Odd: maintaining EY Guest Gold status

[Jack_OC]

Just received my renewed EY Guest Gold card today (almost 2 months after the last one expired!), and to my surprise it's only valid until next March (12 months from the previous expiry date).

I know 1 year validity of status is the norm for most FF programmes, but when you inititally attain EY Gold, it's valid for the rest of that calendar year, plus the next 2 full calendar years, plus 3 months. In my case, once I got to Gold it was valid for 2 years and 9 months.

It seems a bit odd that my "maintained" status is valid for just over 1/3 the length of time that my initial status was valid for. The website doesn't explain that this would be the case, so I'm not entirely sure if this is correct or not, but unfortunately I'm guessing it is. Anyone know for sure?

 

[repete]

Unfortunately I can't enlighten you any further on what the card says... I got granted Gold status at least 6 months ago now, and they suggest they've mailed a card to me 3 times and it has never arrived! Now if I ever get one it'll probably have a shortened life

 

[Jack_OC]

Yeah I had some difficulties getting my renewed gold card too, but I sent a fairly strongly worded email of complaint last week and they sent a new card by UPS within a couple of days. They even emailed me the tracking number to prove they'd sent it!

 

[Jack_OC]

Ps if you've just reached gold for the first time, I wouldn't worry too much about expiry, as it will be valid until March 2016!

 

[repete]

Yeah I had some difficulties getting my renewed gold card too, but I sent a fairly strongly worded email of complaint last week and they sent a new card by UPS within a couple of days. They even emailed me the tracking number to prove they'd sent it!

Well, after reading this forum in May I contacted Etihad and asked them about the possibility of posting out the card again and sending me tracking details etc. this time. I never heard from them... funnily enough my card arrived in the mail today - yay! Coincidence?!? Sad to say it says expires March '14 though. Has anyone chased this up at all?

 

[Jack_OC]

Well, after reading this forum in May I contacted Etihad and asked them about the possibility of posting out the card again and sending me tracking details etc. this time. I never heard from them... funnily enough my card arrived in the mail today - yay! Coincidence?!? Sad to say it says expires March '14 though. Has anyone chased this up at all?

Just to be clear, is this the first time you've reached Gold, or was this a requalification? If it's the first time you've got to Gold, the website is very clear about the fact that it is valid for the rest of that calendar year, plus 2 years, plus 3 months. So if you got there in 2012, it should be valid until Mar 2015, or if you got there since the start of this year, it should be valid until Mar 2016. See the following link: http://www.etihadairways.com/sites/...st/guestbenefits/Pages/EtihadGuestGold.aspx#2

Unfortunately, the website doesn't say how long status will be valid after requalification, so I assumed the rules were different and Mar 2014 in my case is correct. However, if you are newly qualified Gold and your card still expires in Mar 2014, then it seems there is definitely an error. If so, I will challenge mine too, so let me know.

 

[repete]

Well, mine was a status match... so not much room to complain! I had thought it may have been for the two years, but upon reading through the status match thread again, it seems others only got to the March 14 too. Never mind, hopefully get some good use from it!

 

[Zulaiha]

I have been re qualified twice now and all has been a year validity. Only the first one that has longer validity.

 

[Jack_OC]

I have been re qualified twice now and all has been a year validity. Only the first one that has longer validity.

Thanks for that info Zulaiha. Hard to understand EY's logic but anyway. I most likely won't re qualify again by Mar 14 so that will probably be the end of EY Guest as a useful programme for me.

 

[Zulaiha]

Thanks for that info Zulaiha. Hard to understand EY's logic but anyway. I most likely won't re qualify again by Mar 14 so that will probably be the end of EY Guest as a useful programme for me.

Jack3193, expect to get an email from EY sometime around Sept when they review members status. You probably will get a chance of about 3 months to get double or triple (can't remember) for any flights you take up to 31 Dec to help you to get re qualify. It happened to me before, but as I am not EY employee, I can not be sure if this kind of offer is still on and for all.

 

[tinkybelle]

when I qualified for elite G I received status till 2/15
I can't for the life of me figure what the requal period is
i have 45k status miles at present and am clueless as to when they stated and have to finish.
they used to have a diagram on how it works but that is gone.
not really worth maintaining as I advent ever got an UG to F from J but do get great recognition in the AUH F lounge but I see if i keep VA plat I get the same access anyway.

 

[Jack_OC]

when I qualified for elite G I received status till 2/15
I can't for the life of me figure what the requal period is
i have 45k status miles at present and am clueless as to when they stated and have to finish.
they used to have a diagram on how it works but that is gone.
not really worth maintaining as I advent ever got an UG to F from J but do get great recognition in the AUH F lounge but I see if i keep VA plat I get the same access anyway.

The requalification period is the calendar year before status expires, so the current calendar year in your case. Be warned though, your current Tier Miles balance will include any Tier Miles earned in the last 12 months, not just those in the current calendar year. You need to check your statement to see when you earned those miles. Only Tier Miles earned on or after 1 Jan 2014 will count towards your requalification.

BTW, I gave up on EY Guest at the start of this year as I didn't manage to maintain EY Gold. I started crediting everything to Velocity instead. I'm now Velocity Gold and will hit Platinum with my next VA domestic rtn flight. And since the rate limiting step for me to get to Platinum was eligible segments rather than SCs, I've been Family Pooling SCs to my wife for the past couple of months (since I hit 980 SCs). As a result, she has almost reached Velocity Gold too. If I had credited all of this flying to EY Guest instead, I wouldn't even have gotten back to Gold status yet! So I'm definitely glad I failed to requalify for EY Gold now, as it was the push I needed to switch to Velocity.