Gekko

Hi,

Q on how SP's work when upgrading from Gold to Elite.

If you need 10 SP's to go from G to E, and have a flight that earns 100 SP when you get upgraded to the 90 extra SPs get rolled over to E? Or are they lost?

In that case, is there a strategic way to deal with this?

JNZ

This is what happened with me last week - lost the excess SP. I imagine if you called up you could get them but wasn’t worth it in my case given the wait times and was only ~18SP

Gekko

Well that sounds risky. Maybe I’ll email them now and ask ahead of time.

Looking at this more closely (it's for my family), the real issue is to get to Elite, one person needs 150 SP with 17 SP on NZ metal, and the next flights booked earn 40 SP/130 SP (*A) then the final NZ flight earns at least 178 SP. So it's really managing the loss of 110 SP from the NZ flight as opposed to the 20 SP from the *A flights.

The other person needs needs 99 SP with zero SP on NZ metal, with the same bookings. So here, question is there a way to minimize the loss of 70 SPs from the Gold to Elite transition.

And finally, looking at me - I need 316 SP on NZ metal to requal for Elite. Will the non-NZ SPs roll-over once I requal (have more NZ flights later this year)?

Thai-Kiwi

Despite my own penchant for over-thinking these things, don’t over-think this !

I was in this boat in late Oct last year, and had planned to make it to GE by 8 SP - but nearly missed a few SP dropping off just within the preceding 12 months.

It all worked out in the end, but only just and with some frantic attention to my spreadsheet to update the 12 month formula with a ‘-1’ to get the days calculation correct 😅

Beano

I was in a similar situation many years ago .

What I did was squeeze another flight in , before the big earner. (The 100 SP flight)

That gets you to Elite and the 100SP flight is used to retain Elite .

Gekko

Unfortunately we are in Europe mid-journey so can’t meet the NZ requirements before the 100SP flight credits…

Thai-Kiwi

Don’t forget the ‘gift’ bonus SP that AirNZ is providing between 23 Feb 2023 to 23 Feb 2024. These bonus SP count as ‘metal’, and if the family all make GE, and haven’t already received this bonus, then they’ll get a useful 270 SP towards GE renewal.

Gekko

So given the unequivocal “you lose them” response from NZ I will credit the flights that would be wasted to an overflow program - either UA or LH. Shame - this seems like something they should fix as it requires people to really think about their SP earnings when they are close to moving between Silver and Gold and Gold Elite. Obviously at GE rollover is the order of the day…

nzkarit

I doubt many people think about it. Sure a lot of people here track projections in spreadsheet, but most people just don't care. And the "lost" points aren't fully lost they are still in your 12 month rolling year if go up another tier.

And it only affects moving up a tier. Once you are Elite it just becomes rollover points so isn't an issue when you requalify.

Gekko

That is an excellent point I hadn’t considered - that they are only lost for that instant moment, not for the 12 month process. As you note, since everyone will be GE shortly they just become part of the rollover which is great.

kiwifrequentflyer

Yeah I was going to say, they aren't "lost" - they will roll over next year.
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