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12 month status extension for Gold card holders rolling out - Silver awaiting info

12 month status extension for Gold card holders rolling out - Silver awaiting info

Old Feb 6, 2021, 2:12 am
  #91  
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Originally Posted by powergean
,,people haven't been able to fly for more than 6 months" Is not exactly true, i hade 13 flights the past 6 months from and to Athens.
Perhaps you’re lucky enough to live somewhere which allows you to do that. In most places in the world most of us have lost at least 6 months from the previous 12, with even less potential to take higher mileage earning long-haul flights with the US, much of SE Asia and Oceania out-of-bounds to everyone since February 2020.

A3 has a large number of members outside the Greek diaspora, most of whom have been under some sort of travel restriction for very significant periods - up to and including a complete inability to leave their country of residence. The UK, as an example, basically only allowed restriction-free travel to a limited number of locations in Europe for a period of about 6-7 months from May to November, with the goalposts constantly moving. Greece was one of the countries where, for a long period, it was necessary to self-isolate for 14 days on return.

At the very least A3 needs to look at individual cases sympathetically.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 3:14 am
  #92  
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Originally Posted by djjaguar64

Lufthansa postpones loyalty program changes until 2022 amid pandemic will A3 do the same?

I think you are misinterpreting Lufthansa's statement!



Aegean has not pre-announced "loyalty programme changes", so there is no question of Aegean postponing loyalty program changes. (The current program is only about 6 years old)

In November 2019, it was announced that the Miles & More programme would be redesigned, starting from 2021. It was already announced last May that, due to the pandemic, those changes have been suspended. At the moment, the website states that these changes will not be introduced until after 2022.

This has nothing to do with automatically extending status, or suspending automatic downgrades of status

At the time of writing, Lufthansa's status members are expected/required to qualify/requalify for status in 2021. They recently announced that double status miles will be given for all flights on the Lufthansa family of airlines for all of 2021, effectively halving the targets required to qualify/requalify if you stick exclusively to those airlines.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 6:35 am
  #93  
 
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Irishguy28, what you say is mainly correct in that the postponement of the new Lufthansa M&M programme has nothing whatsoever to do with status extension. However, it should be noted that LH-Group airlines have separately extended the current status of almost all M&M cardholders by 12 months. This is rather more generous than Aegean's 6-month extension and A3 will in my opinion have little option but to follow suit.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 7:03 am
  #94  
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Oh yes, I know that the majority of airlines extended status for 12 months, with Aegean coming in among the worst on this measure with only 6 months.

(Cathay Pacific came out last weekend and extended all status periods by another (second) 12 month period, by the way)

But there is now some confusion about what aspect of Lufthansa's actions the OP was referring to. Literally, the statement references their decision of last spring to delay the launch of their new programme. Perhaps, given that this thread is all about (re-)qualifying, it was meant instead to refer to their recent decision to offer double status miles. And you see it as a reference to their extensions of status by 12 months last year.

It doesn't look like Lufthansa are currently contemplating extending statuses across the board this year (though, of course, anything can happen in the future). The statements in their "double status miles" campaign explicitly refer to the difficulty of reaching the targets this year - and their response is to double the status miles on all flights taken on the LH family airlines.

Aegean last March decided to add 6 months to all status periods. As such, a decision to extend that would have been expended by September; there are people who have now come to the end of their "extended" 18 month period and there were no further announcements regarding extending status.
Instead, last September/October they reduced the thresholds for tier retention by 25% for the period 29.09.2020 up to 29.09.2021, rather than extending statuses again.

As such, Aegean has already taken all the same steps that Lufthansa did; they extended status (for a shorter period); they gave double miles (for a time); and they then reduced the requalification threshold (for a period lasting til at least next September) as soon as the extended status periods began to run out.

What we want is that they take one of those same steps again, for a second time. I would like, as much as anyone here, that they would extend status again but I think that point is already past.

But I really think that they won't. Of course, there are a lot of "legacy" Golds who will come to the end of their 18 month extended period in May - I am among them - but there have been Golds and Silvers who were granted an extended 18-month "year" of status and since September, if they hadn't reached the new lower (75%) targets, have already been losing status.

I'm not sure we "legacy" Golds matter enough that they will change their minds and start extending status again, when they have already let 4 months' worth of such downgrades happen...
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 8:13 am
  #95  
 
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The downgrades that have already occurred have mainly been for 'new' golds. The 'legacy' golds (me among them) will mostly renew in late May and this is therefore the crunch time. We will soon see whether, as I expect, a new extension is granted. I personally do not need an extension since there have been few barriers for Cyprus residents to fly wherever they want during the last year.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 8:26 am
  #96  
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Looking selfishly at my own situation I'd rather not get another extension. I had already requalified between Nov 2019 and March 2020, so for about a year already all status miles earned have been going straight to the bin - as there is no carry over on those. And while my flying has decreased, I did switch to mostly paid business fares so the mileage earning has not gone down too much.

