You’ve gotta love airline alliances and the arbitrage opportunities that exist thanks to their unique programs. For example, I was a top tier elite member with British Midland (bmi) for five years before I actually flew with them. I was actually sort of convinced they weren’t a real airline for a long time. And I’d speculate that a majority of bmi’s top tier elite members had never actually flown with them.
Since joining the Star Alliance in 2012, one of the greatest Star Alliance frequent flyer programs has been Aegean, the Greek airline with a fleet of 30 narrowbody aircraft.
Aegean’s “lifetime” Star Alliance Gold status
For one, Aegean had extremely reasonable requirements to achieve Star Alliance Gold status to begin with. You needed just 20,000 elite qualifying miles to achieve top tier status with them, and they’d give you 1,000 elite qualifying miles just for signing up. So in reality you needed just 19,000 miles to qualify.
Why would you want to earn Star Alliance Gold? Star Alliance Gold status gets you (among other things):
- Priority check-in, boarding, and baggage handling
- A free checked bag
- Lounge access (Aegean status even gets you access to United Clubs on domestic itineraries, which you don’t receive if you have an equivalent status with United)
But the greatest thing about Aegean’s program was that status was “lifetime” — once earned, status would just constantly renew. Now, they didn’t explicitly publish it as such, but in practice that’s how it worked.
This obviously wasn’t sustainable. Everytime an Aegean Star Alliance Gold member enters a lounge using one of their cards, Aegean has to pay that airline ~$20. As you can imagine, the cost of that adds up pretty quickly, so they had to change that sooner or later.
Aegean’s new Miles+Bonus program qualification requirements
Aegean has now introduced their new Miles+Bonus program, which will kick in as of November 24, 2014.
The new qualification criteria are as follows:
- Silver Status: 12,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 2 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) OR a total of 24,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
- Gold Status: 24,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) OR a total of 48,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
Meanwhile the new requalification requirements are as follows:
- Silver Status: 8,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 2 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 16,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
- Gold Status: 12,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 24,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
Assuming you don’t fly four times on Aegean, that means you need 48,000 miles to qualify for Star Alliance Gold status, and then 24,000 miles per year to renew. The latter is still very lucrative, as it’s the lowest Star Alliance Gold qualification tier I can think of.
Other new Aegean Miles+Bonus benefits
As part of the new Miles+Bonus program, Aegean is making some other changes.
First of all, they’re introducing household accounts, whereby you can combine the redeemable miles from up to six accounts:
We aim to reward families and friends by providing them the opportunity to accumulate miles in one account and make spending even more accessible. A Together Account means you can pool your Award Miles with up to six people into one single account, letting you make full use of the collective balance, whilst you earn Tier Miles individually.
They’re introducing quite a few other new benefits as well, which are outlined in the below chart:
As you can see, most of these are useful if you’re actually flying Aegean as opposed to crediting partner flights to them. But it is cool that they’re adding things like lounge passes for Silver members, a discount on companion tickets for domestic flights, extra award miles for Aegean flights, the ability to purchase tier and award miles, etc.
Bottom line
I think we all saw this coming. Under the new program, the initial qualification requirements are rather high if you don’t fly Aegean, but I do think the requalification requirements are still lucrative — 24,000 credited miles for Star Alliance Gold is still about as good as it gets.
Of course that’s not as good as “lifetime” Star Alliance Gold for 20,000 credited miles, though.
To those of you that are Aegean Star Alliance Gold members, I leave you with Nelly Furtado… play the song until you feel better:
So, just how many of you are Star Alliance Gold through Aegean, and do you plan on requalifying using the new criteria?
What is the best credit card to use to gain miles with program ? I was thinking to wait January 2016 to see what is going to change in this air-mile program and I was thinking to look for the Lufhtansa credit car. I do not understand if this can be used just with Lufthansa to gain miles and to increase the mile with Aegean I should focus to get a card related with Aegean like Visa Cyprus or those two one. Anybody can give me a suggestion ?
Thanks for the update; Aegean's site is notoriously thin on details.
I can't seem to find their exact definition of "flights", though. Does 4 flights = 4 flight segments? I spend summers in Europe and a XXX-ATH-JTR-ATH-XXX weekend wouldn't be a bad way to qualify. But I could also see how they count that as 1 flight, 2 flights, or 4 flights.
