Covid19: M&M Elite Status Extensions?

Old Jan 28, 2021, 2:09 pm
  #271  
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Maybe this is the downside, possibly the only downside for us, of running a two yearly qualification thing. It just makes it logistically harder for them to deal with overall, so if you already have status until 2022 like myself, logically they can't do anything about it right now because your status is still valid. No point touching it until this time next year - for them - by which time we will know how this year has been, which probably won't be great. I think they would be crazy to not extend those like myself who have status until 2022, because there is little chance we're going to get off the ground much in the first half of this year.
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Old Jul 12, 2021, 8:09 am
  #272  
 
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Is there any news, official or unofficial, about further extensions, or is the extra status miles it?

So far I have 2 segments this year total, the rest of the year does not promise to be much better, and though I can sink 500 EUR to a week of hopping around Poland later this year, not sure it is the best of ideas. At the same time, I would like to keep my FTL as it looks more and more like I will be stuck with either one or two M&M airlines for my "commute" in the coming years.
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Old Jul 12, 2021, 9:12 am
  #273  
 
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Originally Posted by Fabo.sk
Is there any news, official or unofficial, about further extensions, or is the extra status miles it?

So far I have 2 segments this year total, the rest of the year does not promise to be much better, and though I can sink 500 EUR to a week of hopping around Poland later this year, not sure it is the best of ideas. At the same time, I would like to keep my FTL as it looks more and more like I will be stuck with either one or two M&M airlines for my "commute" in the coming years.
If you can travel with someone else for 2kEUR per person you can get 38000 (32k from flights + 2k (CON-bonus) + 5k(INTER-bonus)) status miles by flying from MAD to Bogota and return (business class for 2). I just did this trip for my vacation and first time every my wife is also a senator (she never went beyond FTL).

If you don't mind economy or need to travel alone for 2kEUR you can get premium economy in E to bogota which would give you 55000 miles for return trip.




Tomasz
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Old Jul 12, 2021, 9:42 am
  #274  
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Originally Posted by Fabo.sk
Is there any news, official or unofficial, about further extensions, or is the extra status miles it?

So far I have 2 segments this year total, the rest of the year does not promise to be much better, and though I can sink 500 EUR to a week of hopping around Poland later this year, not sure it is the best of ideas. At the same time, I would like to keep my FTL as it looks more and more like I will be stuck with either one or two M&M airlines for my "commute" in the coming years.
I'm right with there with you, although where possible I book SkyTeam (for European itineraries) out of Switzerland because I'm no longer a big fan of Lufthansa Group now. I have been able to get quite far with the double status miles offer on LH credit cards, though.
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Old Jul 12, 2021, 10:28 am
  #275  
 
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Well I havent heard anything about status extensions into next year... But I guess status gestures of one kind or another are a clear possibility due to the ongoing dIsruptions...
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Old Jul 12, 2021, 10:37 am
  #276  
 
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Originally Posted by Tomasz Pa
If you can travel with someone else for 2kEUR per person you can get 38000 (32k from flights + 2k (CON-bonus) + 5k(INTER-bonus)) status miles by flying from MAD to Bogota and return (business class for 2). I just did this trip for my vacation and first time every my wife is also a senator (she never went beyond FTL).

If you don't mind economy or need to travel alone for 2kEUR you can get premium economy in E to bogota which would give you 55000 miles for return trip.




Tomasz
Thanks, but even if I did have any interest in going to Bogota of all places, it's financially untenable. When the alternative is to spend a leisurely week trudling along in Poland visiting smaller cities at 20 eur a segment, or fly to Singapore for half and get similar mileage.

