Aegean Airlines’ Miles+Bonus frequent flyer program has historically been one of the most attractive Star Alliance frequent flyer programs, and one of the best programs for earning Star Alliance Gold status. Well, the airline has just announced plans to make major changes to status qualification. Not only will elite status become harder to earn, but the airline is also introducing a new top tier status.
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Aegean Miles+Bonus elite qualification changes 2026
Thanks to the global alliances, it’s not uncommon to have elite status with an airline you don’t actually frequently fly with. After all, there are pros and cons to different programs, and with reciprocal elite perks across airlines in an alliance, there are some arbitrage opportunities.
Aegean Miles+Bonus has historically been one of the most generous programs for earning Star Alliance Gold status, even if you never fly with Aegean. Unfortunately that will soon be changing, with a particular increase to the number of segments that need to be traveled on Aegean to qualify for status.
These changes apply for status upgrades or renewals as of November 5, 2026, meaning the activity in the 12 months leading up to that would be considered for these purposes. In other words, these changes are kicking in imminently, for the purposes of elite status qualification going forward.
Here’s the old system of Aegean elite qualification, which applies for renewal and status qualification through November 4, 2026:
- To earn Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least twice per year and earn 12,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 35,000 elite miles on any partner airline
- To retain Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least twice per year and earn 8,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 35,000 elite miles on any partner airline
- To upgrade from Silver to Gold status, you need to fly Aegean at least four times per year and earn 24,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 70,000 elite miles on any partner airline
- To retain Gold status, you first need to retain Silver status, and then you need to fly Aegean at least four times per year and earn 12,000 elite miles, or you need to earn 70,000 elite miles on any partner airline
Here’s the new system of Aegean elite qualification, which applies for renewal and status qualification as of November 5, 2026:
- To earn Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least 16 times per year, or you need to earn 12,000 elite miles and fly Aegean four times per year, or you need to earn 36,000 elite miles on any partner airline
- To retain Silver status, you need to fly Aegean at least 16 times per year, or you need to earn 9,000 elite miles and fly Aegean four times per year, or you need to earn 36,000 elite miles on any partner airline
- To upgrade from Silver to Gold status, you need to fly Aegean at least 32 times per year, or you need to earn 24,000 elite miles and fly Aegean 12 times per year, or you need to earn 72,000 elite miles on any partner airline
- To retain Gold status, you need to fly Aegean at least 32 times per year, or you need to earn 18,000 elite miles and fly Aegean 12 times per year, or you need to earn 72,000 elite miles on any partner airline
The program is also introducing a new Platinum tier, which has the same requirements whether you are qualifying or requalifying. Specifically, it requires flying with Aegean at least 32 times per year, plus earning 72,000 elite miles.
So, what are the incremental perks of the new Miles+Bonus Platinum tier? They seem pretty minimal given the effort required. They include a dedicated phone number, the ability to gift someone else Gold status, free extra legroom seat selection, and an extra piece of luggage.
My take on Aegean Miles+Bonus program changes
This is the second major increase in elite requirements for Aegean Miles+Bonus in a few years, as the program also updated requirements in 2023. The motive here is pretty clear — Aegean wants to encourage people to actually fly more with the airline, and not just primarily credit partner flights.
As you can see, earning status if you’re purely qualifying based on elite miles hasn’t increased that much, but that’s because that was always the hardest method for earning status. Instead, the biggest increase is for the hybrid qualification method, where you need to fly a minimum number of segments on Aegean, and then get a pretty big shortcut toward status. Aegean is also introducing a new method for earning status exclusively through segments, again, encouraging travel on Aegean.
Historically, the sweet spot was retaining Star Alliance Gold status with the program, using the hybrid qualification method. With these changes, we’re going from needing four Aegean flights and 12,000 elite miles, to needing 12 Aegean flights and 18,000 elite miles. That’s quite the increase!
I suspect that Aegean is hoping to generate some incremental revenue from additional flight bookings. Those who are loyal to Aegean Miles+Bonus but don’t actually fly with Aegean might now have a reason to visit Greece and fly with Aegean. A frequent flyer program is largely about generating incremental business for the airline, and encouraging people to actually fly with the airline is one way to do that.
I also suspect that Aegean has crunched the numbers, and has simply decided that customers primarily crediting flights from other airlines aren’t profitable to the airline anymore. Aegean gets some amount of revenue from partner carriers for the flights that are credited to Miles+Bonus, but then there are costs as well. Aegean is on the hook when you use your status to access partner lounges, and of course there’s the cost when you actually go to redeem your miles.