Never fly. I have gold on star, executive platinum on Anerican and 1K on United. These folks don't care.
Hi Lucky, your help please! I was A3 Gold just before they announced this, so like many people I have until November 2015 to retain Gold. I won't be able to earn enough. However, I have a new card that got isseud with an expiry of mid January 2016! That's what shows on my eCard when I log in. Do you know if I will be able to use the benefits right up until card...
Hi Lucky, your help please! I was A3 Gold just before they announced this, so like many people I have until November 2015 to retain Gold. I won't be able to earn enough. However, I have a new card that got isseud with an expiry of mid January 2016! That's what shows on my eCard when I log in. Do you know if I will be able to use the benefits right up until card expiry, even if I don't retain it? I'm doing a bunch of sectors with Air Canada and relying on my Gold card for luggage etc, don't want any surprises at the airport. I've emailed Agean but I think Greece is a little busy right now, so no reply...
Cheers,
Xtian
Abhiroop:
It can't be one shot to be sliver status.
Dear all... I now have 37000 miles on my account ... is there a clever way to use these miles... I have only two options at the moment LHR to Middle east for 30 K or europe ... (Israel) on LX which has nicer seats for 21000 miles.
All this looks very good but I'd like to get something more than a one way business class
Any tricks ? Please let me know .
My Aegean balance shows 43,246 and I am on the Silver tier.
It then says the following below:
How to upgrade your tier
Required number of Tier Miles: 0including 4 flights with Aegean and Olympic Air
OR
Required number of Tier Miles in total: 20754
Until: 17/08/2015
Shouldn't I be able to upgrade my tier to Gold with just 4,754 miles? Why do I need a full 20,754?
That would make my requirement a full 64,000 miles. How did that happen?
hi lucky! I got a question about the tier retention with the aegean m&b since i haven't found any answer anywhere. Are the return flights with aegean considered 2 flights (as far as their tier retention policy is concerned)? since i had to make 12k miles and at least 4 aegean flights to retain gold, i was wondering if my upcoming flights FCO-ATH, ATH-JTR and returns could satisfy at least those aegean flight requirements.
@ Miky -- Correct, that would count as two flights.
I have been A3G member for quite a while. Just before they informed me that I would keep my Gold status under the new rules I had some intercontinental flights, which for some reasons are not yet credited to my A3 account.
I am now wondering, if I should claim them for Aegean, or if I start collecting them on some other *A programe (Turkish, Asiana...). I assume on A3 they would be "lost", as...
I have been A3G member for quite a while. Just before they informed me that I would keep my Gold status under the new rules I had some intercontinental flights, which for some reasons are not yet credited to my A3 account.
I am now wondering, if I should claim them for Aegean, or if I start collecting them on some other *A programe (Turkish, Asiana...). I assume on A3 they would be "lost", as I don't know if they count them under the date when I flew, or under the date when I claimed them.
I do fly quite frequently within Europe (mainly FRA-WAW with LH or LO typically the cheaper classes. I never actually used A3. 24k can be hard to obtain.
Any proposal?
@ Mathias ... have a closer look at the new A3 program and you'll notice that the perks are actually very good for the effort needed in order to achieve the *G.
I also fly to WAW from LHR but I'd suggest you to avoid LO and LH as the cheapest classes might not give you any miles. For such a short trip I'll suggest you to use LX as you could earn something...
@ Mathias ... have a closer look at the new A3 program and you'll notice that the perks are actually very good for the effort needed in order to achieve the *G.
I also fly to WAW from LHR but I'd suggest you to avoid LO and LH as the cheapest classes might not give you any miles. For such a short trip I'll suggest you to use LX as you could earn something close to 2000 miles in one round trip... with a stop in ZRH which is one of the best airports in Europe.
24k is the lower threshold, you could credit them to Turkish or Avianca ... just try to avoid miles and more !
"To retain your Gold Tier, you have a fixed 12-month period from the date of your upgrade or renewal of your tier to collect 12,000 Tier Miles, including 4 flights with Aegean and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 24,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with." - I've an excess of 2k+ miles after qualifying for Gold. Does it mean the 2k+ miles will go towards retaining my Gold...