Originally Posted by Concerto
I'm right with there with you, although where possible I book SkyTeam (for European itineraries) out of Switzerland because I'm no longer a big fan of Lufthansa Group now. I have been able to get quite far with the double status miles offer on LH credit cards, though.
I've been more Skyteam heavy recently as well, and all 5 of my segments this year (2 flown, 3 booked) are with them, but I've been relying on OK to solve the "last mile problem" for me, and they don't seem to be in a good enough shape to expect them to re-start service any time soon (I've been on the last OK flight out - possibly the last ever - from my local airport back in January).
FTL also gave peace in that if somewhere Skyteam was not a great option, I could count on some level of comfort flying via FRA/MUC/VIE/WAW/ZRH. Same proved crucial in December 2019, where I had flown to Cyprus and a quick lunch in Munich prevented me starving all the way to Larnaca. The alternative would have been to try and survive 4 hours crammed in a Transavia flight. And not even the XP to show for it, back then.
At the same time, I haven't flown LH since February 2020 or any group airline since March of the same, and from what I have seen in the M&M forum, it's been quite the downhill ride since.
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Old Jul 13, 2021, 2:52 am
  #277  
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Well I really am like you (no LH Group since beginning of March 2020) and moving more over to SkyTeam. But there, I am with Air France KLM, not OK (CSA Czech Airlines, right?) I hope CSA don't disappear, because with the AirEuropa takeover and the probable transformation of Alitalia into something else, SkyTeam is beginning to look a lot less interesting in Europe. Whereas LH Group is widespread with a lot of hubs.

About elite status extensions, AFKL offered an extension both last year and this year, along with the double XPs promotion. For me, personally anyway, they have handled the whole thing better than LH Group.
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Old Jul 13, 2021, 3:08 am
  #278  
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Originally Posted by Concerto
About elite status extensions, AFKL offered an extension both last year and this year, along with the double XPs promotion. For me, personally anyway, they have handled the whole thing better than LH Group.
Absolutely. Even if we remain in the *A universe, other programs have been more straightforward. They gave straight-up status extensions and then ran promos granting extra EQM (or EQS...).

With M&M, you need to be a major nerd to follow along. Some colleagues of mine use M&M as their sole or, at least, primary program. They ask me what they need to do! What M&M has done is full of special rules. One rule applies to elites with expiry 02/21 but not to elites with expiry 02/22. One rule is for SEN and FTL but not HON. Another is just for HON. One rule applies to status miles (EQM), but not to select miles, HON miles, or RDM. Another applies to EQM and HON miles but not to the other categories. For another promo you need the right CC *and* elite status. Such a convoluted mess.

EDIT: I don't think it's a problem per se that a program has all the bells and whistles such as a 3-region award for the nerds. However, it's not good if you almost need a degree to understand the difference between status miles and status star points, flight segments, HON circle miles and select miles.
Plus promotions where you need like several nested if-then-else statements to describe how it affects different mileage categories.

Last edited by FlyerTalker324193; Jul 13, 2021 at 4:01 am
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Old Jul 13, 2021, 5:50 am
  #279  
 
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Originally Posted by Concerto
Well I really am like you (no LH Group since beginning of March 2020) and moving more over to SkyTeam. But there, I am with Air France KLM, not OK (CSA Czech Airlines, right?) I hope CSA don't disappear, because with the AirEuropa takeover and the probable transformation of Alitalia into something else, SkyTeam is beginning to look a lot less interesting in Europe. Whereas LH Group is widespread with a lot of hubs.

About elite status extensions, AFKL offered an extension both last year and this year, along with the double XPs promotion. For me, personally anyway, they have handled the whole thing better than LH Group.
Yes, Czech Airlines. The service delivery has been hit and miss in the last years - with more and more flights outsourced to wetlease QS 737s, and inability to purchase any ancillaries on c/s tickets - but they BoB in Y is decent, QS crew is decent, OK crew is outright great and their intra-Europe C is (was) the best around.... Still the main thing for me is - they've been the sole presence of Skyteam in my local airport, and now they are gone after 90+ (!!) years for the first time except during the war.
Leaves me with OS (currently 4x weekly), LO maybe starting mid-September baring any further delays, and potentially EW who still seem to plan to re-start service from DUS in winter schedule.

UX I won't miss too much - other than going to Spain, they never seemed that interesting, and Spain is a well served market, but I am looking at AZ situation with a slight worry.


Originally Posted by 8mh
Absolutely. Even if we remain in the *A universe, other programs have been more straightforward. They gave straight-up status extensions and then ran promos granting extra EQM (or EQS...).

