KeenKiwiFlyer

LyingFlat

No. Use them or lose them.

gratn

To clarify, you don’t need to fly and redeem the RUs before reaching Elite, but do need to have lodged them for some future flight.

sbiddle

No you can't gift them. If you can't lodge them for future travel they will be lost.

KeenKiwiFlyer

Thanks. I won't have another flight booked to place a request by the time I change to elite, so they will be lost.

KiwiHighFlyer

If you want a chance to use those RUs rather than wasting them, and you haven't taken the flights that will bump you over the Elite threshold yet, ask for your Airpoints number to be removed from your booking when you check in at the airport. That will buy you some time to book some flights, lodge your Gold RUs, then retro-claim the SPs from your previous flights to go up to Elite. I do this quite often as I purposely move between Gold and Elite every year to get the extra RUs.

jedesto

Oh that is genius *clap clap*

samyoull

Out of interest, what's your RU success percentage? Do you just intentionally not fly NZ much for a year to soft land to Gold?

KiwiHighFlyer

Pretty good actually. But I don't ever lodge them on premium heavy routes like SFO or LAX. I book 1 return trip to Asia a year to use the 4 RUs, exclusively for going from Y to C. Over the last five or so years, I've only had one set not go through to C on a PVG-AKL as C was fully booked, but got into PE instead.

For jumping between Gold and Elite, I don't purposely reduce my travel on NZ, but when I'm close to the Elite re-qualifying threshold, I stop crediting to NZ (by removing my Airpoints number). Wait until the anniversary date to soft land to Gold, lodge my Gold RUs, retro-claim the trips I didn't credit over the previous months, and I'm back up to Elite within a week or two. I am also shifting a lot my travels away from NZ these days as I don't believe they have a competitive C hard product anymore, and soft product is getting less consistent by the day. This also makes holding off on re-qualifying for Elite a bit easier, but it's not a major.

KeenKiwiFlyer

Thanks for the fantastic tip!

i have removed the airpoints membership number from the second leg and will most likely book another trip next week.

I will then try the RUs and after that, will try to claim the missed status points.