Missing status re-qualifying due to COVID-19 grounding

We've been grounded until further notice. Understood and comfortable with the decision.

I've traditionally re-qualified for VA Platinum at around month 10 of the qualifying period and the current rate of infections suggests it may be around for some time and I may simply not make the cut off this year.

Is dropping to Gold terrible? No. And I feel for the airlines, hotels and restaurants experiencing a significant drop in revenue as many corporates stay home.

What are readers thoughts on being able to retain status if just short due to COVID-19?

QF and VA may choose not to grant an extension like some of the hotels have, the high value status runs all appear to route through countries that are also grappling with how to control the spread of the virus and we can no longer stockpile toilet paper to boost VA SC through Fly Buys...

Its not just international, our company just stopped all non essential travel even domestically, no management or sales meetings etc, and I know many other businesses in the same boat, so it will be interesting to see who offers something first in regards to status retention. The other side to it all is how many companies might reflect after it has all settled down and decide that the travel undertaken previously is not required anyway, that may be a bigger concern for airlines.

My way of thinking for Virgin Platinum vs Gold is simple. Will you use your: 4 complementary upgrades (from Flex to Biz); Guaranteed international reward seat (4 people, round trip, booked 6 months out); and economy x seats (starts at $30pp/ey normally).

If your answer is yes to all then you need to work out how much you are willing to spend to maintain these benefits.

If you only have say 400 Status to maintain your Platinum: create an excel spread sheet and do some calculations (price for flight fare type X/status earned for flight in fare class X) then find the cheapest rate to maintain your platinum. Remember you will earn more value per point by buying a more expensive ticket than a getaway fare, and normally you will earn more points by taking two flights vs nonstop say MEL-BNE-CNS vs MEL-CNS.

If you find out that say the best rate from your home city is 10 $/per status and you need 400 points. Is spending $4,000 more dollars' worth the extra benefits (4 complementary upgrades, Guaranteed international reward seat and economy x seats)?

If so travel and get the points, if not Gold you still get priority check-in/baggage/standby/boarding, Lounge access (plus 1 guest) and more.

It really depends on you how much is platinum worth to you for the extra benefits?

Yes, had flights re-routed which meant fewer SC and now had them cancelled. I appreciate health must over ride all, but it is a shame when you have watched yourself go from just requalifying to just missing.

I think there's an excellent point made here that has been slightly missed in a lot of the travel related commentary on the CoVid challenges. Many businesses will almost certainly reflect on the financial and operational impact of travel and look to reduce this going forward to avoid the implications of what goes wrong when it doesn't happen. The reality is that a significant amount of business travel is not as essential as many of us think. And a fair proportion of it is taken by occasional business travellers who often see it as a “perk” or at least not as wearisome as many of the VERY frequent flyers who are contributors here may find it (speaking personally, the enthusiasm for the amount of travel undertaken has dimmed markedly in the last couple of years).

The above also doesn't recognise the increasing importance that businesses need to attach to the optics of environmental footprint. I dare say that many will see this as a chance not to automatically return the level of corporate flying back to previous levels

I've just overqualified to get back to Qantas Platinum after 2 years getting a start up to scale up (it's good to be back...).

It will be interesting to see how Qantas handles this, will Virgin survive (?), how quickly will biz travel recover once the rogue/slack countries get their act together?

Much liked United, I don't foresee Qantas (and perhaps Virgin) extending the statuses of travellers who will miss out/get dropped to a lower status. I'm currently gold and I don't see myself re-qualifying this year with the drop in travel, and I know platinum members who have the same issue.

It would be in the interest of those airlines to help delay it by 6 months or a year, but I just don't see it happening.

Remember, FF Miles are a liability on the balance sheet and a side benefit for those who earn them. When airlines are having a tough time (with Covid the airlines still have the sunk costs in assets and facilities), they may not be that sympathetic about the side benefits, no matter what we travelers think. We'd be asking them to take on more carrying cost for the liability and admin cost in setting up systems to handle roll-overs.

I hope it doesn't, but what happens if it is 12 to 18 months before people stat traveling again. Should Qantas extend the April renewal for a client for one or two years, just so they can requalify?