Originally Posted by
kirker
Wow – that's remarkably similar to my predicament. I flew SFO-LHR-ATH-LHR-SFO 12/9 - 12/26, and specifically in BA F (at least on the SFO legs) because it has a 300% elite mileage bonus. Also did it specifically to hit 75K, since I'm only at Gold right now. The delay is particularly aggravating given that I have a whole raft of flights entirely on AA starting a week from tomorrow – AUS-DFW-GUA-MIA-STI-MIA-AUS (stretched out over a two-week period, with most of the time spent in Guatemala & the DR – and I can't get on the upgrade list for first/biz unless I'm in the AS system at 75K.
I submitted copies of all of my ticket receipts both via the AS web portal and email – starting with the first SFO-LHR-ATH leg five weeks ago – but haven't even received a confirmation that they arrived. The last time I called their CS line it had something insane like a three-hour wait time, so I gave up (but OTOH that was admittedly right around the time they had a whole slew of weather delays due to winter weather near their SEA base).
I know AS is still new to OW, but one of the reasons I switched over from AA to AS in the first place (after a status challenge last year) was because I was sick & tired of all the endless hoops AA makes you jump through, and I'd heard AS was actually different – and not just because they're the only remaining airline without a dollar-spend requirement for elite status. (It also helps that I'm based out of AUS, and AS has been beefing up its service substantially after entering the market via its Virgin America acquisition, including adding our very first nonstop to PSP last fall.) It's all just so aggravating!
Update with news that's both good as well as weird: two days ago I received a form-letter email from AS with all the "British Airways miles can take six to eight weeks to process blah blah blah" stuff. No surprise there. Cut to today:
all of my missing miles are now showing up on my Mileage Plan account!
One rather significant problem, however: my elite level is still listed as MVP Gold, despite my total mileage for the year – on AS & partner airlines, including bonuses – adding up to nearly 128,000! That was actually a lot
higher than I anticipated, but I'm guessing my initial calculations didn't take into account AS's bonus EQM extensions.
To ask another newbie question: on the AS mileage activity page, do "bonus" miles mean EQMs or non-EQMs? (or neither) As an example: I mentioned earlier than I flew SFO-LHR-ATH-LHR-SFO in BA F as a de facto mileage run. All BA F EQMs are calculated at either 250% or 300%. My accrued mileage for this
one trip alone is as follows:
SFO-LHR: 5,368 (base) + 24,156 (bonus)
LHR-ATH: 1,504 (base) + 5,264 (bonus)
That's 36,310 total – and since it was roundtrip, the full amount is 72,610. Considering I only needed another 2,400 miles to hit 75K alone, it seems like I should at
least be at 75K, but more likely at 100K.
Two caveats (at least for this particular trip): first, at AS's "normal" 250% bonus level in F, I would've gotten 13,420 miles on top of the 5,368 base ones. Second, my LHR-ATH leg was in J (since obviously BA has no F sections on intra-European flights), which only earns a 150% elite bonus, so – again – at "normal" levels I'd be at 2,256 miles. Still, my combined total would be 26,840 for the SFO-LHR-SFO legs in F and 4,512 for LHR-ATH-LHR.
Any idea what's going on here?? I'm unclear why I'd get that form letter but discover less than 48 hours that my miles had been added, and also why I haven't been bumped up to a higher elite level yet. Is there some huge oversight I've somehow overlooked? Or does it take AS a bit of time to fully process a change in elite levels or something?