Duh on my part , but does that mean 100% bonus , meaning double bis miles , or just full mileage. I am in similar situation A3 blue, with 6k after my May trip and would like to
do a mileage run to get Gold from NYC preferably
Also do the 20K had to be done in 1 calendar year ?
Thanks
Full mileage.
Once you hit "Blue" (i.e. Silver), the miles you flew to earn it become "locked" and no longer expire. For example, let's say you have 3,000 miles (including the signup bonus), and you take a flight of 2,500 miles (a single flight, not multiple flights adding up to that amount); all the miles up to (and including) the final flight that earned you Blue - i.e. all 5,500 miles - will not expire. The remaining 14,500 miles, though, have to be earned within a year of each other (i.e. you can wait a year after earning Blue before going for Gold, but once you do start collecting miles on A3 again, each batch of new miles will expire a year after the flight that earned them). This process repeats itself: once you hit Gold, those 20k will never expire, and you are (technically) Gold for life.
So why do we say "3-4 years"? Because elsewhere in the T&Cs, there is a requirement to keep your account
active. If you post no miles to your account within a specified time frame (24 months for Blue, 36 months for Gold) then you don't "lose the status"; you lose your entire account due to inactivity, which effectively takes the status down with it.
Hope this clears things up a bit. When I have time, I will IY"H write up a wiki with all the details.
