pilotboy1985YYC

Sorry if I missed something here, but I'm a Aegean star gold card holder whose card expires January 24th 2016. However I'm sitting in EWR right now and united refused to recognize it. They say I'm silver. They charged me for my bag and won't let me into the lounge. They said it doesn't matter what the card says, I'm showing silver.

So I logged into the miles and bonus and it says they downgraded me to silver on Nov 24th. How is this possible when my gold card is good till Jan 2016??

Jma12

Well, technically you are silver as of Nov 24th, but A3 gave out extra few months for people who re-qualify for gold, but not for people who remain in Silver. I got downgraded from gold to silver as well, and will be flying from YYZ-YVR in January, I am going to try it in the MLL with my A3 card and see if it will work. If not, I will flash my TK *G card.

Knobbgb

This proves what we have thought all along (because this is the first re-qualification of the new program we didn't know for sure) that the date on the card is purely a grace period. It allows for new cards to be send out TO THOSE WHO HAVE RE-QUALIFIED. I assume Aegean's logic was that most/many people WOULD re-qualify so it was better to extend the date and deal with the problem the OP is having for a few people, rather than to issue the cards only until 24th November and have potentially a LOT more problems with valid Golds being refused.

NWIFlyer

However, this is most definitely not how pretty much every other FFP works - the member retains status until the end of the card expiry.

It has to work this way, otherwise what happens to someone that re-qualifies a day before their year-end, gets downgraded until the flight posts a week later, but wants to travel in the meantime? For someone on holiday (vacation) in the US, for example, that's a perfectly normal scenario with the number of internal flights.

A3 really should have figured this out in the year they've had, and what is happening is in direct conflict with *A rules. They need to fix this and honour the card date.

demue

+1. Not affected, but this should be corrected by A3. Take LH status which is valid until 02/xx and one can use it all the way till the last day of Feb. Same principle applies with most programs that I know of.

irishguy28

If A3 were to "fix" this, it would probably involve increasing their qualification thresholds to levels similar to those of, for example, Lufthansa.

I think it's no secret that some of Aegean's Star Alliance partners are a bit miffed at how easily A3 grants status.

If having the "expired" status observed by all partners is the most important thing for you in your FFP membership, then I suggest you seek status - and then lose it - with another carrier! Or confine your travels during the period of lapsed status to the carrier that issued that status card.

NWIFlyer

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have the effect of raising qualification levels at all - all that's being said is that if A3 issues a card which is valid for a further two months beyond earning year end to take account of miles and card posting times, that card is valid and should be honoured by the Alliance.

My BA year finishes on 8th November 2016. My Gold card, which arrived last week so I know BA hasn't changed policy in the last 12 months, is valid until 31st December 2016.

When I was an active member of Flying Blue, my year ended (as did everyone else's) on 31st December. My card was always valid until the end of the following February.

When BMI Diamond Club was still around, my card was valid until at least the end of the following month.

None of the qualification levels for these FFPs ever changed as a result of doing this.

It's simply the norm to do this to avoid issues where people are wrongly denied benefits, and for the industry to absorb the relatively small number of people who are gaining a extra period of status - that's just inconsequential in terms of the costs of running an airline. To do anything else is just messy, as we see here.

Xandrios

I expect that we have been looking at it incorrectly. We suspected that this extension was implemented for people who credit their qualifying flight last-minute. But this would be a very small group and probably not worth it to put any effort in.

However if the cards would expire on Nov 24th, all current Gold members would have a problem as they cannot access any lounge while the new card is in transit. I suspect this is the main reason for the card validity extension. It is not a status extension, merely a card extension - which then can be used on the status level that is in the system.

irishguy28

But yet, Star Alliance bullies a small member like A3 by ignoring their written rules and penalizing the customers of the minnow. This would never happen to a Lufthansa customer, for example.

The only reason I can come up with for this attitude to prevail in relation to Aegean fliers is the relative ease with which the airline grants status. This topic has popped up numerous times.

irishguy28

You are correct - the "grace" period in any status programme is not to cover for last-minute status requalifiers.

It is simply in recognition of the fact that, when a final decision on status cannot be made before a certain date (though, in many cases, the outcome of the decision can be known in advance), it simply is not logistically possible to create and deliver a new card aligned to the membership year overnight.

