Reaching for First Time Elite Status
 

Hello All, have been looking at this fourm for some time now and find it, and the information posted most valuable and interesting.

This year has seen a dramatic increase in Int'l travel for myself, and now find myself approx 11000 miles short of achieving Elite status. I now have at least one other YYZ-LHR-BRU (and return) trip in Sept. and was wondering what the best way was to get these miles I need.

I noticed on the bmi site that they will give you double status and miles for booking J from YYZ-LHR - which of course would do the trick - I just wanted to make sure I am understanding this correctly, as AC will only give me 100% + 25% class of service bonus. If I've go this wrong, then I will end up short approx 600 miles in reaching the 35,000 Elite level. Any comments greatly appreciated.

If you book and pay for full J, you will earn 125% status miles on your trip, but that willl cost you over $5K. As it is, you would earn slightly more than 3500 each way across the Atlantic, and another 1000 roundtrip for the BD connecting flight to BRU. That's still about 3K short of what you need for Elite.

Assuming you are Prestige and have some upgrade certificates in hand, you could book your YYZ-LHR in H-class for $300 to $400 more than Q return, the standard discounted fare these days, running about $750 base. If you did upgrade, and you routed yourself through YOW or YUL, you'd do a 500-mile domestic segment each way, and as upgraded C, earn 625 status miles each way, for 1250 plus the 3300 between YOW/YUL and LHR each way. That's a few hundred more status miles, but still not the 4K or so you still need to hit 35K for Elite.

You'd have to consider a mileage run to the west coast, preferrably to LAX rather than YVR, flying a 100% status mileage eligible fare on either AC or better UA. Flying UA connecting via ORD will earn you 500 + about 1,800 each way. That 4,600 should put you over the top. But you need to do so by late October, to ensure you don't miss the mid-November cutoff on same year status upgrading. [A delay with processing a late October/early November flight could make you miss the cutoff date, so the sooner you do the run, the better.

Alternatively, if you know you have considerable international travel early in the new year, hold off on the mileage run and go for it early in 2005, thus earning Elite status for two full benefit years. Of course, that's 5 trips to LHR from YYZ, but just 2-1/2 flights to HKG or 3 to NRT.

Good luck, and welcome to the public side of FT.

The only warning about using U/G certs is that you watch the flt loads to make sure you get your U/G.

In re-reading your post, note that the offer on the BD site would not apply to Aeroplan, only their own FF program. So you cannot earn status in Aeroplan under that promotion, which is why I proposed the strategy above.

I agree with Parnel about watching flights. This would mean flying on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday to LHR and returning on a Saturday, Tuesday or Wednesday, the lightest days for business travellers. Also, routing through YUL particularly, ensures more open J/C seats are likely even though YYZ-LHR has more flights. The real purpose of the upgrade is actually to accrue 1250 more stauts miles on the short domestic legs, rather than flying transAt up front [as there is no status mileage bonus].

Thanks Shareholder and Parnel. Only thing is, I am currently a Basic member and have never held status before - Prestige would not kick in until 2005.

Just noticed your most recent comments Shareholder - thanks for clearing that up fo me. Looks like a MR might be in store.

I don't know how you are routed for BRU and how much time you have, but you can always (to get the extra miles) buy a YYZ-LHR-BRU ticket, and a BRU-LHR-YYZ ticket back to back. You'll notice the BRU-YYZ ticket is significantly cheaper.

Generally not cool to do, but if you fly all the segments, then the airline won't care that much.

Thanks YOWkid - I'll look into that.

How does that work as I am almost in teh same situation. I am about 2,000 status miles shy of elite for this time period. I could do a run and get them before mid november, but I will not have many flights at the end or beginning of the year. Although if I had to, I could get the needed points by the end of February.

If i wanted to do it before the end of February, other than mid November, will I hold elite status for 2 years? February 2005 to February 2006 to February 2007?

confused on that last part.

canuk, qualifying flights must be taken by Dec31 and the benefit year will expire Feb 28 2006. To go upto 2007 Feb you will need to qualify again by feb 2005 ( starting Jan1 2005)