Free Silver Elite Star Alliance Status

Friend of mine got the same email.

I'm not going to rail against the taking-away, not a big loss to me, I just signed up for the heck of it. However I will say that I did not know that it was targeted. I saw the thread title here, FT, and a couple of the usual blogs. But I don't recall which location I used to click on the link. Wherever it was, I had the impression it was a publicly open promotion and the bmi site didn't lead me to believe otherwise.

Considering other entities can create unique codes and other means of verifying a "target" is responding, not sure why some still have such difficulty. With that, I felt their email was a bit terse. Usually a "this is our final decision, etc" response comes after one has requested reconsideration or such. Since I had not done so (nor would I), it felt a little off-putting to phrase it the way they did. I just signed up for their silly little Silver status promotion - if I can't get it, fine. Not like I was asking for a mortgage loan or a kidney transplant!

I didn't see anything on the site that would indicate this offer was restricted in any way:

You are here: Home | Loyalty Programmes | Diamond Club | Promotions | Complimentary Silver status
Loyalty Programmes
· Diamond Club
o
Complimentary Silver status
Terms and conditions
1. bmi reserves the right to refuse membership into the Diamond Club programme, and will not enter into correspondence relating to reasons for refusal
2. New members must be aged 18 or over to be accepted into the Diamond Club programme and only one application will be accepted per person
3. This promotion is not open to the employees of bmi or their immediate families
4. Diamond Club Silver membership is valid for 12 months, during which the member will need to earn 16,000 status miles to retain Silver membership
5. A new member can only be accepted for enrolment on one occasion
6. Please allow 35 days for receipt of Silver membership card. Once the member has received their card and membership number, they can start to make use of the Silver status benefits
7. English law will govern these terms and conditions and the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction
8. All information contained within this promotion is correct at time of going to press
9. This offer is non transferable and no cash alternative will be offered bmi reserves the right to vary or cease the promotion at any time
10. Diamond Club membership and participation in this promotion is subject to Diamond Club terms and conditions.

There was a term posted somewhere that referenced "only those targeted will get status, anyone else, tough"

Thanks for that, DealHound. That's consistent with my recollection - I do actually read the terms and conditions before signing up for these things. No guarantee I didn't miss anything in the really small print I guess like JohnDeere19 says, but I did make an effort.

The main issue I had with their response was the tone - if they'd said we goofed and meant it to be targeted, that's fine, but their email implied (to me) that I had somehow done something morally wrong in applying for it. As someone said earlier...leaves a negative impression when they could have protected their (financial) interests with some gentler language. IMO anyway - others may differ!