Originally Posted by
irishguy28
Yes, in the "worst case scenario", someone who did just enough flying to add the requisite number of XPs to maintain their status gets nothing - the status that they "earned" (though likely with much less flying needed, giving that most of 2020 gave them double XPs) would have been granted to them anyway, and they start the next year with the exact same XP balance they had the year before, even without the benefit of the "surplus XP" changes.
I must be lucky to be a worst-case member then.
By the way, don't forget that surplus XP was not granted to everyone in 2020. Only those with a qualification period between July 2020 and February 2021 were eligible.
All of those with a qualification period ending during Q1/Q2 had the privilege of losing their XP (if they flew a lot in 2019+Q1/Q2 2020) while not getting their surplus XP back.
Those amongst them who bit the bullet and went the extra mile to secure their 2021 status by flying in Q3/Q4 2020 bet on the wrong horse.
I guess they won't do it again.
As you correctly pointed out, XP runs were a good strategy for those who wanted to climb up in status in 2020. That said, I'm not sure how many flyers were not Elite in 2019
and suddenly decided that 2020 was the year to become an Elite airline member. For the rest of us simply trying to maintain status until things settle down, I'd love to hear if anyone is interested in XP runs in 2021 with the current rules. Can't find much situations where this would make sense.