timrousbeastie

Has your lifetime gold counter updated yet?
I would have hit LTG after March 31 after 9 straight years as gold/diamond, but I did not earn a single status point in my 10th qualifying year due to COVID. LTG was not worth the risk of catching or spreading the virus, but I am hopeful that my LTG status will get extended by a year based on the e-mail from SAS in the fall.

CPH-Flyer

Still zero years in LTG status

CPH-Flyer

Well, June will not happen on SK. The schedule was updated, and all Haneda flights were removed. July is now set as 3 flights a week, and August as a bit less than 3 flights a week, so there is reason to assume that the schedule might happen. So far they have just been zeroing it a stretch in to the future, and then left the following months at daily. So it could seem that this time around there was some thinking behind the update. But let's see.

fassy

Still zero flights in 14 months

GUWonder

Ouch.

Any possibility to take advantage of the current seasonal promotion for fast track status acquisition/retention from taking SAS flights in April-June?

I get the sense that some of the airlines in which I dabble are not going to be doing status extensions like they were earlier and instead try to go more into this kind of "fast track" promotions for acquiring/retaining status later this year. And SAS will likely go down the cheap route. That is even as I think there are other ways to drive up revenue and keep their *S and *G base members more likely to come back both sooner and more to SAS now and even next year.

fassy

Well, 95% of my travel was on business. And that died down 100%. Even if I'm willing to travel my customers don't want me to come. "Oh, let's do a remote meeting"... can't stand that Skype/Zoom/Webex Interface anymore. I'm fed up. And at the same time you have 250% of work load, since things I could easily fix on-site in a few hours now needs to be documented, explained over a teleconference, tested, documented, discussed over a teleconference... on and on and on....

And on the 5% private travel... where should I go to enjoy time? I have absolutely no desire to fly to Greece, Spain, Italy or somewhere else, need to do Covid tests, wear a mask and then can't even enjoy those places since a lot of it is locked down or severely restricted. Haven't even seen my family in Germany for over a year since all the BS quarantine restrictions.

I might book a mileage run using the 4x basic point promo to retain status and secure LTG. But honestly, don't see me traveling regularly in 2021 anywhere... don't believe the world will open up bevor mid-2022.

Yeah, I think they won't extend the status any longer. And that is pitty since they extended it for people where the qualifying period ends in August... mine ends in September

nussle

In reality I have some luck here, I am almost upto gold this year again as my work did not disappear.

But, you really missed nothing. All the airlines dropped down a notch, no lounge (apart from TK) was serving any hot food and none had any alcohol. The flights themselves were miserable with constant requests to wear your mask. If the airline you flew was already at the bottom of the pile (like SAS) it just got even worse.

But, from a points perspective I have easily kept my gold rating.

My biggest problem is what to do with the points, flying is such a miserable affair now I dont really want to do any flights to any long haul destinations. I hate being constantly woken up (five or six times per flight) to tell me to put my mask back on (it slips during sleep). Add in the security and the bare lounges and what was once pleasent has become just horrible. I used to sleep easily on the flights but now I just have to try to stay awake or be woken up every so often.....I arrive at destination generally pissed off.

Another PCR test is not really something I look forward to either, it just adds to the general feeling of misery in what used to be a wonderful adventure.

If this is what we have to look forward to then thanks but vacations using aircraft will be so terrible nobody but the young will be so silly to do it.

Yep, I kept my status, I flew all year and all last and got gold using all economy flights but take my word for it...you missed nothing and unless things somehow go back to how they were then trying to get me on a plane for a vacation will be very difficult.

JR67

I feel your pain!

I just now booked my first flight in over a year! I last stepped off a plane BCN-CPH on Feb 1 2020. I will get on my next plane April 30 2021. For someone who has been EBD for a long time this is very, very strange. But I need 13k to hit gold, and SK doesn't seem to care about extending us anymore despite ridiculously high prices and frequent cancellations, so... 7500 status points MMX-ARN-MMX gets me more than half way to gold - I suppose I can kiss diamond goodbye, but at least stay on track for LTG.

Anyone want to report on experiences in TATL J? I will probably be popping over for a visit before my Mastercard Premium bonus stops letting me fly round trip in J for 60k points...

fassy

Yeah, traveling being that miserable made me skip out even at times I might have had the option.

jerrythegreat12

Just for update, my extend year has arrived automatically, free 45 flight segments, stated in my LTG page.

CPH-Flyer

When is your qualifying period? Mine is March to February, but still LTG count is not updated.

timrousbeastie

Same question! Mine is April-March and this would have been my final year towards LTG. Thanks for your answer, CPH-Flyer. I can definitely relate: I work from home in Florida for a company based in Belgium where my colleagues are not even allowed to show up at the office without advance permission from our CEO. I had booked SAS Plus flights to Europe in September, December, and March but had to cancel all of them because circumstances made it near impossible. I really hope SAS at least extends the LTG status for members like you and I since we've been completely screwed by the calendar year. I just got vaccinated and already have my next trip booked for July, but that's not going to help as my qualification year expired March 31. I've been diamond for 5 years since it was introduced and have easily spent $10K+/year on SAS metal for the past 10 years except for the last. I even lost $3K on a last minute ticket that I had to book on March 13th, 2020, to get back to the US after Trump suddenly announced his travel ban without notice (I had a valid return ticket (C) on March 15 on a flight that SAS told me was cancelled but ended up not being cancelled after all).
If I don't get my LTG extended, I honestly can't see myself flying SAS ever again.

CPH-Flyer

I have actually been flying a fair bit during the pandemic, and I could probably have thrown in a requalification for EBG, but as SK said they would extend with LTG effect i focused on Oneworld, as it for various reasons made sense to actually qualify with JAL rather than being extended. Had I needed the EBGi had probably taken the extension from JAL and had my SK EBG as well.

SK is on the hook for this one. They have stated very clearly that it should count. For me it is more a question of when I start chasing them. Should be for you as well. The amount of effort needed my affect my loyalty to star alliance, though admittedly it is already pretty low, due to the overall JAL experience.

Nick Art

While all of my travel is leisure I do feel with you, especially regarding your detest for online meetings. I'm forced to study at university remotely and I hate it so much. I can't stand the zoom interface anymore. Not to mention that in my Teaching Assistant positions having to give lessons online is really not the same thing...

Not to mention the immense negative mental effects this has had on all students. Mental student wellbeing is pretty much inexistent currently our surveys have shown.

And despite having no more commuting to do I feel I'm stressed more and have actually less time while still not achieving as much work as I did pre pandemic.

This exactly. For me personally it wasn't justifiable to travel anywhere in this pandemic. I know a lot of people who just went F--- it and traveled all over the place mid second wave without any regard to the pandemic. (The same people who berate me for flying to much, go figure). I'm really hoping thing improve with the vaccine in the coming months. New York in June might even be reasonably possible!
Still not sure about Singapore and Hong Kong in September or Japan in February 2022.

If they indeed do not extend status I am royally screwed as there is really no feasible mileage run for me to do (unless things improve).

But have faith, I think they might extend it until early/mid 2022. I don't think it justifiable to expect a Gold status achieving travel in just one more month compared to the extended status holders.


My last flight was on 12th September 2019... SK1605 ARN-ZRH.

GUWonder

I am hopefully flying SK back home this coming week, but I'm still not sure if I'll cancel/reschedule my mileage-earning ticket and take the trip instead with a mileage ticket.

I have to make sure to not end up infected with Covid-19 or otherwise ending up as positive case with Covid-19 since I need a negative test result to fly back to the US.