J343

Happy New Year Guys!

So sorry if this has been asked several times before.

I recently upgraded to Flying Blue Silver in December taking advantage of AF-KL's double XP promotion. I believe I am under the old Flying Blue programme where my XP collection year ends on the 31st of December.

I now have 40XP to begin with and have more future flights with AF and KL- again taking advantage of their 50% bonus XP promotion until 30 June 2022. So with this, I anticipate I will be upgraded to Gold before the end of June and will finish the year with surplus XP as again, I have future flights with AF-KL at the later part of the year. The reason being switching loyalties from BA as I think BA service is going downhill and I've been impressed with all my flights with AF in 2021.

My question is, if I get upgraded to Gold by June this year, how long will this benefit last?



Thank you all

Solevita

In the 'new' FB, your status year begins/resets when you go up a level. When you get to Gold, your earning period will restart and you'll benefit from either 12 or 15 months of Gold - it has been 12 months + 3 up to now, but it seems this extra 3 months has silently been dropped starting this year.

Fabo.sk

12 months plus until end of the same month of qualification, which is also the same period you have to gather 180XP to requalify.

NA-Flyer

So to get from Blue to Platinum in one year a member will need 580 XP not 300 XP? Am I right in this logic?

fifty_two

Correct , 100 for silver + 180 for gold + 300 for platinum

what do you mean ?

J343

So does this mean if I get Gold in June (hopefully, subject to entry requirements!), I’ll enjoy the benefits from June 2022 - December 2022 and I will then start my new qualification year as a Gold member? Also, any surplus XP from June 2022 - December 2022 will be carried over to next year?

Xandrios

If you get Gold in June 2022, your Gold re-qualification year will start right away. You will have until end of June 2023 to either collect 180XP to stay Gold, or 300 XP to move up to Platinum. If you reach the 300XP for Platinum prior to end-of-June 2023, you will upgrade at that time directly (And have 12 months to collect another 300XP in order to not downgrade back to Gold).

Previously you would get 15 months of status, of which the first 12 months could be used to gather XP to re-qualify. That benefit has silently been scrapped. The status is now valid for 12 months exactly. Meaning that if you don't manage to collect enough XP to re-qualify, you will downgrade immediately without that 3 months grace period. Which really sucks if you have travel scheduled at the end of the year (And depend on that for re qualification). You may downgrade for a couple of days until your XP's post.

J343

[QUOTE=Xandrios;33902124]If you get Gold in June 2022, your Gold re-qualification year will start right]


So that applies to me under the ‘old’ Flying Blue?

J343

so this applies to me under the ‘old’ Flying Blue?

CyBeR

There is no "old" Flying Blue. If you never increased your level since that time your personal qualification period remains aligned to the year, as well as if since then you've always maintained or gone down (never went up) or you happen to increase your level in December.

The change from 15 to 12 months of status affects everyone reaching the end of their qualification period.

ahopkins767

Interesting. I didn’t realize the 3m grace period (if not requalifying) had been dropped.

etiene

To hijack a little: just took a trip that should have gotten me to Silver, however because it was split over the end of the year and I used an old FB account [with nothing in it] my first 66XP got zeroed out at the end of the year. I had missed that FB were too lazy to properly sort out their IT when they moved to this rolling system. My wife - on a new account - should be Silver once the retro-claim for the return credits.

Interested to hear any advice. I can think of three possible options:

1. Appeal to FB over the zeroing, and get upgraded to Silver.
2. Have them reverse the credits, claim to a new FB account. I know some FFPs won't let you retroclaim things before you joined - not sure if this applies to FB?
3. Reverse the credits, claim to Virgin where I'd get far more miles.

I have another trip this year which would put me in the region of Gold, were I justly credited my December flying - but in the longer term I probably wouldn't find myself with the flying patterns that would sustain much FB status. Likely Silver at best. With the pandemic, I'd been open to letting decent deals guide me between FB and BAEC for maintaining some status going forward but I can't say this has endeared me to the programme.

NickB

FB does not operate a rolling system. They still operate on a 12 month basis. It is only when you reach a higher level in your current membership year that the clock resets. In your situation, your XPs properly reset at the end of your membership so there is nothing to appeal against and I doubt that they would let you reclaim to open a new account. Whether they would let you un-credit so as to enable you to credit to VS, I have no idea.

etiene

True, rolling is incorrect. However they could have moved all dormant/Explorer accounts to the same system as new accounts [XP year starts at first credit] when they switched systems so as to treat new and returning customers equally - they chose not to.

maalloc

If that's any consolation, FB Silver is a pretty useless status.
Real perks start to kick in at Gold. I would not recommend spending too much energy trying to secure FB Silver in the long run.