Aerlingus AerClub/Avios

ButtersSuki

ironclaw wrote: »

My bag came out last from YYZ even with a business tag on it. I was told by the EI baggage desk, as I assumed it was lost, that its to do with the way the plane is loaded (They had a term for it) and there is nothing they can do about it. Basically, having priority baggage with EI is complete nonsense in some airports.

L1011 wrote: »

With containerised baggage its more complicated to keep priority bags as actual priority; hard to ensure they are actually last in to what will be the first container out.

They were able to manage it perfectly fine in the old Gold Circle days - mind you, they had a priority carousel then.

I understand what you're saying but my two bags were checked in together and yet one came out very early and the other came out last.

I politely made a complaint on my way out to in the lounge re. the backlog of missing points/flights etc. (amongst other things). The lady in the lounge took my details and I was promised a call today when I returned by someone in complaints AND someone in AerClub (I flew out on a Sunday and both were closed). I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear I didn't get a call from either. :rolleyes:

billy few mates

ironclaw wrote: »

My bag came out last from YYZ even with a business tag on it. I was told by the EI baggage desk, as I assumed it was lost, that its to do with the way the plane is loaded (They had a term for it) and there is nothing they can do about it. Basically, having priority baggage with EI is complete nonsense in some airports.

Might be time for a strongly worded email to Aerclub....Er.... forget it....

L1011

ButtersSuki wrote: »

They were able to manage it perfectly fine in the old Gold Circle days - mind you, they had a priority carousel then.:

They had 737s and may not have used containers on the 32xs back then

trellheim

With containerised baggage its more complicated to keep priority bags as actual priority; hard to ensure they are actually last in to what will be the first container out.

Meh, thats what service is being offered though, surely ; they manage it with getting the passengers on and off

L1011

trellheim wrote: »

Meh, thats what service is being offered though, surely ; they manage it with getting the passengers on and off

Passengers generally put themselves where they're told to go, well roughly.

Priority bags with containerised baggage just means they become the most likely to get lost!

alancostello

Well my Tier Credits have just reset to zero while 21 points away from Platinum, and with 25 still waiting to post from the weekend. Wondering if the AerClub systems will connect the dots when they finally do post, hoping for the best, but certainly expecting the worst.

AndyBoBandy

alancostello wrote: »

Well my Tier Credits have just reset to zero while 21 points away from Platinum, and with 25 still waiting to post from the weekend. Wondering if the AerClub systems will connect the dots when they finally do post, hoping for the best, but certainly expecting the worst.

Mine have also reset to zero, saying I need another 1051 to remain in Concierge, which I don’t believe I’ll get!!

Priority 1 is to get 301 and remain with some status for this time next year when Concierge expires.

Might have 75 coming next week (cheeky advantage fare outbound with a plus fare return),

billy few mates

I think it must be a glitch in the matrix, mine have also reset to zero over night when they most definitely should not have...!
I just logged in to check if they'd added the four missing flights I took recently, they added two of them yesterday and when I looked to see if they'd added the others it was back to zero...
I screen grab the points total and save the pic incrementally every time I log on in case there's any confusion like this...

AndyBoBandy

billy few mates wrote: »

I screen grab the points total and save the pic incrementally every time I log on in case there's any confusion like this...

:D I was doing the exact same thing all year.

Isn't it great how much confidence their IT system instills in its frequent flyers.

mx5ire

alancostello wrote: »

Well my Tier Credits have just reset to zero while 21 points away from Platinum, and with 25 still waiting to post from the weekend. Wondering if the AerClub systems will connect the dots when they finally do post, hoping for the best, but certainly expecting the worst.

So as expected - my other half's Tier credits reset last night as well. Now she flew yesterday to UK - and this would have put her into Silver, so she is the same boat as you. I actually filled in the missing flights form yesterday to try to speed up the awarding of her flight, but its not there this morning. I have screenshots and contacted them yesterday to point all this out too,  but the only reply was hat they cannot add points manually.

So Yes, the dots should be joined up, but i dont expect them to be. But the single most head bangingly frustrating thing about this is the lack of being able to talk to anyone about it.  Mails take months to answer, you can call but get a call centre and the message is passed 'upstairs'. Its so maddening.

My own account reset back in May when i lost 295 Tier points, and it seems intact this morning. Will be into Concierge in two weeks after a US trip, and at very worst at least i will get the other half the companion membership Silver then.

trellheim

I have weeks of missing flights not added and it has reset before putting me into Silver

alancostello

mx5ire wrote: »

So as expected - my other half's Tier credits reset last night as well. Now she flew yesterday to UK - and this would have put her into Silver, so she is the same boat as you. I actually filled in the missing flights form yesterday to try to speed up the awarding of her flight, but its not there this morning. I have screenshots and contacted them yesterday to point all this out too,  but the only reply was hat they cannot add points manually.

