Flyingtime

A friend with a mid-February anniversary just received a 6 month extension. Coupons also extended for 6 months. Renewal back to original 12k (not the discounted 9k).

Carpacchio

Same for my daughter (silver member) ! No email communication about it.
However, the needed miles needed for requailfication remained at the reduced threshold (and with the already booked summer flights, she will even reach it).

Funnily enough, the target date to upgrade from silver to gold is a total different one...
I think I lost the overview in the meantime of what is needed by when.

Xandrios

Thanks for the datapoint. So they are unfortunately still at it with last minute unannounced extensions. Meaning if you want to ensure your requalification in May (Which is when most people will likely have to requalify) you better start flying. Or accept that there is a chance that they will not extend by then (I don't know - because the covid peak has possibly died down a bit by May) and risk losing status.

YOWkid

Does anyone know if A3 is giving any consideration on where the member is located? I have moved to a part of the world where I cannot leave the country for fear of never being able to re-enter due to continued cancelled flights AND a certain minimum three week quarantine...

Archon1995

My requalification deadline is April 1, with just under 2k miles plus the A3 flights to meet it. I had a trip planned for this week(!) that would have met the requirements, but I moved it to first week of March due to uncertainty over travel restrictions changing suddenly. (Fortuitous, as I had an unexpected trip for family reasons last week.) It might need to be rebooked for even later in the year. Later in March is not possible. A further extension, even with increased flight miles, would be a wonderful surprise.

Though I'm fine if I do drop back to Silver for a while. Went all the back to Blue for a while, it's survivable. :-)

clifford79

I managed to get 4x A3 segments last November, and with the double tier points promo I am now only a handful of miles from re-qualifying for gold before the end of May. In case I don't have any more flights before then, my plan was to buy the last few tier miles for 37,50 EUR. If these last-minute 6 month extensions continue to happen until May, then how I understand it, I would get 6 months more of gold (with tier miles and A3 segments reset to zero), compared with 12 months if I buy the last missing tier miles before the end of my qualification period. So spending 37,50 EUR would give me an additional 6 months to qualify for the subsequent period. Am I missing something?

Flyingtime

I guess the question that arises is whether the additional 6 months is an extension to re-qualify or is a renewal. If the former, if a person had accumulated 8k miles and 3 A3 segments, their profile would show that they need 4K and 1 A3 segment to re-qualify. If the latter, the profile would show just 12k and 4 A3 segments. Unfortunately, because my friend had accumulated no miles and no segments, we get no help.

If the 6 months is a renewal, I see your point that paying the 39 Euros does appear to get you an extra 6 months.

However, if the 6 months is an extension to re-qualify, you are actually ahead by a further 6 months, presuming you can accumulate the additional 3k during the period (renewal at 12k, not 9k).

Note: My friend’s profile shows she has 6 months to accumulate 12k and 4 A3 segments. If this was a renewal, I would think they would have given her the normal full 12 months to re-qualify for the following year. Hence, this might just be an extension to re-qualify.

GUWonder

In terms of A3 status qualification/extension changes, Ive seen no such member-region-specific thing go on with A3 so far. Can't hurt to call them and ask if they would consider that. I suspect they have a fair amount of members in Australia, so it may help to look at the Australia-heavy channels to see if I've missed something.

giorginho

I think you are! If you buy those miles for 37,50 EUR before May 31st, you will actually renew your entire 12-month gold membership, your account will then read:
"You have already collected the required amount of miles regarding the retention of your Gold tier.
Your tier has been retained up to___________"
and then whatever your previous status expiration date was + 1 year from then (say your status was renewed on November 24th 2021 until November 24th 2022, if you now buy those miles, you'll extend it to November 24th 2023, in which case all flights between June 1st 2022 and November 23rd 2022 won't earn you any additional status miles).

futuramadramallama

Interesting, I wonder what's causing them to suddenly do more six month extensions. Did anyone with a renewal date in January get an extension?

GUWonder

I think they may have realized that the Covid-19 situation dragged out longer than -- and didn't work out to fill up the A3 flights as much as -- they anticipated.

From a customer standpoint, some A3 elites still hoping for an extension will probably eventually get burned by waiting too long to renew (because of a failure to get the required status miles in before scheduled expiration). The question is when that final cut-off will turn out to be and which month's A3 elites gets burned first. I'm assuming either April or May expiring elites could be the first to burned by this.

Archon1995

Received more tier points than expected on the short-notice trip a couple weeks ago. Now need 861 tier points plus 4 flights on or before April 1 to requalify as Gold, or 15,861 on partner airlines. The March trip is indeed being pushed off. Almost 16k on partner airlines is not reasonable short of several business trips (and I've only been sent on one business trip in 14 years). I'm expecting to drop to Silver.

futuramadramallama

Pray tell, what was that like? Did you have a plan to return to Silver/Gold before dropping down?

Could very well be Apr/May. Deciding myself whether to do a requal run or hope for a Spring extension.

GUWonder

One of the reasons some people on my side are holding off on crediting flights to A3 to do the re-qualification thing is that they aren't sure that the future Star Alliance flight schedules and their future travel is going to be such that it makes sense to doing much of anything to stick to A3*G status at this point.

If A3 hadn't gotten out of the business of providing what used to be a de facto limitless period of A3*G status for active accounts, this conversation wouldn't even be taking place.

Yreal

My renewal date still stands at 6 march with 5900 milles to go and 4 segements done.

So are the 3 week mark now. Suppose something has to happen at t-10, or else its off to make some milles on sas.