Many airlines loyalty programmes offer lifetime status for their most frequent flyers. All your years of flying accrue and you can hold your status forever. It sounds wonderful really!
Qantas in Australia have lifetime Silver (oneworld Ruby) for 7,000 status credits, and lifetime Gold (oneworld Sapphire) for 14,000 status credits. Another example is British Airways who offer lifetime Gold (in their case, oneworld Emerald) for those who accumulate 35,000 tier points.
Becoming an Expat and Changing Programmes
People who move to another country are faced with a bit of a dilemma. Do you stay with the programme you have always used or do you switch to the one in your new country? Usually it is very beneficial to change to the programme of the new country as perks for flyers of the home airline are higher than that of flying other alliance airlines.
British Airways are that alternative, which I am sure comes as a huge surprise to regular readers!
I Want My Lifetime Credit Transferred!
With Qantas, I have 3,999 lifetime credits accrued which means I am well on my way to lifetime Silver. At British Airways I have 4,490 lifetime credits which means I am a long, long way away from lifetime Gold.
Clearly it would make no sense to be able to transfer between airlines in different alliances. Transferring between airlines of the same alliance may be a great idea. Some kind of mathematical formula could be devised to ensure there is no benefit to earning in one airline and transferring to another.
Overall Thoughts
Transferring anything between airlines frequent flyer programmes in the same alliance is generally not done. That is understandable however those who move countries should be able to transfer their lifetime credit if both airlines offer that. It would certainly suit me! Have you had this problem yourself?
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Still trying to figure it all out! Living in Ireland, Aer Lingus seems to make the most sense BUT, until they joined oneworld, they had the worst frequent flyer program. I have miles sitting in United, JetBlue, Delta, BA, Emirates AND American! Just sitting there…..
Yep, just faced this dilemma recently when moving to Singapore.
Unfortunately, lack of flexibility means that I had to forego my THY miles & smiles to start over with Krisflyer.
Same thing with Qantas, where I lost my Enrich miles.
It would make a lot of sense if we could transfer miles with airlines from the same alliance. I’d be willing to accept a depreciation if it means not losing all the miles altogether.