"To retain your Gold Tier, you have a fixed 12-month period from the date of your upgrade or renewal of your tier to collect 12,000 Tier Miles, including 4 flights with Aegean and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 24,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with." - I've an excess of 2k+ miles after qualifying for Gold. Does it mean the 2k+ miles will go towards retaining my Gold status? It doesn't appear so and what is typical of *G airlines?
Thanks!
Well, of course they can change the conditions of their program at any time, but not retrospectively.
So until Nov 24 the old conditions were still valid, and under these conditions I credited my miles to their program, which means these conditions, granting me 3 year status retention from the mile crediting date cannot be just changed after they have been applied. Only new miles credited after the change date can be treated under the new conditions.
@ Seb
Called them today and asked them why I was not able to see my 4 vouchers. They did apologies as it seems that the migration has been delayed.
Few more features are not in there i.e: the missing miles claim / vouchers and many more.
I see it quite unfair as they are eating our time to enjoy privileges.... I expected the site to be fully operative from the 24th November ...
Hi,
The new M&B program enrolled this week. I was gold from before and will stay until 11/2015. But don't see any upgrade vouchers in my account. Does anyone know if those 4 vouchers were supposed to be only for those achieving Gold after the new thresholds?
Zach, you have said,
"Turkish has been known to status match to Elite from A3 Gold, which would give you an automatic 24-month *G extension..."
Can you tell me where you found this?
Are you not mad at Aegean? I can't believe you all are letting Aegean take away your LIFETIME GOLD without a bit of anger!
If there is a lawyer along us who would start a class action, I will surely be a part of this outrageous alteration to our thousands of dollars of investment. Please comment below so we can gather to take actions.
LOL @Mike. If you are being sarcastic, fine. If you are being serious, oy vey. I will just let Ben bother with the reply!
@ Mike -- Who ever said it was lifetime status? They never promised that...
@lucky - They sure did, verbally over the phone. They told me I only have to have 1 activity on my account every two years.
You even titled this article "lifetime" gold.
I can't believe you guys have no problem with this... My wife and I had to make a thousand six hundred dollar UNNECESSARY trip to qualify for the lifetime gold status a year back. Now they are breaking their terms and taking...
@lucky - They sure did, verbally over the phone. They told me I only have to have 1 activity on my account every two years.
You even titled this article "lifetime" gold.
I can't believe you guys have no problem with this... My wife and I had to make a thousand six hundred dollar UNNECESSARY trip to qualify for the lifetime gold status a year back. Now they are breaking their terms and taking away my privileges. (Of course, they might have a line that says they can change anything at anytime for any reason, but we all know it should not be practiced unless they are willing to take the responsibilities.)
Here I received the answer from Aegean saying that the new program will start from 24 november 2014. and what counts to keep your status level is that you need to have the 8000 points before then and not November 2015.
========================
Thank you for contacting the Customer Relations Department of Aegean and please accept our apologies for our late reply.
Indeed, on November 24th the New Miles&Bonus Program launches, offering new benefits and services...
Here I received the answer from Aegean saying that the new program will start from 24 november 2014. and what counts to keep your status level is that you need to have the 8000 points before then and not November 2015.
========================
Thank you for contacting the Customer Relations Department of Aegean and please accept our apologies for our late reply.
Indeed, on November 24th the New Miles&Bonus Program launches, offering new benefits and services to its members.
The new Silver Tier will be granted to the Blue members that have accrued more than 8.000 tier miles (including at least 2 flights with Aegean Airlines or Olympic Air) or 16.000 Tier miles in total, within the past 12 months (24NOV13 to 24NOV14).
To explore the new Miles&Bonus; the common loyalty program of Aegean and Olympic Air, please follow the below link: http://www.newmilesandbonus.com/en
We are more than happy to assist you in the future.
@Andy
I was in same situation: 19200 points and with 1 flight of 1000p done a couple of days ago
I spoke to Miles & Bonus Customer service and got following answer:
"Crediting points can take up to 2 weeks. But once credited, the date of flight counts."
e.g. Say you achieve your last points flying on Nov10th, you can phone the customer service on Nov 25th (2 weeks after flight)...
@Andy
I was in same situation: 19200 points and with 1 flight of 1000p done a couple of days ago
I spoke to Miles & Bonus Customer service and got following answer:
"Crediting points can take up to 2 weeks. But once credited, the date of flight counts."
e.g. Say you achieve your last points flying on Nov10th, you can phone the customer service on Nov 25th (2 weeks after flight) and the status will count retroactively, ie the date of FLIGHT. Flights until Nov 24th you get credited according to old rules. BUT you need to call: they do this manually.