I filled in the Missing Flight form on Monday too and emailed aerclubmigration hoping to get it sorted, but nothing, all I can do is cross my fingers but I'm preparing for an uphill battle.

billy few mates

The Aerclub scheme and the multitude of issues it causes is unlikely to affect the casual traveller or those who only fly with Aer Lingus a couple of times a year. But if someone asked you to come up with a scheme to piss off your most frequent and most valuable customers you'd be hard pressed to come up with something that does that more effectively than this one, this omnishambles of a loyalty scheme really does it in spades.
As a frequent traveller and top tier member of several properly administered loyalty schemes I vowed to avoid this one after all I read and heard about it, but a recent increase in the number of EI flights I've taken in the past few months lead me to think I really should be claiming these points.
I wish I hadn't bothered now because as I predicted, once I became involved I found myself totally fixated on trying to get it right. I'm actually disappointed with myself for the amount of time I've wasted in sending emails, making phone calls, and submitting claims for missing flights (almost every second one). I keep three spreadsheets detailing the actual flights I've taken, the flights based on what Aerclub have credited me, and the flights I've been credited based on my Avio statement. None of them match. I submit at least two missing flights a week, I send at least one email a week, I phone every few weeks. In return Aerclub have responded to my emails twice (but they never respond to follow ups), credited me a few random flights in no particular order) and answered the phone once.
I know I should move on and let it go but I've invested too much time and energy in the pursuit of completeness to just give up now.
I fully admit it's an awful lot of time wasted for what is effectively just a free cup of coffee, a croissant in the lounge and the privilege of being included in the group of the first 50% of passengers allowed to board the aircraft first...
Maybe this morning's resetting of my points to zero is a sign from God that this schemes not really for me...?

alancostello

Just got this reply from EI Twitter:

“Any missing flights that have not awarded in advance of your anniversary date will be retrospectively applied to your account. If the tier credits from these flights meant that you would have moved tiers, then you will move to that tier.”

Hopefully this actually works now.

trellheim

deafening silence here as well.

Yamanoto

alancostello wrote: »

Just got this reply from EI Twitter:

“Any missing flights that have not awarded in advance of your anniversary date will be retrospectively applied to your account. If the tier credits from these flights meant that you would have moved tiers, then you will move to that tier.”

But in the meantime, please enjoy the awkward position we've put you in, by having to once more explain to check-in / lounge staff that our systems haven't quite caught up with the amount of flying you've done & the meagre perk you're requesting of us is actually something you're quite rightfully entitled to.

mx5ire

alancostello wrote: »

Just got this reply from EI Twitter:

“Any missing flights that have not awarded in advance of your anniversary date will be retrospectively applied to your account. If the tier credits from these flights meant that you would have moved tiers, then you will move to that tier.”

Hopefully this actually works now.

As i stated above, i did the missing flights thing twice yesterday, but as of 5 mins ago no sign of the credits. So the head wrecking conundrum is - if they are applied retrospectively, then they should have been reset on the night of the 28th/29th Nov if they credited yesterday for yesterdays flight, so will i ever see them actually appear, or will they be applied, not show up, but count towards tier advancement without actually ever showing up. #Confused.

billy few mates

First rule of the Sh**e club....
You don't talk about the Sh**e club...

billy few mates

Anyone else lose all their points overnight...?
Mine is still at zero...

goingnowhere

billy few mates wrote: »

Anyone else lose all their points overnight...?
Mine is still at zero...

Anyone who was green status when AC was created reset overnight as it was exactly 12 months

This is completely correct and per the T&C's.

ButtersSuki

goingnowhere wrote: »

Anyone who was green status when AC was created reset overnight as it was exactly 12 months

This is completely correct and per the T&C's.

Well, yeah...........BUT what if you were incorrectly put into Green from the transfer from Gold Circle last year and should have been put into a higher category (like me) and are still waiting for that alone to be sorted......and then you wake up today to find you're back at 0 when you were 17.5 points shy of Concierge despite still having a double-digit number of missing US and Euro flights still waiting to be accredited to your account over many months and countless emails and phone calls? I came back from the US on Sunday Business and that too is OF COURSE missing.

As a previous poster posted, if they were trying to p*ss you off, they couldn't do a better job.

An absolute clusterfück of an omnishambles.

billy few mates

goingnowhere wrote: »

Anyone who was green status when AC was created reset overnight as it was exactly 12 months

This is completely correct and per the T&C's.

That can’t be right, after three months of going through the process of trying to get them to correctly credit all the flights I’ve taken in the past six months (approx thirty flights) they finally got around to adding enough (not all) to enable me to make Silver a few weeks back. Since then I’ve added another ten or twelve flights and sent numerous emails asking them to add the missing flights plus the growing number of additional flights. They still haven’t added all of them yet but even still I was more than three quarters of the way towards Platinum (500+) and likely to hit the required 600 in the next few weeks.
I made Silver in early September but they didn’t acknowledge it until mid November so I had weeks of travel where I got no benefit.
My tier expiry date is November 2018, surely I have until then to be able to make the 600 tier credits...?

goingnowhere

Status is based on 12 month window set by your join date

So Nov 16-17

If you started green
Got to 301+
You are now Silver till Nov 18 (i.e remainder of year + 1 full year)
Tier credits reset to 0 on Nov 17
You have 12 months to earn status again for Nov 18-19


