couple of weeks without spending money. I'm not up for spending cash on full fare BA to just extend Silver.
So, I registered for ECCCA and after a few days my online account was ammended.
My points total was zeroed (no great issue - it was about to be zeroed anyway)
My membership year was extended to mid Dec 2002 (which I presume is our corporate year) and my status is still shown as Silver.
My only concern now is my card still has an expiry date of March 2002 (as before). I have since been sent a 'welcome to ECCCA' card (identical - nothing that says ECCCA) which also expires March 2002. I presume I will be sent a new card (hopefully Silver!)
I'll know by April (presumably) and will post results.
End of the day, I certainly haven't lost out, I can only gain.
Your situation is different though. You need to get to 700 to move to Silver.
I think there are two things you need to find out from EC and suggest you call them:
It may be that joining the ECCCA your 580 points qualify you for Silver immediately - yes your points are zeroed but you made silver. (This is presuming your ECCCA is like ours, 500pts to qualify, 400pts to renew) I think this is a likely scenario. Others may have lost out because they joined when below the 500pt qualifying cirteria.
Secondly, you need to know your Corporate year end. If it's, say, April and you change now, your Silver will presumably expire in April THIS YEAR (not good). If April and you wait utnil after corporate year end it will expire in April 2003.
Another thing, if, say, your corporate year end is Dec 2002 then the sooner you join (and I presume by joining you become Silver as you're at 580pts) the sooner you start earning the next 400pts to renew for another year.
Clear as mud as far as I can make out mind
[This message has been edited by matthewuk (edited 02-18-2002).]