dinbangkok

So with my Gold having lapsed in July I'm back up to 49,580 qualifying miles so far in 2011. Experience tells me not to rely on flexibility on the part of ROP and to try and do a short mileage run before New Years Eve. What do you think? I've emailed ROP but am not optimistic based on past performance!

anaidross

My mother missed by 200 points to hit silver, so i tried my luck with ROP. They turned us down.

I would just make a short flight. They may be kind to give it to you. But do you really want to risk it since you are so close?

hgp

Take a short flight ;-)

jiejie

Definitely don't depend on good will, do the flight.

dinbangkok

yes i think it's better safe than sorry... now to just find a flight which is not outrageously expensive. in theory i'd do a domestic uk flight... but it's difficult to tell from the thai website whether these fares are eligible... as on bmi it doesn't seem possible to distinguish bmi baby from bmi fares... any suggestions welcome :-)

anaidross

If you are in Manchester, you could consider flying with SQ to Munich (Besides the super saver fares, I think everything else will qualify). If not, you could just get a LH ticket to fly to continental Europe.

For these two airlines, the ROP web-site fortunately clearly states which booking classes qualify for mileage accruals.

dinbangkok

I emailed ROP a couple of days ago and they replied saying they'd look into it. I checked my account today and was happily surprised to see I'd been pushed back up to Gold! So I guess a long history of Gold (which lapsed in July) combined with a few recent C class fares helped them make the decision. I guess there are people at ROP making independent strategic decisions after all!

Merry Christmas all :-)

SimonSyd

Seems TG are flexible this year. My reassessment due end December and am currently on 48450 qualifying miles in 2011. Checked ROP account this morning and gold status extended to Dec 2013
Had planned to credit my HKG - SIN - SYD on SQ on Dec 30th to ROP to get me safely over the line!

anaidross

congratulations...

behuman

Good for you and you deserve it because as a correct person you planned a flight to be on the safe side on the 30 December.

However this "flexibiity" (I would call it unjustified lenience) is penalizing all people flying the correct mileage. Less *gold members mean less crowded lounges and better service and upgrades for those remaining.

But I am afraid that 2012 will be a big pruning year .

dinbangkok

So in your opinion should it be 50k or nothing? In my case I'd been ROP *G for many years, travelling 50k+ per year but because of a temporary travel lapse in 2010, I screwed up re-qualification in July 2011. A little hiccup as I was back to 49,580 by December (most of which was gained from travelling TG C), and as I said in my post I too had planned an additional mileage run (and told ROP to this effect). From a customer relationship point of view I think it makes absolute sense for ROP to exercise discretion and have a little bit of flexibility where it makes business sense in terms of encouraging customer spend!

behuman

I agree with you that longtime customers should be rewarded with flexibility, but believe this should be transparent and published for all of us to have the benefit of it. This flexibility could be in the form of +/- 5000 miles to make up during the next qualification cycle. Otherwise correct people same yourself could be tempted to engage in an useless mileage run while others benefit of
unclear lenience. Fair enough TG told you clearly that you are OK while you approched them.

It is important that the *alliance gold level is kept up as ultimately some airlines giving away the status too easily make it worthless for the real frequent flyers.

dinbangkok

That's a fair point you make about the need to keep up standards vs. the need to avoid pointless mileage runs by regular flyers for a handful of miles. I'm also guessing that this is a big challenge for TG as I'm hoping that when they make these judgement calls they do so on an individual basis, based on long term revenue from that passenger. I'd like to think that had I been a 'newbie' or hardly flying on eligible TG flights, that they would be less flexible (even accounting for the fact that the 480 miles I was lacking is less than even the minimum mileage on a domestic flight). I'm guessing that had I been short at the 80k mark rather than 50k mark it might have been more difficult. Incidentally, had they taken account of mileage I'd completed in December 2010 I would have handsomely exceeded the 50k mark. I wonder whether 'windows' of miles to be made up the next year would cause too large a fluctuation in members, not to mention would be difficult to manage.

Anyway, thankfully what is done is done. My flying levels are back to what they once were and I sincerely hope I don't have a repeat of my last Star Alliance trip where my client was paying for an economy trip and I was banished from the lounge and priority boarding on full flights back and forth to the US from the UK! At least the ground staff prioritised my baggage on both legs, but that's another story probably best told by my heavily travelled suitcase complete with battered gold tags