I asked specifically if there was any risk to sudddenly be 48k short... NO was the answer. You need to phone them exactly 2 weeks after your flight.
Customer service +30 210 6261000, chose Miles and Bonus when machine answers
I achieved Gold today(!) I see it on my online balance. I screenshotted it just in case...Still I'm anxious to see if card issuing goes smoothly...
Hi, my miles have been credited and now I have 25k miles but have yet to be upgraded to the gold tier. Does it mean I'll be still on silver? Or will I be upgraded to the gold tier when the new system sets in?
@ Li -- To clarify, are those elite qualifying miles or redeemable miles? Because they're different balances, and only the former counts towards status.
Hmmm, I'm just shy of the requires 20k points to get gold (I'm currently *A Silver with A3). I'm actually making a few flights which the last one will tip me past 20K points, and attain gold status on the 22nd Nov. I'm wondering if I'll be recognised as gold, and carry over to Gold for 1 year, or will there be a delay in the system, so at Nov 24th, I'll be classified Silver,...
Hmmm, I'm just shy of the requires 20k points to get gold (I'm currently *A Silver with A3). I'm actually making a few flights which the last one will tip me past 20K points, and attain gold status on the 22nd Nov. I'm wondering if I'll be recognised as gold, and carry over to Gold for 1 year, or will there be a delay in the system, so at Nov 24th, I'll be classified Silver, and not get ported over to Gold, and have to make the stricter guidelines (I've never flown on A3, as I do most my flying in Oceania/Asia)?
@ Andy -- You'll only get recognized as Gold once the miles credit to the account, which could take a few days.
Hi lucky,
The new gold tier retention is :
12,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 24,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
1) Can I ask specifically if the 4 Aegean flights needed would include codeshare flights?
For example A31201 is codeshared with SQ26.
2) The 4 upgrade tickets, can they be used on codeshare flights like the above, or strictly on A3 metal?
Thanks!
@ Steven -- The flights have to be on Aegean metal, and the upgrade certificates can only be used on Aegean metal.
@Tom and @Lucky - last i spoke to them, the amount of miles available for purchase (and the price) was not yet determined. but the idea floating was up to 1000 or 2000 miles (and it might be something like 1000 for silver and 2000 for gold).
@Stratos
Will all these options be available in November? Any news about it?
adding to my last post, my expiration date suppose to be in april 2015 but I guess I can forget this with the new program?
Regards,
Tom
Hello, I have at the moment 7160 points on M&B and I can't go flying for the next 3 months so I wonder, how can I buy extra points? to keep me at least on the silver membership? Or I wonder if I could even buy enough points to get the upgrade to gold before they change their program?
Anyone able to respond on my question?
@ Tom Colman -- I don't believe you can buy that many points yet. That being said, what status do you have now? Because you should be renewed for next year if you have existing status, and will have to earn it after that.
@Lucky
Currently I have Silver and normally I have until the middle of April to renew. But I wonder now, with this new program coming up at the end of November, maybe they won't keep me on Silver until April.
@ Tom Colman -- My understanding is that status will automatically be renewed for a year from November, no?
Well, that is not clear on their site. If my renewal time in April 2015 will be reset to November 2015, then that would be great.
Yes, all member will automatically have one year as of November 24 of the status they will hold on that day. Any other expiration dates are irrelevant. And by that date all other details about the program, including for the purchase of miles, should (and must) be flushed out and publicized.
Well that will give me at least more time to get the gold status
@Dennis @Bob
To qualify is :
24,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 48,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
But tier retention is :
12,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 24,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
Since Aegean merged with...
@Dennis @Bob
To qualify is :
24,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 48,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
But tier retention is :
12,000 miles within 12 months (including at least 4 Aegean or Olympic Air flights) or a total of 24,000 miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with
Since Aegean merged with Olympic now their competition is Ryanair
I think the transition is fair. A lot of people complaining the last few days on the @aegeanairlines twitter account that their star alliance miles are not credited promptly. People on the borderline of achieving Gold status might loose a bit.
David, i thought it was 12,000 miles with 4 A3 flights to requalify. Now its 24,000+ 4 A3 flights? Or still 24000 standalone.
