status match Imposible?
 

MAS have agreed nearly two months after my application to match my Etihad Gold status as I finally say good bye to Etihad. I have already booked two business class returns from London to SEA with Malaysia Airlines but not until the end of the year and the second one next year

However they have imposed a new set of hurdles that HAVE to be completed in 30 days that seem completely unrealistic and impossible for me to comply

First I must Fly 2 Elite Qualifying Sectors on Business Class or First Class on Malaysia Airlines; well had I known that I would have waited to apply until I could meet such a threshold
Second I must Transfer a minimum of 50,000 Enrich Miles from Bank Card I have no idea how I would even start collecting them let alone transfer them

It strikes me that Malaysia Airlines are not really interested in trying to attract the loyalty of potential customers who have become disenchanted with their previous preferred airline with such impossible hurdles

they can be delusional sometimes...

I'm surprised you choose to match with MH though. Being in the UK, I imagine there are better programmes to match to? Enrich doesn't exactly have the best burn rates...

The flights were convenient for the trips I do twice a year- in to Phnom Phen and out from Kota Bharu and prices were good saving couple of trips to and from Bangkok to get where I want to go. I agree there are better programmes and if MAS are not up to standard then I will revert back to an airline in and out of Bangkok. Price and schedules together with quality will drive my loyalty but perks/recognition help

Etihads programme was very good and the service was very good (usually) but they unfortunately they are now engaged in a race to the bottom and I would be surprised if they are able to retain their 5 star rating indeed I wonder if they will even obtain a 4 star ranking

I have already made two bookings with MAS prior to applying for the status match in Business class from London to Phnom Phen and returning from Kota Baru and provided them with the booking references so I would have thought that might confirm my status

Anyway to add these extra hurdles to make two qualifying flights in the next 30 days when I have already made the above bookings AND to have somehow got 50,000 enrich miles on a Bank card from the UK makes it impossible not reasonable

The status match criteria seems to be geared towards Malaysians who have credit cards that can transfer miles to Enrich. Obviously this is a bad criteria for non Malaysian people. Rather than 30 days to take the flights they require I would have thought 60 days was fairer,

so is the first.

I agree it would be fair to insist on a booking either in place or to be placed in 30 days but not to undertake such flights especially when you have no knowledge of when you might be granted or not granted the match.

I applied for the match on 12 June 2018 (with the two bookings in place) and only accepted on 24th August which means that trying to make 2 qualifying flights in the next 30 days is really unrealistic especially for someone in Europe. Should I have waited to book not knowing when they might respond and then not even sure if I would then get a seat or indeed want to make a flight at that time

The requirements are stated on the MH website so if you could not meet the requirements, particularly with regards to transferring the 50,000 Enrich miles, then why did you apply?

https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/hk/...te_status.html

fair point - Because I never read that far down and did not think the criteria would have proved impossible!!!!!

Doesn't take away from the fact that it is nearly impossible especially if you live in Europe and I would guess that most people who could qualify would already have done so through previous membership

Note that to succeed I both need to have a booking in place (which I do) and that I should allow 2 weeks for them to decide but they took two months so lets say that booking was for two weeks +29 days after application then it would not have counted meaning I would have had to make a booking for more flights

Why would you want to be status matched to MH, when you already have Qatar Gold?

probably because of the horrible new burn rates with Qatar

...and the hideous "customer service” & functionality at QRPC...the precise reasons I dumped them in favour of BAEC.

Sounds like a case of buyer's remorse to me...

i think the criteria for MH status matches is very plain and transparent.

i dont have much sympathy for OP here given they failed to properly read the terms and conditions for the SC match which had been laid out for the whole world to see on their website (and having the 50K or whatever points transfer into Enrich is quite a high hurdle).

impossible or not impossible to achieve is irrelevant - i mean MH is not indebted to the OP or obliged to give accelerated status. OP can always reject the status match criteria and choose to build status on MH the old fashion way.

what's not right though is that MH took 2 months to reply instead of the 2 weeks.