(upbeat music)
- Hello, my name is Tom Otley.
I'm the editorial director
of Business Traveller
and welcome to the latest of our videos
during this time of pandemic.
Today we're looking at the
subject of what the airlines
are doing to help you retain
status and keep your Miles
during a time when of course
you can't do much flying.
Right, let's start off with Aer Lingus.
Aer Lingus has offered 350 tier points
to Concierge tier members
200 points to Platinum,
100 points to Silver
and 25 points to Green.
Aeroflot has extended elite
level status for members
of the Aeroflot bonus
frequent flyer program
through until the end of February 2022.
American Airlines at the
time of recording this,
hasn't decided what it's going to do.
That will probably change because
the other two big US
carriers, Delta and United
have as well as we're about to hear,
so please go to the website
if you want to know about American.
British Airways, well at the
moment, what they've said is,
"We are writing to impacted
executive club members
"to let them know that we'll be lowering
"all tier point thresholds by 30%
"for all members due for
renewal in April, May and June."
it means that those members will retain
their status for another year,
regardless of any flying activity.
They've also got a lot of information
about gold upgrade vouchers
and companion vouchers,
and the trick there is
to go to our website,
you'll be able to read about it,
and then follow the links
through to find out even more.
Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong flag carrier
is offering what it's
calling relief points
for Marco Polo Club members
in February, March and April 2020.
I'm sure this will be then continued
as this pandemic continues.
How it is worded at the moment
is Diamond gets 140 points,
Gold 65 points and Silver 30 points
and if your membership is
expiring in February or March,
additional club points will
be credited to your account.
Moving on to Delta, Delta was the first
of the major US airlines
to announce its policy
and basically what it's done is extended
tier status for members of SkyMiles.
So SkyMiles medallion members will enjoy
the same loyalty benefits throughout 2021
as they've enjoyed in 2020.
Now for Emirates, Emirates
has said the following
pertaining tier status, Emirates Skywards,
Silver, Gold and Platinum members
with a tier review date prior
to the 1st of March 2021
will retain their current
status for a further 12 months
with just 80% of the
usual travel requirements.
Now I'd imagine they're
gonna do something about that
because 80% of travel since at the moment,
they're not flying at all
and they're only gonna
have a gradual return to flying,
not many people are gonna make that 80%.
They've also said they're gonna
extend Miles validity because well,
you don't want those going out of date.
So they've extended the validity
until the end of this year.
It's Skyward Miles can be
redeemed up to 11 months
in advance for those rewards, but again,
I think that will change.
Etihad they've gifted a monthly bonus
tier miles from March 31st.
They're sharing that
with members at moment
but I haven't got further details
on that one unfortunately.
Finnair, Finnair Plus will have
their tier status automatically
extended for six months.
Singapore Airlines, now Singapore
as the airline has told us
that it's renewed to the membership
of selected KrisFlyer
Elite Silver, Elite Gold,
PPS and Solitaire PPS club
members for another year.
It means that these members
have membership validity periods,
ending in February and March 2020.
That will go now on to
February and March 2021.
United, all Mileage Plus members
who currently hold Premier,
Silver, Gold, Platinum
or one case status will
see their status extended
until January the 31st 2022.
And in addition, United
has reduced the thresholds
for reaching each status
level by 50% for 2021.
And then lastly Virgin Atlantic.
The airline has extended
both Silver and Gold tiers.
So Gold and Silver tier members need
to earn 1000 tier points for
Gold and 400 tier for Silver
to maintain their status for another year.
These members will have an
additional six months to do so.
There's also a voucher
extension for Virgin Atlantic.
Great, well, that's it, as I say,
that's actually the edited highlights
of what we've got in terms of information.
So if you want to know about
some of the other airlines,
some of the Middle East
carriers in particular,
we've got all that
information on the website,
so please do head over there.
If you've got any questions,
do send them through
and we'll address them.
We've got some videos coming
up where we're talking
to experts about what
the airlines are doing.
So if you've got any questions for them,
please do let me know.
Let me know whether you
want the suit, the tie,
no tie or go back to casual as well.
At least then I'll know you've watched
till the end of this video.
Until next time, thanks very much.
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