Okay guys - need ur help on this. Started flying with KLM in June 03. Fly about twice a year on the ACC(accra) - AMS - BOM(bombay/mumbai) and fly with their partner Jet Airways in India.

One year down the line, have already crossed 1K award miles but since my trips were spread over 2 calendar years - am still only at silver - closed last year too at silver - and about 20K miles away from making gold. My upcoming trip in August will fetch me another 15,000 miles (3240 on acc-ams and 4262 on ams-bom and the return).

Have heard you guys mention quite often that getting to platinum is quite easy - but I seem to be falling far short of the requirement.

For an Indian guy based out of Ghana - what suggestions doyou have for maximising mileage - besides FLY MORE OFTEN.

Thanks, in advance, for the responses

Hi HormazdDastur - welcome to Flyertalk!

I don't actually think that getting to PE is all that easy at all, and my guess is that most of us are PEs only because we were Royal Wing under the old scheme which was a lot more generous when it came to qualification levels (but a lot less generous when it came to earning rewards).

Under the old scheme you needed 24,000 points to reach Royal Wing (the top tier of three), and minimum points per sector was 350, with one-class Cityhopper routes earning Business Class points for everyone. NWI-AMS (my local route) was worth 700 points, EDI-AMS earned a whopping 1200 - so 20 return trips would get you to RW. Also, the old scheme allowed you to carry forward surplus points to the next year - so if you had 30,000 at the end of the year you started the new year with 6,000. And finally (and this is relevant in your particular case) every member had his own membership year which started on the day of enrolment or on the day they moved up a level - points were reset at the end of the membership year, not at the end of the calendar year.

When KLM changed to the new system all RWs became PEs, and those who had carried-forward points in their accounts were given one extra year for every multiple of 24,000. Rumour has it that some people here are PE until something like 2020 and will remain PE without having to take one single flight on KLM.

My carried-forward PE status ends at the end of this year, and I don't think I'll be PE next year because earning PE is so much more difficult than it was to earn RW.

There are, of yours, ways of actually earning PE - though I don't know if any of them would be feasible for you:

1) Doing LOTS of long-haul flights

2) Being a weekly commuter on a short-haul route (you'd make it easily if the commute involves two sectors in each direction, e.g., A to B via AMS)

3) Doing mileage runs - i.e., travelling for the purpose of earning miles and choosing itineraries that maximise miles. Earlier this year someone reportedly flew between two places in the USA using a zig-zag routeing that involved about half a dozen changes of plane

Sorry I can't help more!

Hi

Yes earlier this year I did a few mileage runs between Boston & Philadelphia, which were (exact details forgotten) each trip was a daytrip with 5 sectors,. e.g PHL-EWR-BOS-EWR-CLE-PHL - the cost was approx $60 each trip.

I had planned a 2nd MR later in the year, but it didn't happen.

Welcome, HormazdDastur!

Another method of gaining status miles fast and with a good value is to do a Round The World trip on KLM + partners.

If you have some holiday time available you can see the world in style at a good fare and earn lots of miles. Ans as those tickets are valid for one year, you can also easily split one ticket into two half RTW's that stretch over two calender years, so that you can add some miles to both years.

Search a bit and you'll find a thread here about such tickets with starting point in CAI...

Hmmmm. Nice point, never thought about it. I mean, take a half RTW trip, fly home, then, say, in a few months fly to where one last stopped and take another half RTW. But is it legal? Can you use a RTW ticket in conjunction with other tickets (the fly-home-then-fly-back-to-where-you-last-stopped-and continue thingy)?

Welcome, HormazdDastur!

It does not seem to be very hard to become a PE without flying these days... Try to find someone with an FD Amex card and sign up as his / her partner. An easier yet more expensive way is to fly Biz Class instead of Economy (double status miles). Nice side advantage: 4 Delft houses per return trip... So far for my suggestions. Good luck!

Oh and before I forget, one more suggestion: Get a job with the Dutch government. Leo van Wijk (KLM's CEO) seems to give PE cards away for free to certain people there.

apoivre - You can do whatever you want with a RTW ticket including splitting it up and re-starting. The only restictions are usually the standard 1 stopover in each City and maximum 3 transits through a City. And of course you have to go in the same direction when crossing the Atlantic and Pacific.

There are a number of people on FT who have 2, 3 and 4 RTW's running at the same time. There is probably someone who has even more knowing FT. BKK is also a cheap place to start RTW's but not a cheap as CAI at the moment. Some start from CAI then start another one from BKK.

Wait and see what Paris has to say about that!

It will also be interesting to find out what happens to the lifetime PE status promised to all with ten consecutive years of RW/PE, a promise made at at time when KL knew full well that the demise of FD was already on the cards.

johan

Well, judging by the loyalty of some on this forum, I can't blame them!
Is it not a FREQUENT FLYER programme?
Nothing in this world is for ever. If one does not fly with the airline/alliance concerned, one should not enjoy the perks. That's the bottom line according to me. Otherwise the advantages for those who do bring in the cash to the airline (with own money or company's money, that's not the point I'm making) will be jeapardised/diminished in the end.

I do agree that such promises should not be made by the airline concerned. Just leads to disappointment and frustration amongst the real loyal ones amongst us.

But they did, and it is not unreasonable to expect them to honor their promises.

People such as yourself? The vast majority of my flights are on KL, and have been for the past 44 years. Beat that if you can. If KLM's product, on the ground and in the air, had remained at the high level it was at until about a decade ago, I would now be lauding the airline, instead of pointing out its failings.

johan

For me its easier and more straighforward now. I essentially have qualified each year sinc the change in the first 90 days of the year, but then again in each year I was then told that it had NOT been necessary as they carried PE's forward.

Same here. And I have a bad feeling about this year as well...

I don't think they'll let you keep it again this year by flying once, unless we get a massive terrorist attack/war/SARS etc. Paris would have something to say about that surely.

I wonder if they consider this Asian Bird Flu serious enough.........