How to keep status long as poss...
 

Ok so here's the deal - I am likely to be comped/gifted etc. BMI Silver shortly through rather indirect routes. I have no EQM miles & a pair of C class tickets for both Shanghai & Beijing from OSL any time over the next 11 months (so approx, plus a G fare to BRU next week.

Bar any further price errors ex-EUR, I am highly unlikely to be paying for any premium fares, & was wondering what is the best strategy to fully elongate my Status - both Gold & Silver, since I can change the dates of the China Flights to suit, plus could maybe stomach an American mileage run if had lounge access & wee chance of an op-up? If things keep going the way they are, I would ideally like to use this status for lounge access on Swiss runs (crediting their Travel Club of course to get the bonuses), & maybe on BD Metal for the odd business trip (or £249 to LAS :cool: )

I know BD sucks big-time now, but beggars like myself, can't be choosers & chasing status through mileage-earning is a concept I am familiar with through the IC chain...tier points with BA is just tooo difficult pour moi.

On the basis that BMI Silver is of limited use outside BMI (except for getting E+ on United), the logical thing to do is to time your Gold-hitting flight so that you fit in enough *A flying in the following 12 months. i.e. there is little point hitting Gold in April 2006 if you don't plan to do any further *A flying (where your Gold would get you priority check-in and lounge access) before April 2007, when you will drop back to Silver.

Remember you will drop back from Gold to Silver, so you will retain BMI status at least for another year. BMI, on current form, will also let you pay £150 to retain Silver when you are about to drop back to Blue in 2008.

On the other hand, since the future of Diamond Club itself is up in the air, I would be tempted to do the China flights sooner rather than later in order to earn a pile of DC miles that you can redeem for a 'cash and miles' award whilst they are still around.

I think part of my equation is complicated by worrying about hitting the 38k gold target mid-flight, or inter-legs...but from what I read of the sticky - if suddenly (during my 2nd trip) I am credited with 20k miles, taking me to 42k eqm's - I could call BMI & would have 4keqms towards the next yr's Gold Status?

I went over the target for DC Silver in 'mid-flight' and they zero'd my Status miles. However, when I emailed them to point this out, they credited the extra miles towards next year's Gold goal.

You should be sweet, as I think other's have reported similar experiences.

hmmm, so hypothetically - if one were Siver & did a 76k eqm trip (I dunno, round the world in F ex-TIP?) one would earn 2 years of Gold status? Don't plan to do so, but if correct- then is clear in my mind how it works.

Seems to me a weakness in all this (or advantage depending on which side of the fence you're on) - is that earning, as a Gold, 37k in EQM's will get you the same status the following year as someone who didn't earn any.

The way I under stand the BMI system is that when you qualify for a level of Status (say Silver after 16,000 status miles earned), your membership year is reset and begins again from the time of qualification.

You now have a year to earn the next level of status - Gold for a further 38,000 status miles after the Silver qualifying 16,000. You have 12 months to do this. If you qualify within the 12 months, your Status is reviewed to Gold, and your membership year starts from that point. You would have another 12 months from that point to earn another 38,000 miles to maintain your Gold status

If for example you flew another 38,000 in the following week, I guess your membership status is 're-qualified Gold', and your Status miles return to zero (unless it happened in the middle of some qualifying itinerary in which case you could get credit for those miles by mailing BMI DC CS), and your membership year begins again.

I guess the strategy is to time your qualifying Status miles earnings to tip over the 38,000 miles target at around the 12 months point if you want to maximise the length of time of Gold status.

No, that is not right. Your status is reset to 0 the first time you hit Gold, but after that it is not reset until the end of the 12 months period.

So, If you hit Silver in Jan 2006 (either through flying or through comp), your status is reset to 0 and you have until Jan 2007 to make it to gold. If you reach Gold by April 2006, your status counter is reset to 0 at that point, and you have until April 2007 to reach gold to keep it for another year. If you manage to accumulate 38K between April and July, there will be no review and no resetting of points. It will only happen in April 2007, at which point they will reset your counter to 0 and you will be Gold until April 2008.
Any status miles you get in excess of 38K before April 2007 will be 'wasted', i.e. your counter will be reset to 0 whether you have 38K or 380K.

That sounds good - basically if you do fly a 76keqm trip as Silver, you would get 2 years of Gold, providing you call DC to get the excess miles credited, but anything over 76keqm would be wasted in terms of qualifying. Correct?

OK - gotcha - thanks. So the aim is still to time your 38,000 miles to the 12 month period.

Like that's going to happen to me :)

That is correct, as long as you are careful around the 38K cut-off point. I know that BD has in the past re-credited in that situation, as treadsoftly mentioned, and probably would again but nonetheless this is in effect asking for a waiver of the rules and they may change their practice at any time on this (or you might come across a grumpy agent+supervisor who will do an Ian Paisley on you).