Earlier this year KrisFlyer announced that it would be extending elite status for 12 months. Now they have announced a Renewal Support Scheme to help members extend their status next year as well.
The current round of one-year extensions will continue until February 2021. At that point, members with a membership expiry date in February will have their elite status extended for 12 months.
From March 2021, the Renewal Support Scheme will kick in, making it easier for members to retain status for a further year,
Renewal Support Scheme
Under the Renewal Support Scheme, KrisFlyer will gift members half of the Elite Miles required to renew their membership tier. Looking at it another way, this means you will only need to earn half as many elite miles as you normally would need to requalify.
This recognises that many people will not be returning to their previous level of flying for some time.
The number of bonus Elite Miles you receive will be based on your current status. If you are KrisFlyer Silver, you will be gifted 12,500 Elite Miles. On the other hand, a KrisFlyer Gold member would receive 25,000 Elite Miles.
The gifts also apply to PPS members. However, in this case, the gift will take the form of PPS value. Again, it will be half of the usual requirement.
Timing
You will receive the bonus gift based on your membership year. The gift will find its way into your account so that it can be used to assist in retaining status in the appropriate year.
For those that have already had the one-year extension applied, the bonus will be in your account on the following schedule.
| Tier renewal end-date (as of 8 Sept 2020): | Bonus Elite miles credited by: |
| 31 March 2021 | 31 October 2020 |
| 30 April 2021 | 30 November 2020 |
| 31 May 2021 | 31 December 2020 |
| 30 June 2021 | 31 January 2021 |
| 31 July 2021 | 28 February 2021 |
| 31 August 2021 | 31 March 2021 |
Some members have not had their one-year extension applied at this point. Those members can expect to see the bonus in their accounts based on the following schedule
| Tier renewal end-date (at 8 Sept 2020):
(before 1-year automatic renewal) |
Tier renewal end-date in the following year (after 1-year automatic renewal) |
Bonus Elite miles credited by: |
| 30 September 2020 | 30 September 2021 | 30 April 2021 |
| 31 October 2020 | 31 October 2021 | 31 May 2021 |
| 30 November 2020 | 30 November 2021 | 30 June 2021 |
| 31 December 2020 | 31 December 2021 | 31 July 2021 |
| 31 January 2021 | 31 January 2022 | 31 August 2021 |
| 28 February 2021 | 28 February 2022 | 30 September 2021 |
Thoughts
The coronavirus pandemic has certainly wreaked havoc on the travel industry. This has caused any number of challenges in retaining status. Fortunately, most programs have put in place some mechanisms to help members retain their status.
It has become clear though, that the initial strategies put in place several months ago were not enough. While those initial strategies were often a simple extension, the later rounds have been a bit more sophisticated. For the most part, giving you a helping hand in renewing, but you still need to do some of the work.
We have seen a similar strategy from Qantas with is Status Credit boosts. Hotels programs have also taken similar measures.
I suspect the current pandemic still has some time to run, so there will likely be more announcements from various programs