:D!

I am not at all confident that I will be able to make a hassle-free trip to Greece by 23 May. If I can go, I am prepared to pay a bit more than usual but not too much more. There's no way I can get 24K miles by May even if I buy a few thousand, so if I can't go to Greece and A3 does not extend status by another 6 months then I guess it's goodbye to A3.

romans

currently my status: To maintain my tier I still need: 6,765 Tier miles including 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights or 21,765 Tier miles regardless of the partner airline but have time till Sept. I have booked Vie-Cph-Hnd-Cph-Vie in SAS Plus for good price but also curious if I will be able to make it. In this case I would earn enough miles to renew without needed A3/OA flights..

Archon1995

I managed to make Gold last fall before things really went south (whew!), with some extra. Need 6,087+4 or 18,087 by October 1 to requalify. I have hopes to do it even based in the USA. But an extension would not hurt my feelings.

Knobbgb

Maybe, even if they don't extend the renewal again, they'll have more of the offers they tried in October, such as double miles. I know it's not much use to those of you flying other airlines, but I was set to almost requalify with just a 4-leg domestic trip costing 120 Euro. I missed out on that by two days due to the new lockdown and now I haven't set foot on an aircraft for 50 weeks! I still have until September but... who knows...

NWIFlyer

That very much replicates my position. I have sufficient miles but need a further two A3/OA flights, having lost the opportunity in November when SKG airport was closed 24 hours before I was due to fly there. I have two more OA sectors booked in March, which have been in place for some time, but I'm becoming increasingly of the view that I won't be able to easily take them.

If that falls through I'll be burning my miles as quickly as possible and putting all my business into oneworld, which will bring to an end about 11 years of *G with firstly BD and now A3. My BA Gold would probably allow me to obtain a status match somewhere, but I wouldn't consider it worthwhile.

On the flip side, this is exactly the reason I maintained status in more than one alliance - that I couldn't predict when for whatever reason the rug might be pulled from under me on one or the other. Admittedly I expected it to be an unrealistic increase in renewal requirements rather than Covid ...

DELLAS

Things should ease in March so a trip from the UK should be possible. Those in the UK should count themselves lucky ! Try doing it from Ireland with one of the most restrictive travel policies in Europe.

powergean

I have ath-Lhr at march 1 . I hope will be possible to travel....

GBobon

It seems that will be able to travel visa-free for tourism for up to 90 days/6 months.

I have a back2back in January ATH-LHR, hope to make it without any troubles.

:D!

Unlike the Schengen area, the UK has not imposed any blanket entry restrictions based on the infection prevalence in each country. So far the only COVID-related restrictions have been on people coming from Denmark when there was the mink strain, and currently on people coming from South Africa. So unless there is a new Greek strain in March, you will probably be OK to travel

johnirvine

Looking at the arrivals board at BER today was somewhat dispiriting - most of the few flights from the UK were listed as cancelled. The issue with flying to Britain in the near future is thus not entry to the country but whether airlines actually find it profitable to maintain schedules. And then there is the small matter of what happens when the return flight lands. A friend of mine is currently spending a terrible Christmas in an uncomfortable quarantine hotel in Larnaca away from his family. And, after the 7-day forced quarantine ends, there is another 7 days of house arrest to follow.

I am currently booked to fly with Aegean from LCA to LHR and return over the period January 11-14. Weighing up the costs and benefits of actually taking the trip will not be easy, but probably Aegean will make the decision for me by cancelling one or more flights. if the trip does go ahead, it will be interesting to compare the brown paper-bagged Aegean business class meal with that provided by Lufthansa - on a flight from LCA-FRA on December 20th, LH offered a fantastic 4-course meal with goose and all the traditional German accompaniments.

headingwest

no no johnirvine, you've got it all wrong, the Aegean Business Class experience is served in a luxury white paper bag. It's those poor passengers in economy who suffer the brown paper one.

Snraek

Speaking of which, any news about catering coming back in Business ?

Was about to book CDG-ATH-CDG in April, but won't book Business if lounges + catering are still on Covid mode ...

fransknorge

I am in the same position. I need 2 A3 flights, or 3 flights in D class on OS or a long haul to renew before April. I have 2 sectors with A3 in February/March but I am also not convinced they will happen, which means no renewal. But then what do I do ? I will not renew Oneworld status either. So ...

Archon1995

I went without status in any airline program for several years. It's survivable.

:D!

You are BA silver? I am sure there will be long-haul sales in J class from somewhere in Germany / AMS / LUX for between €1000 and €1500 in the future. Two of these tickets will get you to silver, or maybe just one if you can make it 6 segments. But even if you can't do it in your 2021-22 BA year, just do it in 2022-23 and you are back in the same position, because you start from 0 TP every year (and flying J gives you most of the silver benefits).

I wouldn't be too bothered if BA had not extended my status. But with A3 it's very different because once you miss a year it becomes much harder to get back to Gold, and if you go down to blue I think you lose the Together account too. That's why if I can't renew A3 Gold I'm not even going to bother trying to requalify from A3 Silver, no more paying extra to get a higher-earning booking class or flying around western Europe via Greece.