Of course, in this day and age physical membership cards should not be necessary...but we all know that that is sadly not the case. And, as we are learning, the card can be a tool to deny you access when you cannot produce it, and it further can be a tool to deny you access when you can provide it but they instead decide to go with what their computer says about your status!!!

Indeed, I foresee that a requalified Gold should not have any trouble accessing a lounge. If the card says they (still) have status, and the computer says they have status - then it should be all systems go.

NWIFlyer

Sadly, you're probably right that there is some discrimination within Star.

Nonetheless, if I were in that situation I'd certainly still show the agent the *A Employees' Guide. They really cannot argue with it if the database does not correspond to the physical card, however much they try. If that doesn't work, I'm willing to bet a supervisor would probably take a different view if pushed.

Interestingly, for me obtaining Oneworld Emerald status with BA (as Gold) is far easier than with AA (as EXP). When I last had a potential missed connection to deal with, the AA agents in the SFO lounge treated me incredibly well: "You must do an awful lot of flying to be a BA Gold, Sir". Now, with my flying pattern of ex-EUs and creative routings that's certainly not true measured against an AA EXP, but I get the impression the US-based airlines regard European status passengers in fairly high regard. I'm partly surprised, therefore, that the UA agent didn't accept the card as evidence of status and override the bag charge.

There is, of course, a very easy fix for this - all A3 has to do is set the expiry date that reports into the *A status database to the same as the card expiry. Every other airline in the world seems able to do this. It really should not be beyond them to fall into line.

irishguy28

I'm not aware of any other airline doing this...

I lost status in Flying Blue (Silver to Ivory (base level)) and dropped in status in BAEC (Gold to Silver) this calendar year.

In Flying Blue, my silver card was still valid until 31/03/2015. However, the system shows me as being an Ivory for those 3 "grace" months, as they did not apply the 50% Silver bonus to my mileage earning on flights taken up until 31/03/2015 this year.

Unfortunately, I took no BA/oneworld flights this year in the (much shorter) period between losing Gold status and the expiry date of my Gold card - but I fully expect any flights taken in that period would have earned the 50% Silver, rather than 100% Gold, bonus.

NWIFlyer

I'm not entirely in a position to judge, but my experiences are a little different (if perhaps a bit further back, so maybe things have changed).

I lost Gold status in Flying Blue following the April Fools' Day changes, when I cashed in my balance and stopped flying on Skyteam. IIRC, the website still showed me as Gold up to the expiry of my card the following February (March?). I haven't set foot on a KLM/Skyteam plane since 2009, so I can't offer an opinion as to what bonus miles would have been credited, but I'm confident I would have been able to claim lounge access had I tried.

I was a BD status match to BA following the takeover. In the first year, because I was still in redemption mode burning 600k of Diamond Club miles, I didn't even get enough Tier Points to make Bronze. My status continued to display as Gold online beyond the end of my earning year. As it happens, someone in BA must have decided I had the potential to be a more lucrative customer and another (discretionary) Gold card arrived in the post - to my considerable surprise. Now, that had to require human intervention after my year-end, so it was unconnected with what the computer regarded my status as.

My experience, and I think this may be in line with other contributors to this forum, is that the way A3 administers the cut-off is out-of-kilter with everyone else.

irishguy28

But A3 is not administering anything differently than anyone else.

What is different here is that some *A staff - either in ignorance, or in defiance, of the printed *A lounge access rules, are deciding that for A3 customers, the rule of "highest available status" (in cases of contradicting inputs) should NOT be honoured.

The highlighting above is my own.

The above scenario is represented because this is how ALL airlines handle a downgrade in status. The physical card is ALWAYS valid for a "grace period" after the loss of the relevant status. The actual status goes into effect at the date of the downgrade, though (and effects the "working" of the programme, such as the amount of bonus miles awarded, etc). However, *A rules show that - when the physical card shows that it is still valid - this should trump the lower status reported via any other means. The "perks" associated with the card - such as lounge access, extra baggage - should be given. However, perks such as higher bonus amounts, etc, will NOT be awarded in such cases.

irishguy28

As a fellow BD-exile - albeit one who maintained BA Gold for the next few years, up until the membership year that ended on 8 April last - I can confirm that BA's systems showed me as being Silver within four days of the start of the new membership year - though they did wait until almost the very end of the validity of the old Gold card before physically dispatching the new Silver card