:D!

You can check flightradar24.com to find out where your plane went before, or is going after, your flight. It looks like that A319 tends to rotate between BEG SOF and TIA and it looks like J class is not offered on any of those routes...

Tennen

Perhaps someone can clarify this for me. I was under the impression that any tier miles on the flight that gets a person to Gold (or Silver) in excess of the qualification requirements would indeed go into a "mileage black hole." Using the OP's case as an example, 366 tier miles are needed to move from Silver to Gold and their AC itin will net ~8k tier miles one way from LON-USA via Canada. Since it's a multi-segment itin, the first segment (TATL) will most likely meet that requirement. Let's say that there are 2 flights and the tier miles in sequence are 7,000 and 1,000 and take place on 5th Feb (I'm making up all of these numbers, but they sound about right for 200% biz class from LHR-YYZ-USA east coast).

Membership year resets to 5th Feb, and I think we're all in agreement here.

The 2nd flight of 1,000 tier miles will count toward renewing Gold, and I think we're all in agreement here too. (Since the membership year resets once OP hits Gold for the first time.)

Based on the previous posts, are people saying that the 6,634 tier miles on that first flight will count towards renewal? My understanding was that those tier miles don't carry over, and go "poof." Unless A3 can split tier miles from a single flight and apply it to different membership years, I don't see how the excess tier miles can be used for requalification. So, if I'm not mistaken (and please correct me if I am), it makes sense for the OP to buy the 500 tier miles before the flights, so that all of the AC flights will count towards keeping the newly earned Gold status.

That was my understanding as well.
Edited to add LHR-YYZ, since OP mentioned it a couple posts above. Paid Biz fares for LHR-YYZ earns 7,116 while LHR-YUL earns 6,502. It looks like the OP's interpretation is the same as mine. I think 25 Euros (or whatever the price is now) for 500 tier miles is a small price to pay if the alternative is to potentially lose 6,700 tier miles that could count towards requalification.

infinityx

Spot on, this is axactly what i am worried about :P i guess it going down to if 6000 point that go wasted are work the 40pounds :P

Phoenixtinct

Except there is another solution - requires a bit of work but will solve this problem. You can fly the AC flights and NOT add the A3 number to the booking. After ALL flights are completed - outbound and inbound, you request manual credit for the shorter flight on your outbound on the 5th - assuming Canada-USA (xxx-BNA) or BNA-ATL are on the same day, you can use either that will get you over the 366 miles needed by crediting manually and then AFTER you're upgraded to Gold, you can credit the rest of the flights and that way, you'll get the longer flights credited towards the renewal. You can only use the retro claim website 14 days after the flight, so no earlier than February 19th but that's still ahead of your April deadline.

In terms of paying the fee, once again, it may be reflected in the A3 systems fairly quickly - within 24 hours but in order for AC to recognize it, that will take time and not sure it will happen by the 5th. If you're flying Business, those perks are not needed anyway. But yes, in terms of not "wasting"the long transatlantic segment, it's an option. Although, what I described above will still work. Flights don't always post in the order they were taken. All you need is the shortest flight on your first day of travel to reach Gold and later, you can credit the rest and have them all count towards renewal. Whatever you decide, I hope it works out the way you had planned it. As I mentioned, I already requalified for next year and I went over by almost 2,000 miles - yes, I could have credited 1 flight less but I don't have a backup program I can use - all others required quite a lot more flying to get to *Gold, so I still credit to Aegean and get the extra award miles that will come in handy. I don't design my trips with the idea that I have to go over 12,000 and stop after that. If I have to travel between now and November 24th, when my new qualification year starts, I'll still credit to A3 as I have no other Star Alliance program. It'd be nice if extra Tier Miles rolled over but Aegean doesn't offer that. Instead, it offers a low qualifying threshold for *Gold with meaningful and worthy benefits.

Tennen

Phoenixtinct, the retroactive credit idea is certainly an option for infinityx. It does seem like a bit of a hassle, with all the waiting, though. IME, manual flights have always backdated to the actual flown date, so the OP's membership year will probably reset 5th February regardless of the route they choose to go - leave res as-is with A3 number (and hope that the shorter segment posts first and out of sequence, which can happen but isn't guaranteed), buy tier miles, or submit claim manually twice (once for the shorter segment to move to Gold and once for the longer segment for renewal). BUT, if the shorter segment takes place on 6th Feb or later, I don't know if the retro claim would work due to the backdating of flights.

And I agree that buying the tier credits will probably make OP's status move up within A3's system pretty quickly, but will take some time to trickle alliance-wide. OP will most likely show up as *S for the duration of the AC itin. Since they're in Business, it doesn't really make a difference in their travel experience. (As an aside, infinityx, if you're flying through YYZ on your return, be sure to check out their new lounge for paid longhaul AC J pax! Since it's been announced, I've wanted to try it. )

As for crediting to A3 even after requalifying, I don't really see it as a "waste" personally. I think I was over by ~15k-20k each of the last 2 years. I would've still credited to A3 because the earning rates were significantly better than crediting elsewhere.

irishguy28

This thread has gone off the rails.

• You do not lose Tier Miles when going from Blue to Silver or from Silver to Gold. If you are a Silver with a Tier Miles balance of 23,900 and take a flight that earns 5,000 Tier Miles, when the flight posts you will become a Gold, anniversary date one year from the date of the flight, and with a Tier Mile Balance of 4,900 Tier Miles.
• Delaying the claiming of a flight will do nothing but cause more work for yourself. The date that the flight is taken is what counts, not the date you submit the claim, nor the date they add it to your account. If you really need to "change" the order of the flights, then you should change the tickets so the dates of the flights are changed. Playing games with retrocrediting will not change the way the flights are ultimately posted to your account, and will not change the ultimate outcome, even if some other different situation arises in the interim as a result of your actions. You can expect your anniversary date to be changed if you later retrocredit an "earlier" flight that is the one that grants you Gold status.

In short - there is no good reason to delay getting to Gold.