@David
David, have they said that explicitly " All miles will be wiped out from the account."
I guess this is for Tier miles and not Award miles correct ?
@Evangelos Correct, tier miles will be wiped out not award miles.
I see it quite nice as I've been Gold since march and I will remain until November next year with 4 upgrade vouchers
Cannot complaint at all How do you see the whole transition / situation ?
@Zach When I received the card this past spring with 12/2015 expiration date there were already rumors going around that change was coming. That expiration date lined up with what others reported on various forums they were receiving at the time.
@Lucky Thanks! I was a little confused as a few mentioned October as the deadline to meet. So it's by 24 Nov 2014 that all flights would be accrued under the old requirements?
@ Jstin -- Correct.
I felt like calling Aegean from work today as I've spend quite a bit of money in order to get my *G status.
The change will happen in November. All miles will be wiped out from the account.
Current Gold members will remain gold members until November 2015. In order to stay Gold a member will need to fly the requested 24000 miles with at least 4 flights in Aegean or Olympic (just...
I felt like calling Aegean from work today as I've spend quite a bit of money in order to get my *G status.
The change will happen in November. All miles will be wiped out from the account.
Current Gold members will remain gold members until November 2015. In order to stay Gold a member will need to fly the requested 24000 miles with at least 4 flights in Aegean or Olympic (just bare in mind that in the airline industry a flight is 1 segment). So I guess it is fair to assume that a flight from London to Thessaloniki via Athens will count as 4 flights.
Members will be able up to 2000 tier miles. No price was given.
The offer is still quite attractive I think.
Hi Lucky,
First, thanks so much for this article! I've accrued 7624 miles and am short of 12376 miles to hit *G. I'm planning on doing one SQ Y SIN-HND and J return (HND-BKK-HND) on TG and am using http://www.owenrudge.net/utils/starcalc/ to calculate my miles. I will complete everything by 17/18 Nov.
Any thoughts?
J
@ Justin -- Assuming you're in fare classes that accrue the miles you're expecting to earn, that sounds good to me!
Again as a traveller based in Greece I think we saw that coming.
Gold status was achieved very easily and @Aegean lounges in Greece before every Athens-Thessaloniki flight are almost near full capacity.
Agean used to allow Gold members to access the Greek lounges regardless if they travel on Aegean or Star alliance flight. Then about 3 months ago they dropped that perk silently. It just happened about a month since Ryanair offering Athens-Thessaloniki...
Again as a traveller based in Greece I think we saw that coming.
Gold status was achieved very easily and @Aegean lounges in Greece before every Athens-Thessaloniki flight are almost near full capacity.
Agean used to allow Gold members to access the Greek lounges regardless if they travel on Aegean or Star alliance flight. Then about 3 months ago they dropped that perk silently. It just happened about a month since Ryanair offering Athens-Thessaloniki flights :-)
I was really looking forwards options from other schemes such as buy tier or award miles, share account with family, etc. so that's all there now but unfortunately i do find you have to plan your travel carefully if you want to re-qualify every year.
Now in terms of spending those miles, Aegean had a sector oriented redemption program but they were offering
For Domestic :
6250 Economy and 9000 business
which is now 5000 light or 7500 flex or 10000 business , slightly increased but dropped the Light fare
For International:
11000 economy and 20000 business
which is now
Go light 8x distance, Flex 11x distance, Business 15 x distance
So for example a flight to London from ATH would cost : 12000 miles in Light, 16500 in Flex and 22500 Business
(to be fair that's one of the furthest destinations, all quotes using http://www.webflyer.com/)
Let's look at ATH to ROME (http://www.webflyer.com/ says 1312 miles)
Go light 10496, Flex 14432, Business 19680.
@Seb, yes, all current Gold members will remain Gold under the new program for one year and will receive all those benefits (including the upgrades). I am not sure if it all A3 flights or those on Aegean metal however...
Does this also mean we will receive 4 upgrades (for A3 flights) in November 2014? I'm A3 Gold since March 2014...
@ Seb -- Not completely clear, but that's how I read it.
As a reader based in Greece who actually flies a lot of Aegean because, well, I am based in Greece, its a mixed bag. Certainly having to requalify every year is a pain, but there are some carrots in there (20% more award miles for Golds, 4 upgrades, some free parking, the ability to buy *some* tier miles to top-up your account). And all of these will be given to all existing Golds once they...