This is basically how BA work and more other schemes (most are Jan-Dec)

The problem is the website isn't clearly saying earn XXXX between today and 17 to move to level X, it is saying Nov 18 which is wrong

GC was a 12 month rolling window, so you never got more than 12 months status but it was always based on the rolling 12 months behind so you could climb up

ButtersSuki

goingnowhere wrote: »

Status is based on 12 month window set by your join date

So Nov 16-17

If you started green
Got to 301+
You are now Silver till Nov 18 (i.e remainder of year + 1 full year)
Tier credits reset to 0 on Nov 17
You have 12 months to earn status again for Nov 18-19


This is basically how BA work and more other schemes (most are Jan-Dec)

The problem is the website isn't clearly saying earn XXXX between today and 17 to move to level X, it is saying Nov 18 which is wrong

GC was a 12 month rolling window, so you never got more than 12 months status but it was always based on the rolling 12 months behind so you could climb up

All of that is fine and I understand it clearly.....if they could only add the flights correctly, in a timely manner, and not miss so many etc. etc.

I should be concierge level for the next year; as things stand I'll be platinum. My confidence in them sorting this out in the next 12 months - zero.

billy few mates

Like I thought, more trouble than it’s worth, for that reason I’m out.
To think of the effort I put in trying to get them to correctly acknowledge my status, then think of the half arsed effort someone in Aerclub went through in partially crediting my account when they really should have just said you’re wasting your time mate, even if you flew with us twice a day for the next three weeks you’re never going to make the next level so there’s no point in us chasing down your Missing twenty odd points when you’re going to lose them all anyway at the end of November.
Ah well, that’s one less mouth to feed in the lounge next week and for the next few weeks after that...

micosoft

So the same thing had happened to me -  my tier points reset to zero 24 tier points from Concierge. When I was due to fly that night and get 25 points. My call to Aerclub was not great (not the person - they are working within the system) but basically the answer is "tough" they have zero flexibility.

So I now get that tier points reset on an annual basis but that does not show in the app. Instead it (mis)represents that I had another year. It's still a buggy app (the flying blue app is amazing and sets the standard).

As it turns out... because the scheme is so badly run... I was missing a number of flights when the guy ran through my account. So on that basis (to be fair to the guy trying to help within the sytem) I was bumped over.

I fly a lot for work. I have status on Flying Blue and Star Alliance. Why on earth does Aer Lingus create a scheme which just creates a bad taste for me and so many other Aer Lingus customers? On the rare occasion that I've called the other alliances they have bent over backwards to assist and "computer says no" has never been a response. The AerClub staff sound completely dis-empowered.


Given the recent news that Aer Lingus will not be joining OneWorld (they have not made the "business case") I am shifting all my business to BA/Iberia anyway. With lifetime Tier points and just an altogether more sophisticated setup. It's a pity. I like Aer Lingus and I like the transatlantic service but I don't feel a valued customer. And smart definitely does not fly AL.

AndyBoBandy

micosoft wrote: »

Why on earth does Aer Lingus create a scheme which just creates a bad taste for me and so many other Aer Lingus customers?

I think its because of the fact they were bought out by a large company who's only interest is making sh1t tons of money.

Aer Lingus now ranks very low in the IAG grand scheme of things, so why would they want to invest any more that the absolute minimum they need to to keep the airline viable. (When Aer Lingus was independent, it was fine, but now it's a very small minnow in a very large pond)

They bought it for an absolute steal (forgetting the LHR slots, they only paid €1.4Billion, and Aer Lingus had €700Million cash in the bank), its probably making them a small profit with minimal financial input, so why would they invest any more into it, when they have much bigger 'prestige' brands to worry about.

They are essentially a low cost carrier now in all but name, and AerClub is merely a token gesture to keep up the impression of a 'prestige' airline (a shadow of Gold Circle*)

*At a guess I'd say they are still using 100% of the old IT systems that came from legacy Gold Circle, and have invested €0 in the IT infrastructure of AerClub.

trellheim

You might want to look at those profit numbers again lol

tatus is based on 12 month window set by your join date

So Nov 16-17

If you started green
Got to 301+
You are now Silver till Nov 18 (i.e remainder of year + 1 full year)
Tier credits reset to 0 on Nov 17
You have 12 months to earn status again for Nov 18-19


This is basically how BA work and more other schemes (most are Jan-Dec)

I earned enough to move up a tier and they havent credited them yet still reset to zero which is not funny since i made travel decisions to use EI instead of FR several times , which is the purpose of the scheme.

alancostello

My account just transitioned to Platinum, so once those points do actually post it looks like it works. Just scheduled my upgrade for January too so I'm a happy camper.

mx5ire

alancostello wrote: »

My account just transitioned to Platinum, so once those points do actually post it looks like it works. Just scheduled my upgrade for January too so I'm a happy camper.

Interesting - i am waiting for the others half's then. I called them this morning and they sent a mail to AerClub etc, but no idea what the timeline is to get into Silver with the reset points, flight on the 28th scenario. It worked for you, so that gives us some hope !