Being able to get new upgrade vouchers would be nice, and (for me) a bigger benefit than having another status extension. I'm pretty positive on being able to collect 12K miles in the 12 months prior to May 2022.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 10:18 am
  #97  
 
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Originally Posted by NWIFlyer
If A3 doesn't extend by at least a further 6 months it will be an outlier in the aviation world. It's absolute common sense to do so - the industry has effectively stopped for a year already and essentially it's pot luck whether you had travel planned at the right time or not.
This is the salient point. By April 2021, Europe will have spent 8 of the previous 12 months with pretty high levels of cases which discouraged reasonable people from flying a lot even when it was not explicitly restricted by government, long haul in the doldrums for the whole year.
Your amount of travel between late March 2020 and vaccines really kicking in Europe in late-Spring/early Summer 2021 will be totally unrelated to the amount you did before, and the amount you will do going forward in the next year and beyond.
A 6m extension made sense if the autumn winter hadnt gone the way it has - but it has - so bringing the total extensiion to 12m, to match what will have been a year of disruption makes perfect sense.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 3:47 pm
  #98  
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Originally Posted by Xandrios
Looking selfishly at my own situation I'd rather not get another extension. I had already requalified between Nov 2019 and March 2020, so for about a year already all status miles earned have been going straight to the bin - as there is no carry over on those. And while my flying has decreased, I did switch to mostly paid business fares so the mileage earning has not gone down too much.

Being able to get new upgrade vouchers would be nice, and (for me) a bigger benefit than having another status extension. I'm pretty positive on being able to collect 12K miles in the 12 months prior to May 2022.
I think this covers perfectly all the reasons why A3 does not want to, and will not, make any further extensions to "help" the flyers that are no longer flying; A3's programme works in a way that such a move would now actively penalise those who are actually flying and/or would have re-qualified without assistance, just to placate those who are now not flying, and who would further be "incentivised" not to start flying again for another extended period.

There comes a time when you have to put your actual flying customers ahead of those who are no longer flying enough (regardless of the reasons why those can no longer fly!)

And A3 needs its customers, so it's counterproductive (at least in the immediate term) to once more "encourage" a further period of non-engagement with the airline.

Instead of a new/further status extension, I would instead expect offers aimed at encouraging flights (double miles again perhaps, on top of the already-reduced thresholds). Better to let those flying more easily attain/retain status, than to keep all non-flying status members on the books, and further provide them with a further fresh incentive to delay flying for another long period.

(And yes, I am among those non-flying members that looks set to lose Gold in May)
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Last edited by irishguy28; Feb 6, 2021 at 4:00 pm
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 4:15 pm
  #99  
 
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
There comes a time when you have to put your actual flying customers ahead of those who are no longer flying enough (regardless of the reasons why those can no longer fly!)
But it isnt a case of "no longer" its a case of "not currently"
We have *excellent* reason to believe that the vaccines being rolled out already, and that the next 3 shortly to join rollout in Europe specifically to speed up the process - JnJ/Novavax/Sanofi - will all materially protect against covid as a cause of hospitalisation or worse. At the rate vaccines are set to be delivered to Europe, the central expectation should be for Europe to be mostly post-Covid at some point during the Summer. As Europe becomes vaccinated, the vast majority of those "not currently" will become active flyers again.
Encouraging a large amount of your FFP to become free-agents just before that period begins seems incredibly counter-productive.
Frankly, if demand for aviation does not rebound as Europe becomes vaccinated, A3 will have much larger problems than if they extended FFP benefits & requals for people that still arent using them.

