Guillou

I believe this question has been answered quite a few times before but could not find earlier answers right away. I am few thousand tier points from renewing plat and my membership period ends 31 August. I have AY HEL-LAX-HEL flight coming up in the last week of August that will take me above 150k tier points but I believe there is a high probability that the points will not post before 31 August.

I assume that for plat renewing purposes it is sufficient that the flights have been taken during this period (even if the points have not posted) but thought to make sure?

BlueNordicSky

Have you considered using award miles to convert to status miles and get platinum right away? If you are able to, I think it's definitely worth a consideration. You would get the upgrade vouchers and gold giveaway, that you would need to use during this one month, as "freebies". Then once your tracking period rolls over, you get them again. You only have to book the upgrades during this month, the flights can be later. And in addition to all this, you would get platinum perks for your flight already, including an extra 25% as opposed to 15% miles.

intuition

Yes.
It should be automatically adjusted once points post, but nudging CS may be necessary. (I am not speaking from personal experience, but from what has been reported here earlier)

As for renewing there is no benefit in converting award->tier if you have points coming your way anyway, as the effect mentioned by BlueNordicSky only affects members achieving plat, not renewing.

BlueNordicSky

My bad, I missed "renewing".

kanamurva

Any wild guesses about Brexit? I'm thinking about booking London, but if the hard brexit hits at the end of Oct, this could cause problems.

lkrt

kanamurva

Well like a sudden need for a visa to enter the country. Of course nobody has answers to these questions but do you guys take this into consideration? I'm personally I bit worried booking something for the first days of Nov. In case the hard brexit really happens.

Courmisch

Flights between EU and UK would reportedly be ensured even in absence of divorce deal.

I'd be more worried about potential mess and queueing at UK borders for whatever thing will have not been taken into consideration.

lkrt

intuition

The OCT brexit, in a nutshell:
Current British theory is that they will get a better deal than they already agreed on, if they make it likely they are leaving without a deal. This is done by asking the impossible from EU before they even consider sitting down to talk. Since no one really believes this bluff, they will have to go so far in no-deal preparations, they end up wasting so much time, money and energy on it, it will look like the better option to go through with. That will in turn trigger one of two outcomes - The extremists manages to push no-deal through or parliament will realise they need to gather around cancelling the entire thing, at least for the time being.

Meaning on OCT31 there will either be a total mess or business as usual for a foreign traveller.

My take is they will, much to their own surprise, leave without a deal and I will be in the Gin bar at LHR waving them off before taking the last safe flight back.

ffay005

Don’t worry. If you want to go, just book the flights.

I believe there’s a fair chance that Brexit will be postponed after October. Some think it will be postponed indefinitely.

And even if Brexit really happens, it’s not the end of the world. Yes, if you’re a Finnish journalist, it seems to be your job to make everyone believe it is the end of the world. But in reality, I bet the biggest difference for a tourist will be that you are able to purchase dutyfree booze at LHR.

The UK has no interest in requiring visas from Finnish citizens, and that’s something they can decide unilaterally, without an actual treaty, if they so wish. Just like Serbia doesn’t require a passport from Finnish citizens, only an ID card.

And while the EU is now in a state of ”let’s say no to everything and make them suffer”, they will come to their senses if Brexit really happens. AY will still fly to LHR, just like they fly to SVO.

Courmisch

Isn't Serbia effectively required to accept EU personal ID cards as part of its EU association and membership negotiations?

I mean, the benefits is obvious for tourism and trade with countries where ID cards are more commonplace than passports, like mine, but ...

intuition

OTOH, isn't it in general so that an agreement of granting visa free/VOA travel is a bargaining chip and thus this ends up in a bilateral agreement anyway? But Finland will not be able to enter into a bilateral agreement with UK, so Britons will be needing a visa for 90+ stays, and pay the ETIAS feee 2020 and onwards.

So maybe they will allow all Finns free entry unilaterally or they will engage in a tit-for-tat game. It is rather difficult to know what their interest truly are these days.

ffay005

Surely it is in the UK's interest not to destroy their tourism industry overnight.

Likewise, I find it hard to believe that British citizens would need a visa to visit Schengen countries after a hard Brexit. If the schedule gets really tight, there will be some kind of hastily set up temporary exception. Of course, now is the time to try and scare people with all sorts of horror scenarios, but in reality, those won't materialize.

Brexit is like those two boys in the elementary school playground, shouting at each other, bragging about whose dad has a better car and threatening not to invite them to their birthday parties. In the end, both cars have four wheels and both kids get invited to both parties.

SierraAlphaMike