Gold vs Elite Recognition Upgrades

[Shamrock55]

Hi all,
On a flight last week my seatmate who was Elite told me when his 2 Gold recognition upgrades were "lost" when he achieved Elite and received 2 more. As in he thought he would have 4 in total after the new status but only had 2 if that makes sense.

Same is about to happen to me soon, so should I use my 2 gold recognition upgrades up now before I hit elite then I will receive another 2?

 

[NZflygirl]

Yes, when you move up a tier, if you haven't used your previous RU's you do lose them. I learned that when moving from Silver to Gold I'd actually lost the silver RU rather than gaining an extra RU moving from Silver to Gold where you get 2 RUs.

Anyway good news is you can still apply them to any trip up to 12 months (or however far in advance NZ's system goes) so effectively you have sort of 24 months to use them. You can call up and ask if R class for business or A class for PE is available and see if they can approve the RUs immediately. The down side is of course if your RU doesn't come through then you don't get the opportunity to reapply it if you've moved up a tier since you applied it.

You can use them to go from Y to BP i.e. they're stackable. Otherwise you just need to pick the route and hope for the best. I seem to have been lucky and RU's have come through for Asia (at check-in) and US (x3) pretty much immediately and short haul immediately. I don't think that's the norm but I'm not complaining.

Anyway in short yes, use your RU's now or at least apply them to a trip, and then you've got the 2 RU's and 1 short haul RU (good for the 5hr flights also e.g. ADL, PPT routes also to go Y to BP).

You'll also have the elite APD upgrades e.g. 100APD to upgrade Y to PE short haul or more for longer routes or the elite uplift if doing the one-ups. You can also buy APD to top up your balance for elite APD upgrades which should clear after elite RU's but before gold RU's.

Enjoy!

 

[Shamrock55]

Awesome thanks!

Will try use them up for PE to J on my next trip to Taipei via Hong Kong.