downinit

The only announcement I see (issued a week ago) states that status will be extended UNTIL 2022, which is not the same as THROUGH 2022. This seems to be the same as before, where anyone with status expiring in 2021 would get pushed to 2022. I do not see anything suggesting that expiration dates in 2022 will be extended at all. I would love to be wrong about this, since my status expires at the end of February.

s2w0w

The email I received states "You are currently a Diamond member. Existing privileges will be continued without change for a total of 4 years. This 12 months extended membership is valid until 31 Dec, 2022."

downinit

What a delightfully cryptic response. Does this mean the membership has been extended from 31/12/2021 to 31/12/2022, or does it mean that they will be offering 12 month extensions until 31/12/2022? If it is the former, that is merely in-line with the previous promise to extend status expiring in 2021. And where does the '4 years' come from? Have you already had a 12 month extension from 2020?

LMYRMQ622003250

I called them about this and was informed that all accounts due to be downgraded in 2022 will have a 1 year extension.

downinit

Very good news, if true. I am actually on track to hit *G on TK after my next TATL trip in May, but it would be nice to at least have lounge access on the trip itself. My spouse is only 10k miles short of diamond for OZ, so an extension would work out even better for him. I just hit diamond myself in 2019, and I never had a chance to actually fly OZ to ICN with status before covid hit.

stupidhead

Nice. I haven't flow in a long time and am on track to get Diamond again provided I get the extension through May 2023. That is if OZ Club doesn't get discontinued by then due to the merger lol

Gasolin

Are you guys thinking TK is the most realistic option to *A gold now? I find the initial requirement for *A gold with TK difficult to reach, but who knows. I am wondering what my options are as an average flyer located in NYC. I usually fly UA or AC economy for work. Could be 20K miles per year, but it gets pro rated when putting it on other airlines.

downinit

Depends on the fare class when you are flying for work; you need to check the earning rate for that specific flight to get a better idea of how many miles you will actually earn. Unless it is a fully flexible fare class, that will definitely not be enough to maintain status. For the initial 40k, a few RT to Asia in PE is probably about the most painless way to earn miles for those of us who don't have the means to fly int'l J or the opportunity for frequent travel on OPM, now that Asia is reopening. SQ is known to have very good rates (and good service for a long flight), but you are still looking at a minimum of $3k for two trips (plus all of the covid testing/isolation hassle in going to Asia right now). I have been flying TATL from LAX to Europe on discounted J and PE to get my miles, but I never flew J before covid and can't afford to continue to do so on a regular basis moving forward. It is also a hassle earning with TK when flying LH group flights. Lufthansa discount J earns nothing with TK, and getting the proper mileage credit for other fares/LH group airlines can be a royal PITA.

Gasolin

It's quite hard to tell how much flying will actually be done at the end, but I reviewed my last full year of travel, 2019.
It seems that I did:

Business on *A:

• 35156 miles, of which 9743 on UA and 25413 on AC
• 23900 miles after conversion with TK chart, of which 7717 on UA and 16183 on AC
• 25947 miles after applying the min miles as well with TK chart (mostly for AC), of which 7717 on UA and 18230 on AC

Personal on *A:

• 7298 miles on UA, 4561 miles after conversion with TK charts.

Which makes a total of 42454 miles or 28462 or 30509 miles depending on whether the min is applied or not.

Additionally, I started flying a bit more DL I think for some status challenge, and that was 12753 miles:

• 5882 miles on DL
• 4923 miles on WS
• 978 miles on AF
• 970 miles on AA

Based on the above, it might be possible to get those 40k miles, and if I get them, keeping the status doesn't seem to be a massive issue, but it is to be seen... Does anyone know how TK calculates the miles for the status upgrade? Is it from Jan 01 to Dec 31 or does everyone has an unique anniversary date?

downinit

TK uses a rolling 12 month calendar, so it is determined by how many miles you have earned in the last 12 months at any point in time. I would assume that means your calendar for re-qualifying resets on the day you earn the status, but I have not crossed that bridge yet (unless you count the worthless *S status I have already obtained).

stupidhead

Pretty much.

SQ in PE to BKK twice is probably the cheapest way to earn the 40k miles. I've seen fares out of NYC for ~$1200 depending on dates. NYC-SIN-BKK is a bit over 10k miles each way at a 100% accrual rate. Not sure what the accruals look like if you split the journey on say SQ25/26 with a stopover in Frankfurt. I imagine they would accrue separately which might net you an extra 1k miles each way.

Gasolin

That is super confusing if they keep calculating 12 rolling months... but I suppose it means that the first day I credit TK is the moment I have to reach 40K miles on the first 12 months?

But you get *S after 25K so it's effectively 65K or 25K and then 15K?

stupidhead

My guess?

Say it takes you 8 months to get to silver (25k miles). Then you get Silver at month 8. Then you have 12 (month 9~21) or 24 (month 9~33) months to maintain Silver.
Then say you fly another 15k miles 3 months later. Then you get Gold at month 11. Then you have 12 (month 12~24) or 24 (month 12~36) months to maintain Gold. The Silver requal period is no longer relevant.

That was my understanding. AFAIK the clock doesn't reset to 0 when you achieve status unlike Aegean apparently.

TK status is weird - you have 1 year to qualify but the status is good for two years and there are two different requal periods.

zedeye

Thanks for sharing! Did they clarify whether it's only the actual status itself that gets a 1 year extension, or also the qualifying period for the next cycle?
(ie. If I earn miles during the extension, does that get added to the 2020-2022 tier miles to qualify)

LMYRMQ622003250

Both statys and the evaluation period as far as I understand.