Originally Posted by irishguy28
And A3 needs its customers, so it's counterproductive (at least in the immediate term) to once more "encourage" a further period of non-engagement with the airline.
I would agree if you expect that Covid situation will be relatively permanent and make demand for aviation be under 50% of pre-covid levels into 2022 and further. If lots of your customers want to travel once theyve had a vaccine, or their work wants them to travel once theyve had a vaccine, that you lost their loyalty because your arbitrary 6mth status push only went to May21 and travel became massively more feasible in June21... the calculus is different.
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 5:04 pm
  #100  
 
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With AIRNZ I have been given 2 x 12 month extensions so in effect takes me thru to Nov 22 which is afar cry from the 6 month extension I received from A3, By good fortune I had qualified with A3 to Sep 21 pre-covid so with the 6 month extension takes me thru to Mar 22. Looking forward from this part of the world, both AUS and NZ government's have signalled that their respective borders are not likely to come down in any meaningful way this year. Both countries presently only allow citizens across the border with the requirement of a 14 day quarantine with phased testing thru out their stay (the exception is AU now allows NZ citizens travel from NZ to AU on green flights without the need to quarantine. NZ is yet to reciprocate in this.) Despite this the virus does get thru on the odd occasion but with effective contact, trace, test and isolate so far any case has been contained quickly and effectively. Vaccination programmes in both countries are yet to start but the hope is to have them completed during 21. So looking forward from this end of the world international travel looks a dim prospect for most if not all of 21.
Domestically AIRNZ is by in large back to pre-covid levels in terms of flights and loads which demonstrates that if people feel safe they return quickly. They are also helped by re-role of aircraft to freight and limited international flights to from US and Asia. The trend in infection rates in the US and large parts of Europe have trended down in quite dramatic fashion since early/mid Jan peaks so with vaccine role outs there may be cautious optimism for the European summer fingers and toes crossed for a bit more normality..
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Old Feb 6, 2021, 5:08 pm
  #101  
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We do take your point and should there be an update on this, we will update our official announcement https://bit.ly/3pT6MbE accordingly. Fingers crossed we will be flying together soon!
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Old Feb 7, 2021, 1:58 am
  #102  
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Originally Posted by greenarmy
But it isnt a case of "no longer" its a case of "not currently"
We have *excellent* reason to believe that the vaccines being rolled out already, and that the next 3 shortly to join rollout in Europe specifically to speed up the process - JnJ/Novavax/Sanofi - will all materially protect against covid as a cause of hospitalisation or worse. At the rate vaccines are set to be delivered to Europe, the central expectation should be for Europe to be mostly post-Covid at some point during the Summer. As Europe becomes vaccinated, the vast majority of those "not currently" will become active flyers again.
Encouraging a large amount of your FFP to become free-agents just before that period begins seems incredibly counter-productive.
Frankly, if demand for aviation does not rebound as Europe becomes vaccinated, A3 will have much larger problems than if they extended FFP benefits & requals for people that still arent using them.
.
Not to take this too OT but you need to rein your expectations. I think you vastly over-estimate planned delivery and under-estimate populations. At the rate vaccine are planned to be delivered, the largest countries (France, Spain, Germany, ...) will be near fully vaccinated summer 2022.
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Old Feb 7, 2021, 4:07 am
  #103  
 
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Originally Posted by fransknorge
Not to take this too OT but you need to rein your expectations. I think you vastly over-estimate planned delivery and under-estimate populations. At the rate vaccine are planned to be delivered, the largest countries (France, Spain, Germany, ...) will be near fully vaccinated summer 2022.

This. I got alot plannend already, but Growing skeptical again.

It can be done, as the Israeli show...

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/c...D&region=World

But the eu isn't anywhere close. At this rated it's gonna take a while...
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Old Feb 8, 2021, 11:14 am
  #104  
 
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
There comes a time when you have to put your actual flying customers ahead of those who are no longer flying enough (regardless of the reasons why those can no longer fly!)

And A3 needs its customers, so it's counterproductive (at least in the immediate term) to once more "encourage" a further period of non-engagement with the airline.
I *was* a regular customer before the pandemic. I flew them more than any other airline except LO (mostly domestic hops). But if I lose my Gold status I'll probably never bother much with A3 again. So turning what were regular customers into ex-customers doesn't seem to be an ideal strategy.

Meanwhile, my second string FFP of SQ Kris Flyer has just given me a second year of status extension! Anyone with status expiring from 03/21-02/22 now has it extended to 03/22-02/23.
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Old Feb 8, 2021, 6:16 pm
  #105  
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Originally Posted by yurtripper
I *was* a regular customer before the pandemic. I flew them more than any other airline except LO (mostly domestic hops). But if I lose my Gold status I'll probably never bother much with A3 again. So turning what were regular customers into ex-customers doesn't seem to be an ideal strategy.
What were you using A3 for - collecting miles, transfers or flying to Greece (visiting)? I quite like vacationing in Greece and not visiting ever again ("bothering much") because I no longer have a FFP status with a privately owned airline from Greece is I mean yeah, if I wanted to throw a tantrum I could use my national carrier + SkyExpress (which is now actually quite a decent alternative) and avoid A3 on purpose, but...
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