123abc

Just after joining DC last year I took a business class flight LHR to BKK with Swiss via ZRH and return HKG to LHR via ZRH. I had accrued well over the 16,000 miles to go silver by the sector HKG to ZRH and by my understanding of DC rules my status changes to silver and the status miles then return to zero and any miles accrued over the 16,000 are lost. Is this correct?

Should I retain the miles then for the final leg ZRH to LHR?
All of the miles were taken from me for all four sectors and my account returned to zero. If it makes a difference, the flights were on different days due to time zones.
I emailed bmi to ask if I am entitled to the miles for this last leg but they never replied.

Anyone have any thoughts as to whether I am entitled to the miles for the final sector? Any thoughts appreciated as bmi have ignored my queries and I'm not sure whether to pursue it.

FlyingOnceMore

Before I do some maths, were you a Blue or Blue+ member before the trip? Your status miles balance prior to departure was what, zero?

caz312

I had something similar (I think) when I moved to gold - instead of taking 38000 off my total they took the whole 38700 I was sitting at. I called the ICC after a month (thought they may go back on themselves) they didn't understand the question but said it would be sorted, after another couple of months I e-mailed in and had the 700 miles put back on my account

edit: just to say I was only about 4 months into my earning year, if there is a recalculation at the end of your year then yes status miles go back to zero

Oxon Flyer

In general, when you reach a tier-upgrade, your status total is zeroed, but any excess status miles should be carried forward to start you off on qualification for the next tier level. This doesn't always happen automatically, though, so you'll need to contact DC.

The FAQ explains the tier levels, and also the DC contact details.

123abc

I joined as Blue+ as they were doing a special offer to new customers. Yes, my status miles were zero. This was my first *A flight as a DC member.

FlyingOnceMore

After the HKG-ZRH segment your upgrade to Silver should have happened automatically, your status miles zeroed, and an adjustment made to reflect the excess; in your case, 24000ish-16000, so circa 8000 status miles. The ZRH-LHR segment, another 1200 status miles, should have been posted giving you a status miles total, post trip and after adjustment, of circa 9200 along with Silver membership.

Your destination miles total should have been in the region of 25200 plus a Silver member 25% base bonus of 3150 for a total of about 28350.

Make sense?

123abc

I didn't know they were supposed to carry the miles over.

Is this only during the earning year but not at the end of the year as suggested by caz312 above?

GoldCircle

It is only when you cross a threshold to a higher level that excess miles carry over to apply towards the next level. At the end of your status year, all status miles get zeroed absolutely.

123abc

Thanks for taking the time to work all that out.
This is what my statement showed:

dest mem
03/08/2008 LHR-ZRH 1200 1200
03/08/2008 ZRH-BKK 11214 11214
27/08/2008 HKG-ZRH 11834 11834
28/08/2008 ZHR-LHR 1200 1200
31/08/2008 Loyalty bonus 3181 0
10/10/2008 BD 0 A Business Class 1DC / 2K5 2500 0

I'm not sure what the 2500 destination miles were for on 10/10/08.

Even though I only just joined DC shortly before this trip I was surprised they restarted my year to begin 1 Sep 08 - that seems to be one thing in my favour.

123abc

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I'm getting there

FlyingOnceMore

What came next? There should be something that is obviously an adjustment.

BTW, my maths was off a bit. The 10200 should have been 9200.

123abc

Nothing came next except my next flights in March of this year
Now that I understand how DC works better (thanks to everyone's help) I will definitely write in to DC to claim back the missing miles.

FlyingOnceMore

In short, you should have been a silver member for the 12 months from 27/08/08 and the 9200 excess, plus whatever you've flown since, like in March, should have been counting towards the 16000 needed to keep said silver (or 38000 to attain gold) for another year, starting 27/08/09. How many status miles did you earn from March thru the end of August?

Your account will take some sorting, but our lurker will take care of it for you. Good luck!

123abc

Not that many. I took a flight to Istanbul and back via ZRH (1696 miles).
I then booked LHR-YUL and YQB-YYZ-LHR with AC and although it was an expensive fare it turns out it was K class which is not eligible for miles. (Being new to mileage collection I thought all flights gave miles and that the only difference in the amount depended on whether you flew economy, premium, business or first).

It was during the time I had sent off my BPs to DC to claim these miles that hadn't been added by AC that I decided to book another flight with AC going LHR-YYZ-LAX and back SEA-YVR-YYC and yes, you've guessed it, the flights turned out to be ineligible for miles (class N)! One of the reasons I booked such a convoluted flight was because I thought I would be getting more miles.
Typically it was the very next day after I bought the ticket that I received the email from DC telling me the previous flight was not eligible

While checking in, in a bid to get at least some miles I decided on the spur of the moment to pay for an upgrade to business but this looks like it's going to lead nowhere http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...ir-canada.html

I also flew UA from LAX-SFO-SEA first class which gave me 3837 miles.

FlyingOnceMore

After the adjustment that didn't happen on 27/08/08, i.e. excess miles carried over and you be silver until 26/08/09, you totalled 14981 status miles (9448 excess + 1696 + 3837) toward silver requalification for another year, i.e 27/08/09-26/08/10. In other words you would have been just short of the 16000 required to keep the silver and would have dropped back to Blue+ again anyway.

But.....seeing you never got your silver, I'm sure a nice email detailing the issue will hopefully sort you out for the coming year.

Again, make sense?

Good luck!