natcin

seems to me that OP is indeed mixed up about award vs level miles, as irishguy28 said, you need level miles, which you can't buy from AF/KL.

on a side note, if only they allowed carry-over for segments too…..

brunos

As posted above, make sure you focus on level miles not award miles as you seem to qualify for status on miles.
Plat is marginally better than Gold, but Silver is hugely worse (no lounge access). You want to avoid getting downgraded to silver.

I know that future travel plans are hard to forecast, but a year passes quickly and not retaining Gold is an important event.
Let's assume that you do have currently 69.8K level miles. Let's further assume that you expect to earn around 30K level miles a year. So your current level miles earnings in 2016 is exceptional and will not repeat.
If you get 200 more miles in 2016, you will be Plat in 2017 with zero miles carried to 2017. As you only earn 30K in 2017, you will be down to Gold in 2018 and down to Silver in 2019 and future years.
If you don't get 200 more miles, you will be Gold in 2017 with 29.8K carried over, so a total of 59.8K at the end of 2017. That will give you Gold in 2018 with 19.8K carried over to 2018. With a total of 49.8K you will remain Gold in 2019 with 9.8K carried over. That will make Gold requalification easier for 2020.

I know that the future is hard to predict. But with a travel pattern that is expected to make it hard to keep Gold, I would make use of the benefit of "storing" some bread for the coming years. Any downgrade in status will kill that benefit.

irishguy28

Indeed. I have declining confidence in the OP's understanding of their position.

To the OP: all advice given here assumes that every statement you made was correct. If you have misinterpreted the situation, then all bets are off.

agentred

Helpful analysis, thanks! 2020 is far but it never hurts to plan accordingly.

Apologies for the confusion, thought I could buy level miles. Award mile balance is significantly higher than 70k since I have the Dutch Amex.

A final question - if I decide to stick with gold, but have to take a flight in December, can I not put in my flying blue number and avoid receiving miles? Or will it take into account the passport number/some other tracker?

irishguy28

If you have a Dutch FB Amex, then you receive Level Miles for all purchases made directly with AF/KL. As such, you probably could buy a flight for next year of sufficient value to obtain the 200 Level Miles (if that is indeed how much you need) in this year.

Can you explain why you now want to remain at Gold - after everything posted in this thread?

Of course you can fly and not claim the miles - but if you have already booked this flight from within your KLM/Flying Blue account, or already added your FB number to the booking, then this number can prove to be very "sticky" and it may happen that the miles post even though you try to prevent them from posting.

(You could also just fly with someone other than AF/KL or Skyteam)

I just can't imagine why you would want to prevent them from posting.

agentred

For remaining, brunos' model is interesting in that I can grind gold into 2020 while only travelling ~30K miles annually. If I get platinum but don't travel that much, I'll drop to silver by 2019. But that is quite long term planning and I'd probably screw it up somehow anyway, so platinum has simplicity on its side, a bird in the hand etc.

Almost all travel is company booked so I have to fly KLM!

Think I'm set, appreciate the help! Safe travels all,

irishguy28

But if you get earn platinum this year, by one more trip, then you have Gold sewn up to March 2019 [as long as you fly just once (!!) in calendar year 2017].

You can delay the necessity of "grinding out" 30k annual miles until calendar year 2018 - unlike your current favoured plan, which would require you to do so next year.

You get a "year off" by taking one extra trip this year to secure Platinum.

I'm not sure you are grasping the way the program works.

CyBeR

Are you sure you can roll-over already-rolled-over level miles?

Ditto

Strictly speaking, it would be new miles that roll over
Unless you get >140000 level miles in one year

irishguy28

Yes, you can.

But that is sort of the wrong way to think about it. "Already-rolled-over level miles" could only come into play for a Platinum who way exceeded the 70,000 requirement.

A Platinum with, say, 100k level miles in this year would have 70k level miles "taken away" on January 1 and start the next year with only 30k level miles - not enough to qualify them for Platinum again. They would need to earn another 40k + level miles in the next year to get Platinum again - so if they managed to reach a roll-over scenario, then those miles can be considered as being the "new" miles.

When remaining Gold and never getting to Platinum, this means having more than 40k level miles but less than 70k level miles. So, for the OP with their theoretical 69.8k level miles, they would retain Gold, have 40k level miles "taken away" on January 1 to extend their Gold, and start the new year with 29.8k level miles. This, alone, is not enough to get them Gold again, so they would have to earn more, new, level miles to get to a Gold requalification state - and again, any roll-over amount at the end of that year would be the "new" miles.

It's also important to note - even as a Platinum with a huge balance which could safely keep rolling over to requalify for Platinum for several years* - you still need to earn at least 1 new level mile in each calendar year to keep the requalification process running, or else there is no roll-over and no soft landing, and you drop instantly to Ivory.


*Example of the "huge balance" for a Platinum

Say, in 2016 a Platinum member has accumulated a total of 200,000 level miles.
At the start of 2017, the level check is performed, and they have exceeded the Platinum threshold (70,000 miles), so 70,000 miles is deducted, and they get a new year of Platinum in 2018 with a rollover of 200k-70k = 130k level miles.

In 2017, they must earn at least one new level mile, so let's say they only get 5k level miles by flying during 2017, giving them an end-of-year total of 135k level miles. At the start of 2018, the level check is performed, and they have exceeded the Platinum threshold (70k miles), so 70k miles are deducted, and they get a new year of Platinum in 2018 with a rollover of 135k-70k = 65k miles.

In 2018, they must earn at least one new level mile, so let's say they only get 5 k level miles by flying during 2018, giving them an end-of-year total of 70k level miles. At the start of 2019, the level check is performed, and they have reached the Platinum threshold (70k miles), so 70k miles are deducted, and they get a new year of Platinum in 2019 but with no rollover.

In the above example, if no new flight activity is recorded in either 2017 or 2018, then the "spell" is broken, no rollover happens, platinum is not retained, and worse, no soft-landing happens. They would drop instantly to Ivory in the year after recording no flight activity in the account.

This should also show why a Gold can never accumulate enough miles to have a "rollover" that could span multiple years [a rollover of "already-rolled-over" miles]. It's 40k for Gold and if you were to fly any multiple of that in a single year, then you are automtically promoted to Platinum when you cross the 70k threshold.