As a reader based in Greece who actually flies a lot of Aegean because, well, I am based in Greece, its a mixed bag. Certainly having to requalify every year is a pain, but there are some carrots in there (20% more award miles for Golds, 4 upgrades, some free parking, the ability to buy *some* tier miles to top-up your account). And all of these will be given to all existing Golds once they transfer to the new program on Nov. 24. Granted not useful for people who dont live in Greece or fly Aegean, but I guess that would be the point of the revamping of the program.
Also, I was told today about “lifetime” Gold – if you maintain your Gold status for five years, you get it for another five years. Then you have to start over the process. So I guess it’s lifetime only if you are up there in the age bracket…
And for those who commented on it, the expiration date on the card means nothing. As of Nov. 24 everyone starts from scratch (either to get status or maintain it, as the case may be).
Got my Gold membership a few months ago. Never flew on Aegean yet. Their new tier retention scheme is smart business. I guess I'll be making a trip with a few stop-overs to Greece yearly now :)
Lucky,
Slightly off topic but any idea if we can earn miles with any carrier(obviously due to some fare class bug) while flying on Star alliance award flight?
@ naif -- Nope, not that I know of.
@BothofUs2, interesting. This means that they had already implemented secret plans to preempt the "but my card says 2017 [or whatever]" argument. As people have pointed out, though, this wouldn't have worked once an agent scanned the card, anyhow.
Were you confused about the date when it arrived? I'm still waiting for mine, so I guess I have no hope of an expiration date later than 12/2015.
Bro, you seriously need nested comments. At least to one level deep.
I got *Gold in spring of this year, the card they sent me indicates expiration date 12/2015. I presume I would shift into the new program rules 11/24//14 and then have until 12/2015 to hit the 24k miles for renewal, then would get a new exp date of 12/2016.
@ BothofUs2 -- That's my understanding.
How is this not bait & switch?
Try real hard earning crediting mileage towards 20k gold, but fail just before their sudden Nov deadline when the clock resets. wtf?
@ MarkM -- Well, except they never really said otherwise. It was an unwritten rule. Much worse when an airline promises lifetime status with certain benefits and then changes them, IMO.
@Ben Will Alex have until Nov. 24th or Oct to earn that 500 miles? I am in similar situation....
@ Shannon -- That's correct.
To reiterate Lucky's replies, it appears from the new rules that anyone who is Gold by Nov 24 2014 will be transitioned to Gold Tier on that date, and that is when the 12-month period for renewal begins. So, you have to fly the new renewal requirements by Nov 24 2015 or be downgraded.
As for other *A options---considering only the requirements for *G status (and not, e.g., the individual program perks)---it looks like Turkish...
To reiterate Lucky's replies, it appears from the new rules that anyone who is Gold by Nov 24 2014 will be transitioned to Gold Tier on that date, and that is when the 12-month period for renewal begins. So, you have to fly the new renewal requirements by Nov 24 2015 or be downgraded.
As for other *A options---considering only the requirements for *G status (and not, e.g., the individual program perks)---it looks like Turkish Airlines and Asiana are now marginally better, due to their 24-month cycles and effectively lower yearly mileage requirements.
Turkish has been known to status match to Elite from A3 Gold, which would give you an automatic 24-month *G extension, plus the ability to keep it by crediting 37.5k every 2 years.
I actually fly Asiana every year, so they are attractive to me, but they don't allow status matches (boo). So, I may end up matching to Turkish, then immediately beginning accrual on Asiana so that I have uninterrupted *G going forward.
I just got A3*G a couple months ago, so I'm sad to be so late to the party, but still, 18 months of *G for 19k miles is a fantastic deal ;-). RIP "lifetime" status.
Thanks for the realistic and even-tempered post, Lucky. Time to factor in some EU mileage runs- 12k is still doable esp if those discounts and upgrades are stackable!
Yet another deal killed by the bloggers! :)
does anyone know if Asiana or Turkish charge hefty surcharges on awards?
@ AT -- They do both impose fuel surcharges on award tickets.
Asiana Diamond (*G) requires 40,000 every two years (essentially 20,000 a year). Not a bad way to get Star Gold and don't need to fly on Asiana metal either. Also cheaper redemption for Untied flights than using United Miles.
