What's "wasted" or "excess" about them?

TPs measure how much flying you've done in a particular membership year. You earn a year's Gold* in every membership year in which your flying amounts to 1,500 TPs or more. You don't earn a year's Gold for every 1,500 TPs flown. They're not intended to measure how much flying you did in one year plus the year before and/or the year before that etc; and they say nothing about how much flying you're going to do in the year to come.

*Ignoring for present purposes the extra time given to those who are promoted to Gold.

It does feel a bit harsh you can do 2800 points worth of flying in a single month, and still be stuck at silver, but that's a pretty contrived example.

36 months for account activity sounds reasonable. AE is only 12 months, so 3 years sounds excellent. So once the points are earned, its stays in the account forever as long as the account has activity?

I know that AE had a 7 year expiry rule, if the points are not used, they completely disappear from the account forever.. which has since been abolished, but I need to ask the question about BA. When an AE account is dormant for more than 12 months, it costs 1 cent per point to restore back to health. BA probably follows the same premise?

Anyways, huge learning curve within the last 24 hours as I'm trying to get up to speed what this program can mean for our travels. I'm also trying to figure out whether the Marco Polo Gold benefit offered for Canadian American Express Platinum holders is worth obtaining and when.. My biggest question is frequent flyer redemption with AS, if the CX gold benefit will result in upgrades? I'm thinking not, but would be nice if it did..

There is no long term expiry if the account is active, and there is no way to re-activate expired points.

CX Gold will not help on AS, but can be useful on oneworld airlines as it gives oneworld Sapphire status including lounge access. On BA this includes free seat selection.

I agree, but that's a different issue from the bleat to which I was responding that earned TPs over 600 or 1,500 are "wasted" at the end of the membership year. They're not, as they've done the job that they're there to do.

Ouch:-:

So if the account is inactive and the points expire, then its sayonara forever.

Ok.. still trying to figure out if I obtained this Marco Polo Gold status, whether or not I can use it at all? Probably doesn't seem like it, unless I change my travel habits quite a bit. But AA, is part of oneworld which would recognize the status. Does AA, fly to HI quite a bit.. but can't use Avios on AA, or can you?

Yes you can use Avios to book award flights on any oneworld carrier. Please read the threads I've linked, the majority of your questions in all your threads are in them.

Of course you can. Both AA and BA are in oneworld.

I hardly say I was "Bleating".

So your membership year ends tomorrow and the new one starts the day after.

Globaliser is right that they've done their job, but I fully see where you're coming from seeing that nice comfortable balance vanish down to a zero is a bit of a let down. I feel the same way every August, an dead reaching the end of September with just 220, thinking "will I even keep gold this year, let alone get GGL"

Will be back up to 800 by the end of October though, once I'm in 4 figures I'll be "happy". It is a little addictive.

However at least you've got the lifetime tp to now follow, that just keeps going up.

I signed up two nights ago, and didn't see any reward availability on the Avios website.

Was talking to my journalist friend today, and he says I need to call in or change the filters on the website to see availability. Its a bit weird that I can't see availability on the website. I tried to play with different filters, but unsuccessful so far.

And.. CX gold won't be good for AS, but I assume it will be recognized with AA since it is part of Oneworld.

Err... no. I would stop listening to this person. There are no "filters" stopping you seeing award availability.

BA's award search doesn't work well with partner flights involving connections. Search for each leg individually or use AA.com and look for MileSAAver (not AAnytime) awards.

And yes CX Gold means nothing on AS but gives oneworld Sapphire benefits on oneworld airlines.

I agree. Between this and what you posted yesterday, this journalist seems to be spectacularly badly informed about the Avios scheme.Here's how to test it. Go to the AA site and look for an award that's available at the lower (saver) rate on a single sector AA flight (no connections). Then go to the BA site and search for exactly the same award. It should show up.

If it still doesn't, post the details of what you've been searching for and we can see whether something appears to be wrong.