Questions and Answers

I think in light of Covid-19 the major airlines should give an extension of our hard earned elite status through 2021. My husband and I have missed several high mile personal and business trips and there is no end in sight.

Has anyone considered reaching out to the airlines?

I tried Delta which I am a Platinum Member and my husband is Gold. It’s nearly impossible to make Diamond Status now. Our rollover miles certainly won’t make it this year.

We are currently in California and Shelter in Place rules are keeping us from traveling anywhere.

[QUOTE=”Elite Status, post: 69052″]I think in light of Covid-19 the major airlines should give an extension of our hard earned elite status through 2021. My husband and I have missed several high mile personal and business trips and there is no end in sight.

Has anyone considered reaching out to the airlines?

I tried Delta which I am a Platinum Member and my husband is Gold. It’s nearly impossible to make Diamond Status now. Our rollover miles certainly won’t make it this year.

We are currently in California and Shelter in Place rules are keeping us from traveling anywhere.[/QUOTE]

I think the airlines have their hands full trying to accommodate rebookings, cancellations, etc. I’m not sure reaching out about this right now will do any good. The airlines know this is an issue, and are working on plans.

I saw – but can’t find now – a Tweet from JonNYC (who is usually pretty knowledgeable) that AA will allow SWUs that would expire Jan 31, 2021 to be extended for everyone as long as booked by Jan. 31 (which was the old, unofficial policy until about 3 years ago). That is just one example.

The US3 are all on calendar years, so there is no incentive to announce changes now. And the airlines have no idea when things will even return to a fraction of normal – what would they announce now? Fly half the miles to maintain status? 25%? Or just extend everyone for 2021?

For more resources check out:
[URL]https://thepointsguy.com/guide/airline-elite-status-coronavirus/[/URL]

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Here is Lucky’s post on this:
[URL]https://onemileatatime.com/airlines-extend-elite-status/[/URL]

And check out ViewFromTheWing on why airlines won’t do anything yet (see the Game Theory section):
[URL]https://viewfromthewing.com/should-airlines-extend-elite-status-now-due-coronavirus-or-run-status-promotions-later/[/URL]

So far, Best Western is the only rewards program I’ve seen that has already announced they are extending to 2022 for all elites.

I think that will be the case across the board, but just need patience. A good precedent has been set. I imagine Best Western was able to do this early because they don’t have hundreds of thousands of people to reaccomodate first.