Gone I am afraid.

I would disagree. May can be quite a damp and miserable month in HK - think humid and sweaty clothes, urgh

Wait a moment, I may be very wrong, but does that not mean you have to collect your TP and BA flights before 8 April?

My understanding is that if I collect them after April 8th, as soon as I become silver again I will not only be silver for the rest of that collection year (ie up until April 8th 2019) but also for the following year until April 8th 2020. Also, if I travel between April 8th and May 31st 2018, I will still be able to use the benefits associated with silver status because the benefits don't expire until the end of month following the year end. So I'll still be able to select seats for free, and use lounges if travelling economy, until the end of May. I hope to regain silver status before the end of May via this tier point run, so shouldn't lose those benefits.

I hope I'm correct in thinking this?

But yes, you're correct in saying the 40 tier points I'll have collected by then will be pointless. I wasn't thinking straight on that. I'll need to collect 600 on my May tier point run.

That was my experience in Hong Kong during our May honeymoon. Japan may be more pleasant.

Ah yes, sorry - didn't think of it that way.

ex-EU QR fare to Tokyo, return in J gets you 560. 40 more for 4 BA flights (including your positioning flights) shouldn't be too tough?

Too bad the last QR sale just passed - not that it was too amazing anyway.

Did you find anything good for the start of the summer? :)

May be of interest to people here, @palmanfr posted in the premium fare deals thread (quoted below) about a GOT-HNL first fare on AA stock. I've been playing around with it a bit today, and it looks like it's a DIF fare requiring I and A availability - getting it via HEL is possible but a bit of a farce, might be possible on the phone to AA. All the flights must be on AA codes. You can do 1000TP for around £1605, and 1280TP (in F via JFK/LAX) for about £1950.

Also works from LCA, SOF, OTP, ATH (for more TP) and ARN.

I can make it route through JFK on the transcon in F but adding HEL is pushing the price very high. Might give them a call today and see if they can see if its possible. 1280 got £2k isn't bad, but if I can add 320TP more that would be excellent.

The price through HEL goes up because you are exceeding the base MPM (for every 5% of additional distance you add 5% on base fare).

Thanks for picking this one up... Looks like I posted it to the wrong thread 😀 May I ask how you manage to include JFK (or HEL) Everytime I trying to do so on matrix I got zero possibilities, despite the fare rules stating otherwise.

Indeed, but the QR annual global sale is imminent, which is usually much better than the rolling QR sales.

When you position, book Y and then upgrade in the lounge at LHR about 60mins before your flight - should be cost effective and will solve your 40TP deficit.