New Year's Eve resets the accounts (and statuses) of all frequent travelers
As in the forest, where every morning the gazelle wakes up and already knows that it will have to run away from the lion, so the [...]
Just as in the forest, where every morning the gazelle wakes up and already knows that he will have to run from the lion, so on January 1 of each year the serial accumulator of points and miles wakes up knowing that he will have to start his chase for renewal of airline and hotel chain statuses all over again.
In this article:
First thing to do, know the rules
In the game of reward travel, we have written it several times, it is important to be familiar with the rules of each individual loyalty program. In fact, not all point collection programs have January 1 as their zero date. For example. British Airways Executive Club or the program Flying Blue by Air France and KLM use as day zero the date of enrollment in the program by the user, as if it were a birthday, so each enrollee has his or her own expiration date of points and status. Others, however, such as Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy reset everything at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve for all members and status holders.
The second thing to keep in mind is. status expiration is not the same as points, these two factors travel on parallel but distinct tracks. Status expires every year, while for points it depends from program to program. It is very good, therefore, to mark these two dates in your calendar so as not to lose a single point on the way. In addition, there are programs that make all points expire on a specific date, regardless of when they were earned, while others make points expire after 24/36 months that they have been earned. Still others cancel everything after a long period of inactivity. There are so many variables, which is why it is always best to double check.
Second, establish the new goals
Did you get your flight cancelled, miss your connection, land late?
You could get up to 600€ compensation per person
In this game, it is essential Know your limits and the goals you want to achieve. This means not fishing in the heap or chasing every chance, but carefully choosing strategies to shoot like a sniper at the amusement park and take home the teddy bear as a souvenir.
Losing a status in a company/alliance that you are not going to use in the next 12 to 24 months is not a tragedy at all, especially if you think your next trips will be on other companies/alliances. The same is true for hotels, but also for the choice of all the loyalty programs that you can use in your daily spending at the supermarket, gas station, or electricity provider.
What's new in 2022
Many programs have maintained facilitated levels also for next year's renewals, this in light of the uncertainties still reigning in the travel world. Almost All loyalty programs renewed their statuses ex officio. for the current year for the same reasons.
The year 2022 will be remembered as the year when physical loyalty cards virtually disappeared, replaced permanently by digital ones, and for the gadget collectors like me is not good news.
The year 2022 for Italians will also mark the debut of the program Flying, the new frequent flyer of Ita Airways. The new Alitalia had set December 31, 2021 as the start date for phase 2, a date pushed back to February 28, 2022. It is obvious that the flag carrier's loyalty program will be at the center of many reward travelers' strategies, however we still have to wait to know in detail all its features.
In conclusion
On this site we try to keep up to date all the information of the main loyalty programs that can be used in Italy, the offers that allow you to accumulate more points and facilitate status renewal, because that's the beauty of reward travel: getting free benefits without spending a euro more than you normally spend.