Bottom line
Aegean Miles+Bonus isn’t the Star Alliance sweet spot program that it once was. As of November 2026, the program will be increasing elite requirements yet again, as the airline encourages people to fly more segments on Aegean. That’s fair enough, as it seems Aegean Miles+Bonus is no longer interested in being the Star Alliance program for those who almost exclusively fly with other airlines.
Along with that, the airline is introducing a new Platinum tier, with very high status requirements. Obviously that’ll be most useful for those who actually frequently fly with the airline. The perks are fairly limited, aside from being able to gift someone Gold status.
What do you make of these Aegean Miles+Bonus changes?
I’ve been gold with AC for 20 years and with the changes to AC’s program, which I don’t seem to recall Lucky covering, they made it basically impossible for Europe-based flyers to retain gold status. The logical choice was for me to move to either Aegean or TAP. Given the ongoing uncertainty over TAP’s ownership, I’ve chosen to go with Aegean. Now, on first reading these changes might seem quite steep, but actually the 12...
I’ve been gold with AC for 20 years and with the changes to AC’s program, which I don’t seem to recall Lucky covering, they made it basically impossible for Europe-based flyers to retain gold status. The logical choice was for me to move to either Aegean or TAP. Given the ongoing uncertainty over TAP’s ownership, I’ve chosen to go with Aegean. Now, on first reading these changes might seem quite steep, but actually the 12 sectors a year is more than doable in a long weekend, simply by doing some island hopping. Even with the new requirements, I could still get to Gold with Aegean within 3 months.
but that just really changed my otherwise nice greek holiday to a pure status run....which is stupid....
I should be able to quite easily and pretty cheaply do 3-4 intra-Europe premium cabin roundtrips on Aegean Airlines to destinations beside ATH so as to retain Gold status with the airline. This may mean that I visit Thessaloniki a bit more often than before so doesn’t mark a big change for me anyway, but I can see this definitely thinning down the number of A3*Gs who neither reside in Greece nor commute routinely to and from Greece.
I can't wait to see all those businessmen hopping between Greek islands in the dead of winter to keep status.
This is really sad. I’ve been loyal to A3 for 15 years and have tolerated every round of increased qualification requirements. Even after moving from Asia to the U.S., I still make a point to visit Greece every year so I can keep my status.
Earning 17,000 miles isn’t the issue — that’s easy. But requiring 12 A3/OA segments is a real stretch. What does that even look like in practice? One trip to Greece...
This is really sad. I’ve been loyal to A3 for 15 years and have tolerated every round of increased qualification requirements. Even after moving from Asia to the U.S., I still make a point to visit Greece every year so I can keep my status.
Earning 17,000 miles isn’t the issue — that’s easy. But requiring 12 A3/OA segments is a real stretch. What does that even look like in practice? One trip to Greece per year only covers 4 segments, so I’d somehow need to squeeze 8 extra Aegean flights into a single vacation. Flying to Greece three times a year to requalify simply isn’t realistic.
Now I’m sitting here wondering… do I just switch to TK? But I still have nearly 300,000 miles stuck with A3, I haven't seen any good business class lately...so I feel trapped.
Honestly, I’m at a loss about what to do next.
If you make less than three trips per year with A3 (which would mean 12 segments unless ATH is the final destination), you're not really "loyal" to them. Of course everyone loves an easy status but let's be reasonable, this just isn't the amount of business that justifies gold.
no it doesn't have to be. A3 domestic flights are really cheap. 10 of those are not as expensive as my business class from paris to ATH or MAD ATH or ATH DUBAI.
like someone mentioned in the discussion, If a person just want to satisfy the system, they can fly ATH HER back and forth in one day but that's just stupid.
loyalty is a habit, I fly 60 times a year, I can get gold with united or others, (i don't like united) it's the hassle of change.
While they weren't perfect, I miss Olympic. Greece deserves a true long-haul airline. Like, it feels kinda 'wrong' to connect in Istanbul to get to Athens... (unless you're Eric Adams...)
Aegean is getting into the long-haul travel business so they will likely get me on some trips to India. And I’m really curious what the airfares will be like since even last minute I am finding things like Europe to Delhi for sub-$300 one-way in economy class as a result of IndiGo and its competitors.
I agree that the Platinum tier benefits are really weak for the effort required, but you missed the part about having a “dedicated team”, whatever that means.
