brsm

Just wanted to inform people here in the forum of this "strange" new system Etihad implemented regarding renewal of status so you don't come short in your planning.

Etihad changed the rules in October 2017 and let's say you attained Silver status in June 2018. Then your status is valid till August 2019 ( 1 year + 2 months grace period when you can still enjoy your status, July and August 2019) but your qualifying period for renewal of the status is June 2018 - June 2019. Provided you re-qualified by the end of June 2019, any tier miles/segments earned in July 2019 wouldn't count to anything as the new qualifying period for renewing your status would be August 2019-August 2020. Basically you had up until June 2019 to renew the status but the month of renewal is August 2019 ??? And then again , upon renewing the status by end of August 2020, any travel in September 2020 wouldn't count as the renewal month is October 2020 and the new qualifying period would be October 2020 - October 2021. So it's moving every year, and there is a month every year that any tier miles you may earn will be worth of nothing - a rather strangely designed system. I haven't seen it with any other FF program (only had a status with 3 so not that experienced).

The rules on etihadguest site are, at the very best, ambiguous.

csdf

I did not understand a word of that. Can you simplify it for thickies like me?

brsm

Exactly, it took 5 emails from etihadguest to explain me how they designed their system, and hardly any details on the official site.
1) validity of the status is 1 year + 2 months of grace period=14months
2) length of the qualifying period is effectively 13 months

Assume you attain Gold status today(14/01/2020) for the first time. Your gold card will be valid till 31 March 2021(generally they say they give you one full year + 2 extra months of grace period to enjoy the benefits). If you want to retain your status you will have to earn 40 000 Tier miles by 31/01/2021. All good so far.

Let's say you earn the required miles for renewal in that period. They check it on 31 Jan 2021 and say you have renewed your status. For their purposes the renewal month is March 2021(the end month of the validity of your gold card )!!! So your new gold card will be valid till 31 May 2022 (1 year + 2 month grace period) and if you would like to renew your gold level the qualifying period is now from 1 March 2021 - 31 March 2022. Note how Feb 2021 is neither a part of the previous qualifying period nor of the new one!!! Let's go one step more.

Assume you renew your gold status again by accruing the tier miles by 31 March 2022. As your card was valid till 31 May 2022, they consider May 2022 to be the renewal month hence the new qualifying period is 1 May 2022-31 May 2023, and your new gold card will be valid till 31 July 2023(1 year + 2 months). Again, anything you might accrue in April 2022 will count to nothing.

This is an explanation from the etihadguest agent. They tried to explain it on the phone, but I wanted it all in written.

ft101

I think they've got it wrong.

tommy123

That's not quite correct . Status is gained over a twelve month period , starting 1st January ending 31st December. This 3 month extra is what's confusing most on here . I actually think it's a clever idea what Etihad have done here , let me explain why .....I'm gold and always fly between 52,000 and 65,000 miles a year ,so it's easy for myself to maintain my status , but for others it may be touch and go . By extending the validity of your status for 3 months , most people with any status would try to fly within this period , enjoying the benefits you've gained . Most frequent flyer programme's also run January - December . I like others thought about leaving Etihad when all the cutbacks started , and I even thought I'd taken my last flight with them last March , upgrading to business , burning some miles . However after looking at other frequent flyer programme's , I then worked out I would not be able to achieve gold within the calender year with another airline , because I'd flown during the January - March period . So unless you just won't fly ever again , this 3 month extra window is not so much a bonus , it's more of a clever way to lock customer's like myself into their programme .......

brsm

I have been Gold with Etihad for some 4-5 years now. Prior to the change the qualifying period was Jan-Dec. In Jan-Dec 2019 I got enough Tier miles to renew my Gold status. But when I had a look into my etihadguest account couple of days ago, it said I still required X number of tier miles, but it doesn't say by when (all of my 2019 flights tier miles had been credited). I decided to call the Gold line and they told me that my qualifying period is March 2019-March 2020 (not what I assumed Jan 2019-Dec 2019) and that I am short of X tier miles(because I did fly in Jan/Feb 2019). So obviously the new system had been designed in this way. I was very suspicious of it and decided to get an answer in written form, by emailing them. And they confirmed that my current qualifying period is March 2019-March 2020 and should I renew my status, the next one will be May 2020-May2021. and they confirmed that any flight I might take in April 2020 will not count towards retention of the status(should I renew my gold status by end of March 2020).

But the agent might be wrong!!!

tommy123

So we're all wrong and so are Etihad , that makes sense ....ha ha ha

amnicoll

I still have gold status and I have not flown with Etihad since summer 2017 when I used up my miles having given up on the airline

eddibabyyeah

This sounds very complex. The Cynic in me says that they designed it this way to confuse people. But it is possible that they did a crap job.

brsm

Initially I thought that there was a "quantum leap" when changing from the old system to the new one, and that someone hadn't properly given it a thought. But when she confirmed that going forward there will be this 2 month leap with some months not even being eligible for status retention, poorly designed system.

And the worst thing, it is not explained anywhere in their Terms and Conditions, FAQs , nor had it been communicated to the existing status holders that there would be a change of that type. I find that very unfortunate for myself and unprofessional/sneaky on their side. Not sure if I should go for a status run or just drop etihad altogether.

anna2017

here the same before oct 2018 gold status was for 2/3yrs*old situation),all tierstatus(silver,gold.platinum) are for 1 yr now(also without flying)soon i keep gold cause i have the >40k miles

PhDflyer

I heard the same from Etihad support. Moreover, I qualified for Gold in May (I did several AUH-Europe roundtrips) but, of course, Etihad finally bumped me to Gold only in June. So now they say my renewal period is June-June and hence all those May tier miles are not counted. I keep fighting them on this as I need the miles for maintaining the tier but part of me hopes they will not make any changes and I will finally jump the ship and watch EY sink from the outside. Yes, the occasional upgrade is nice but so the price of EY sold as LH is as well.

brsm

The killer is the lack of communication. Details how they calculate qualifying periods are nowhere to be found on their etihadguest site + they made the changes at some point and they didn't inform the existing customers who went on assuming it's business as usual...

amnicoll

surely you don�t expect them to tell you every time they make their product less attractive do you - your inbox would be overflowing.

hburgardt

On the Etihad Guest site under Our Programme - Tiers & Status your current progress towards requalification is shown. Under Notes 2. the requalification period is then further explained with an example:-

2. Within your qualifying year. If an Etihad Guest Member attains his Tier on 15July�18, he/she would have to earn the required number of Tier Miles or Tier Segments to retain his tier from the said date until 31 July�19.

The grace period of 2 months is of course pretty useless. I'll be requalifying for the 1st time in May this year and will be happy to confirm rules re. the 2nd requalification then.