BW elite status
 

Hi,
how does BW membership status work?
I read on the website which says points don't expire. But when I read further down under terms and conditions, it says I lose status if my account can't maintain activity within a year??

Assuming I'm a Diamond this year and I don't stay at any BW next year. Then in the year 2019, I have travel plans and want to redeem nights, I lose diamond, this status, but I can still redeem nights with their 30,000 points? I just lose perks like room upgrade, 10% point discount on free night redemptions?

Diamond

• 30 nights, 20 qualifying stays or 30,000 points to qualify1
• Points never expire
• No blackout dates
• Exclusive reservations line
• Room upgrade2
• Free night redemptions count towards elite status3
• Choice of thank you gift or points upon arrival3
• 10% point discount on free night redemptions4
• Free night availability, Guaranteed5

You need to re-qualify for status in order to keep it next year. 99.9% of programs are like that. No activity in a year = no status qualification for next year. Do not confused points expiration with status qualifications. BW is one of the few where points don't expire, but conversely, no stays this year also means no points accrual/increase.

First, make sure you don't confuse points expiration with account expiration. There may be a maximum amount of time that BW will keep your account alive if nothing at all is happening with the account.

Next, 30000 points is not enough for even one night at some hotels. So while you will still likely be able to redeem your 30000 points, if you have that many they might not be good for "nights" plural, depending on the particular hotel you want to stay at.

Many people redeem points without ever having had status before, so it's certainly possible to redeem points after dropping to no status.

I read the full terms and conditions and BW says nothing of this sort though
Are you referring to illegal activities with the account?

They do say:
That's far from "illegal", isn't it? "Unreasonable" sounds like a catch-all that could include, for example, not logging into your account for some number of years, or changing your email without telling them such that their communications with you bounce back and they can't figure out how to communicate with you (and you never contact them either).

And "to the detriment of the program" could be as simple as a scathing review of a hotel, perhaps?

So while they haven't spelled out a policy on inactive accounts per se, they've written it with enough catch-all terminology to cover that IMHO.

Aw shucks, I didn't think this far.
thanks for your reminder!

I was status-matched (Diamond Select) back in July. How can I determine when that status expires?

I was raised to Diamond Select last December through a promo (I had just qualified for Diamond and the promo added one level), and now I can't find a status tracker anywhere on the new BW site nor am I getting one in BW's emails like I did last year, so I'm confused as to whether my status needs requalification this year or not (and, in case it does, how far along I am).

I seem to remember multiple reports of them letting you keep matched status for a couple years in the past. Here's one (in the main status match thread) which recounts how someone apparently "soft landed" after their matched Diamond expired:
Whether it still works that way, I'm not sure.