With M&M, you need to be a major nerd to follow along. Some colleagues of mine use M&M as their sole or, at least, primary program. They ask me what they need to do! What M&M has done is full of special rules. One rule applies to elites with expiry 02/21 but not to elites with expiry 02/22. One rule is for SEN and FTL but not HON. Another is just for HON. One rule applies to status miles (EQM), but not to select miles, HON miles, or RDM. Another applies to EQM and HON miles but not to the other categories. For another promo you need the right CC *and* elite status. Such a convoluted mess.

EDIT: I don't think it's a problem per se that a program has all the bells and whistles such as a 3-region award for the nerds. However, it's not good if you almost need a degree to understand the difference between status miles and status star points, flight segments, HON circle miles and select miles.
Plus promotions where you need like several nested if-then-else statements to describe how it affects different mileage categories.
Quite. Under normal circumstances it's not too bad, but now... anyway the answer for me seems to be simple.... wait and see and maybe requal next year from scratch.
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Old Jul 13, 2021, 8:46 am
  #280  
 
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Originally Posted by Fabo.sk
Is there any news, official or unofficial, about further extensions, or is the extra status miles it?

So far I have 2 segments this year total, the rest of the year does not promise to be much better, and though I can sink 500 EUR to a week of hopping around Poland later this year, not sure it is the best of ideas. At the same time, I would like to keep my FTL as it looks more and more like I will be stuck with either one or two M&M airlines for my "commute" in the coming years.
I emailed Lufthansa some time ago about it as for me it is impossible to renew HON as I am based in Asia and travel restrictions are even more tight than in EU which makes traveling impossible (given mandatory quarantines and entry restrictions in Asia). Feedback was that they are currently evaluating whether measures are enough - my assumption from that reply is that there might be some additional goodwill on extensions/status miles/hon miles coming, but those might be depending on residency - given that LH made lots of promos on status miles etc. and opening of travel in EU.
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Old Jul 13, 2021, 9:05 am
  #281  
 
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I'm in a similar situation, my usual destinations (Australia, Japan, Singapore, USA) are either closed to me or hard to access so other than the credit card bonus none of the current promos are doing anything for me.
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Old Jul 13, 2021, 2:42 pm
  #282  
 
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During today's virtual call for German speaking SEN and HON they stated that they are aware that the current situation and the restrictions that are still in place make it tough for people to requalify and that they are in the process of evaluating options for people to keep / extend their status. This still seems to be WIP and the next meeting to discuss options is scheduled to take place in two weeks. They didn't communicate anything in today's call, other than "we are aware of the situation, we are in discussions, we will notify the public within the next couple of months how we will proceed".
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Old Jul 14, 2021, 7:07 am
  #283  
 
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Originally Posted by cas_de
During today's virtual call for German speaking SEN and HON they stated that they are aware that the current situation and the restrictions that are still in place make it tough for people to requalify and that they are in the process of evaluating options for people to keep / extend their status. This still seems to be WIP and the next meeting to discuss options is scheduled to take place in two weeks. They didn't communicate anything in today's call, other than "we are aware of the situation, we are in discussions, we will notify the public within the next couple of months how we will proceed".
Originally Posted by 8mh
One rule applies to elites with expiry 02/21 but not to elites with expiry 02/22. One rule is for SEN and FTL but not HON.
Ridiculous that those who have 2019/2020 as qualifying years have been given extensions while those of us who are 2020/2021 are still being made to sweat. 2019 was entirely unaffected by the pandemic - that's obviously not the case for 2021 so the argument for giving an extension is surely stronger. Yet we are still being told to wait in limbo for another couple of months and maybe by around October we might find out where we stand.

As my A3 *G has just been extended for 12 months, I could make a stab at retaining FTL by year end if I knew for sure that an extension isn't going to be granted (eg a segment run similar to what Fabo.sk is considering). But if they don't even tell us until October or later where we stand then it's too late to take appropriate action.
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Old Jul 14, 2021, 8:09 am
  #284  
 
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Maybe my level of expectation how LHG manages the situation has reached a super low level, but at least they are acknowledging the situation that it will be super hard if not impossible to requalify for a lot of status holders whose status is expiring in 02/22. I am part of this group.
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