SASegments

Has anyone heard anything about further extensions of the tier statuses?

Considering how difficult it is to fly at the moment (both in terms of restrictions and fewer flights) I guess a lot of people will have difficulties maintaining status.

Nick Art

I was about to ask the same thing!

While personally I have enough trips just on hold to get to diamond this year, I'm not sure I'll be able to or even want to take them. Another gifted year would be nice (especially if it counts fir LTG) or at least a reduction of points needed.

SKT-DK

As LTG I am personally more worried about points expiration, as we (in our household account) have a small chunk expiring this month.. Anybody heard anything on points expiry?

SK2751

I am really concerned about LTG. I am about 33Kpoints away from earning the final year of Gold, and only a few months left. Stuck in a place where SK does not fly anymore, and mileage runs don't really work for me. It would be a shame to loose so many good years of flying. A gap year in LTG would be very much welcomed.

CPH-Flyer

When is your qualifying period?

Nick Art

Chances are you are falling in to the qualification period that is being extended due to the pandemic (with the year counting towards LTG). That's the case if your period ends on or before April 30th 2021.

If you're still very close, maybe you can check out the Eurobonus points store and buy some basic points or trade some extra points towards basic points.

Furthermore you can write customer support and ask for the basic points for trips that were cancelled due to the pandemic! (That is even if you will be granted a status extension).

SK2751

I have time until end of July. I know ... there is still chance, but I do not see any traveling the next three months. SAS does not even serve my airport right now. I already had one year "gifted" but technically it was not an LTG year, because I already qualified for gold by then (so basically my EBD has been extended without me reaching the required earning.

fassy

Well, I'm in a similar kind of boat. Last year, I did qualify for Gold with the trips done in Q4 19 and Q1 2020 but this qualifying year so far.... 0 flights. I do have until September 21 for getting 23k points for my 10th year. And even though, that is quite some time.... I don't see me traveling anywhere on business in the next 6 months. Not sure what happens after.

And with the current restrictions, doing mileage runs ranks quite low on the things I want to do. But probably I have to schedule a couple of refundable Plus trips for Q3.

Anyway, I'm a bit concerned EuroBonus and the LTG promise will survive this crisis.

Nick Art

Did you have any flights last year, but in your qualification period, that were cancelled due to the pandemic? As mentioned in my above post you can have those basic points credited by writing to customer support. I haven't flown a single mile since Sep 2019 and I still got 70k extra points on Eurobonus for the current qualification period for all the cancelled flights.

Have you looked in to buying points? I know you can buy a maximum of 10'000 basic points for ~1000 Euros or (and?) you can trade 100'000 extra points towards 10'000 basic points. The value is terrible, but if that's the only option...

As for mileage runs, if you two give me a home airport I can probably try to think of a suggestion maybe, but obviously with the current pandemic going on...

I'm expecting SAS to offer another gifted year or at least a reduction in threshold for the stati.

CPH-Flyer

Luckily SK does not require any SK flights to qualify, so you can do it by any Star Alliance carrier. Though KL is not really the center of *A activity. And anyway Asia is not very conductive for travel right now, the borders are effectively shut most places and have been throughout. Even transit has been closed in Singapore and Hong Kong, and quite tricky in Bangkok. Europe at least had some freedom of movement over last summer.

I do wonder if SK is going to do anything.

fassy

None... I usually book a week or two in advance. All my trips were cancelled before I even bought a ticket

Well, having over 400k points on the balance (since they also cancelled my NH F awards *grrrr*), I can for sure get 10k points. I think you can even buy 15k towards Gold status plus 20k from AMEX, plus 12k from Master Card makes 47k . So I could buy LTG.

I can do CPH, AGH or MMX. But it is rather I don't really like the idea of sitting on a metal tube with a mask for extended period of time and walk though almost closed airports while spending then money and time on it. so, your suggestion of buying the points might be much more favorable. I guess I'll wait until Q3 to see what develops.


Well, that would be the obvious best option

SKT-DK

On points expiry, I got a reply saying pretty much tough luck, and their suggestion was that I could just spend my expiring points either before expiry (they don't serve BKK and cannot book Star Alliance awards - and even if I could, Thailand's borders are closed) or, a more insulting response - I could just book a flight for someone else...!

So much for customer service..

SK2751

Buying basic points is a good idea. I have almost 100k extra points that I can reserve for this. Together with CC bonuses it will earn about a 13-14K basic points without me flying. This is very good. The less I need to fly, and later I can start, my chances are better. Of course unless they cancel LTG altogether ... This way I need to fly out only about 20 Kpoints. In a regular year this would not be a problem for me at all, but this year is nothing but regular. Right now flying to DK requires a negative test within the last 24 hours, which makes milage runs complicated. Getting there once and doing domestic runs is an option but doing 20K points on domestic flights is really slow, and as someone wrote here, I do not really find the perspective of flying fun right now.

I will plan for buying points and start to worry in 2-3 months, hoping that flying options are better.

PS. I am not really in KL (not that it matters, but it looks nice on the profile)

Nick Art

When buying points: Keep in mind that they are posted with a date of 150 days before your purchase, so you could even buy them after your qualification period has expired.


Bad news: It's not possible to buy or transfer extra to basic points currently. The website just says that the service will be available again in early 2021... And you'd think they'd need the additional revenue from selling basic points especially in the current times...

SASegments

The online shopping site has also been closed down since before Christmas I believe making it impossible to get extra points from shopping.