Hi Folks,

Tries searching for this info on the Skywards site but did not get much info so I guess they dont have a soft landing facility from Gold --> Silver ??

Double checking about the same here ??

Abhi

Abhi

My experience with soft landings is that it is often on a case by case basis. For example, if you've been Gold for multiple years and then you do not qualify, the airline may "comp" you status for one-year.

Also, many airlines are responsive if you write to them, can prove/demonstrate your travel over the next 12-months.

I think because the airline frequent flyer programs are now so large, the loyalty folks probably don't spend enough time on this factor. I know I would always write to the airline if I thought I was not going to qualify and would recommend that you do this, if you are in this position.

Come on. The OP status matched. Although I am still not convinced that EK was desperate to do this status match to have customers in CCU

We earn the status every year flying with EK and not trying to status match.

Would never care about landing hard or soft

My 2 cents.

Safe Flying

EGT

EGT, good memory on this one.

No such thing as soft/hard landing in Skywards. And the whole status matching thing is a bit of gimmick.

I myself, might be losing the Gold this year (after 4 years in a row) simply because I might not fly again on EK until next year. The only loss I see is those bonus Gold miles, apart from that I hardly doubt it could affect me.

Yes, I was status matched and informed this forum about the same since there is nothing to hide..
I personally travel on airlines I found convenient w.r.t time schedules, frequency and cost ( in this order) and since 90% of my travels had been to European countries in last few years M&M made more sense..
Now EK is the intl carrier from CCU with the most frequencies and it makes sense for me to try that.. but I am in EU at the moment and may not have many CCU flights and was asking hence..
BTW, even we earn are status with some airlines and EK sees benefits in status match for obvious reasons ( Though I understand the anger of someone who has taken the pain for getting to gold )..But its the same for me or any other ffp.. I flew 90k miles last year and was just FTL in M&M.. any other airline I would be gold or Plat and yes btw *Alliance airlines also do status match which affects us..

Having a soft landing for someone who never earned the status seems a bad idea anyway. Get gold tier for free by ( assumedly ) convincing EK that planned to be using them yet then fail to do enough travel to even have reached silver , seems only right that it be a complete drop to blue

Its not that I may not even reach silver, but presently just wanting to know the implications of not reaching that..
Thanks to flyertalk, I learnt that there is something called status match I just wanna maximise miles and points earning options ..

Maybe I'm misunderstanding some of the answers, but I thought a "soft landing" meant not dropping immediately to base status (as in some programs) but rather to one tier down?

If the latter, you certainly do get a soft landing with Skywards:

What happens if I do not fly the required number of miles to retain my tier status?

If you fail to earn sufficient tier Miles to retain your current tier status you will be downgraded one tier, for example, from Skywards Gold to Skywards Silver.

yes I meant the latter meaning if someone is EK Gold then they move to EK Silver and then EK Blue..
something like LH M&M where u can be LH HON for 2 yrs then LH SEN for 2 yrs and they LH FTL for 2 yrs without even 1 flight with *Alliance after becoming LH HON or LH SEN..
SO u saying soft landing IS available in EK ?

Yes: if you don't requalify for EK Gold, you are moved to EK Silver.

OP Status matched & BTW no hard feelings here. He never requalified & wanted to SOFT land. Kidding right??? Only deserve's to CRASH land. Nothing personal. DO NOT USE A STATUS MATCH if u can not live one over.

Safe Flying

EGT

No hard feeling brother and why shd there be ??
U r entitled to ur opinions and I am entitled to mine

I just try ( like many of us) to get as much mileage and benefits I can with my travels.. dont we all want to ??

Its not that my status is expiring now , infact I have that till next year mid and maybe I will travel a lot with them, but as per the current plan it may not materialise and hence I was just curious to know the rule..

no soft landing for an comped gold
its a dull thud I would think

and what would it matter if you havent been flying EK?
not that gold means anything at all except another shiny card

then you have done something wrong last year