Rick why are you going to Israel after the high holiday period ?
Those who already have a status should get on their status and get the new rules from 2016.
Explaining myself: qualifies in 04/2014 gold until april 2015 then I did cresit somoe flight to my a3 account so I will stay one more year ... in this given year I should credit 24 k miles instead of doing nothing as it has been said previously stating that a3 *G program was a "lifetime" *G status
Lucky will you be clarifying how long our Star Gold status will last for those that hit the 20K threshold before November 24th? I'm flying the 4th and 5th of November to reach the promised land.
Thanks
@ Rick I -- Should be good through at least November 2015.
by the way I already have 6.7k miles in my account plus a flight to peru in 2 days this will bring me up to 20 k plus some intra europe flight in LX should make me requalify for *G by the end of the year
Here.. me I am a gold member since april more or less... to be honest with everyone and with you I saw it coming, it was just too beautiful to have an endless gold membership meanwhile our M&M friends were sweating in order to get their 100k miles for SEN status by the end of the year.
There's a lot of new things in their new version of the M&Bprogram: I was not able to...
Here.. me I am a gold member since april more or less... to be honest with everyone and with you I saw it coming, it was just too beautiful to have an endless gold membership meanwhile our M&M friends were sweating in order to get their 100k miles for SEN status by the end of the year.
There's a lot of new things in their new version of the M&Bprogram: I was not able to buy miles before, now I can. It is even possible to purchase tier miles ! GOOD STUFF
So... just in order to clarify... I've been a M&B gold member from April this year, enjoyed all the perks of M&B, I've read in manyo of the forums that in order to qualify for 1 more year I had to allocate one flight to my M&B account.
Is it fair to assume that I will remain as a gold member until April 2016 and then if I want to be part of the program I will need to fight and credit at least 12k miles in 4 flight in A3 / Olympic or 24 k miles with other airlines? 24 k miles are very easy to reach here in europe... Avianca offers very cheap flights to south america which are credited 100% so LHR to BOG andback will set you to a good start of 10000 miles and Ethiopian has some crazy / very generous routes to BKK KUL RIO and GRU which can get you close to 20 k miles. Then Swiss credits 1000 miles for every single intra european flight... LHR ZRH FLR found on prom for around £150 can give you a 4k miles return which is not bad as soon as you keep the gold membership alive
@ David -- It should automatically be good through at least November 2015, as far as I can tell. Not sure beyond that.
I'm a bit confused. I currently have Star Alliance Gold status with Aegean. Does this expire November 24, 2014, or do I keep my current status and have to credit 24,000 miles by November 2015 to requalify?
@ Arcanum -- In November you'll automatically be renewed for one more year, based on how I'm reading the rules.
And, does that mean I am re-qualified for the current period, or do I now need to reach 24,000 tier miles?
@ Gene -- You'll automatically get status for one year starting from November, so no need to requalify.
Where does one find the date their status ends at Aegean website?
My account shows:
Total tier miles: 20,xxx
Total award miles: 35,xxx
Miles required of upgrade: 0
Until: -
@ Gene -- You don't, since as of now it doesn't end. ;)
I'm in the same boat as Alex...I'm at 17k tier miles since February of this year. Do we have until November 24 to qualify at the current 20k requirement?
@ Tommy -- That's correct.
Turkish = 40k for Elite *G and renewal for 2 years w/ 25k in 1st year or 37.5k in next 2 years (more for Turkish residents)
Don't forget 4 upgrade certificates on requalification :)
Since I'm flying mainly within Europe I'll keep crediting to them - the new benefits are definitely worth the (low) re-qualification thresholds. 12K miles yearly is still about half of the other programs out there!
Thanks for the heads up Lucky. I've been trying to hit Aegean Gold for the past 6 months now. I'm currently at 19.5K EQMs, needing just another 500 miles to qualify for Gold under the old regime. Do I read this correctly that I have until November 24 to get the 500 miles to qualify for Gold under the old program, but that I won't requalify in 2015 unless I collect 24K EQMs (and 4 flights with Aegean)?
@ Alex -- Correct, you have until October to earn those 500 miles. To requalify you'd need 24K miles with fewer than four flights on Aegean, OR 12K miles plus four flights with Aegean.