I’m not sure where the information in this article is from but regarding current Gold requalification:
“ 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 70,000 Tier Miles, regardless of which airline you choose to fly with.”
There’s no such thing as re-qualify for silver first.
Incredible changes. Opening a lot of opportunities for mileage runs. For example, a round trip ATH-HER (one-hour flight) costs only 69 USD. You can do four round trips in a day, so you can be done with 32 flights in 4 days. 1200 USD for two *G statuses. Fantastic deal. Platinum renewal looks very good.
You won't be anywhere near 72k miles with that!
For segment runs look closer at the Aegean passes. ATH-HER at €19 each + €25 in taxes and only €19+€7 for HER-ATH. €17 for SKG but higher taxes.
This is one way to resolve ATH lounge crowding.
LH lounge in Athens is much less of a circus.
@Jack - Depends on when you travel. When there's plenty of LHG departures, LH lounge becomes an even worse zoo.
From a revenue perspective, Aegean's latest changes are likely to prove counterproductive.
When passengers fly to Greece once annually, they typically travel with partners and children, turning it into a family vacation. This pattern meant Aegean was already capturing far more than the minimum four flight segments from their Gold cardholders—often multiplied across several family members.
However, few travelers will be willing to complete 18 flight segments to Greece each year. This is particularly true...
From a revenue perspective, Aegean's latest changes are likely to prove counterproductive.
When passengers fly to Greece once annually, they typically travel with partners and children, turning it into a family vacation. This pattern meant Aegean was already capturing far more than the minimum four flight segments from their Gold cardholders—often multiplied across several family members.
However, few travelers will be willing to complete 18 flight segments to Greece each year. This is particularly true given that Athens Airport has become overcrowded and increasingly unpleasant in recent years. Moreover, Athens lacks appeal as a connecting hub for European travelers beyond the Greek islands, since Aegean doesn't operate long-haul flights.
Rather than generating incremental revenue, these stricter requirements risk alienating those customers who were already delivering substantial business through high-yield, peak-pricing leisure bookings.
A little myopic to think that that’s what brings the airline its core business and profits. Look closer at their business model!
For many airlines, the mileage programs are more profitable than the core business itself. For other, such as Aegean in the past years, they were significant drivers of passenger volume.
The majority of Aegean's business is not Greek people flying out of the country (particularly not for long-haul...), but foreigners coming to Greece, mostly for vacation. That is why the mileage program had significantly lower thresholds (12,000 miles versus 70,000) if one booked four legs...
For many airlines, the mileage programs are more profitable than the core business itself. For other, such as Aegean in the past years, they were significant drivers of passenger volume.
The majority of Aegean's business is not Greek people flying out of the country (particularly not for long-haul...), but foreigners coming to Greece, mostly for vacation. That is why the mileage program had significantly lower thresholds (12,000 miles versus 70,000) if one booked four legs with them - to get all these people to buy tickets for them (and often their families) annually.
Very few of these people are going to book the 18 legs now required - I suspect many of them will now book 0 flights on Aegean, as there is no more incentive to do so.
This is me. Switched from TP*G (my home airline at the time) to A3 13 years ago, retained A3*G ever since. Reason wasn't so much the renewal requirements (though that certainly helped at times) but being fed up with TAP's short expiration time (back then, not sure today) and later family pooling (Together account).
Usually take a family trip to Greece every year (5 people, so 20 flights overall) and might travel to or connect...
This is me. Switched from TP*G (my home airline at the time) to A3 13 years ago, retained A3*G ever since. Reason wasn't so much the renewal requirements (though that certainly helped at times) but being fed up with TAP's short expiration time (back then, not sure today) and later family pooling (Together account).
Usually take a family trip to Greece every year (5 people, so 20 flights overall) and might travel to or connect in Athens for business a couple more times. Really enjoy flying A3, so happy to take some detours. Currently have about 498k miles on my account.
Won't go out of my way to fly the 12 sectors, though. I'm renewed through mid-2027, so nothing changes immediately, and I may or may not qualify based on miles alone -- my travel patterns are quite spiky -- but this is likely the end of the run for me.
Not really mad, just sad. In the end, a programme like TK's is significantly more rational given I organically fly long-haul with them and can easily meet the requirements.
Maybe more airlines should go even further with "outsider" qualification requirements and mimic Amex Platinum: you have to have at least one "our-metal" flight each quarter and make you be a sustained actual member...
@Lucky et al - we can we go from here? What's the easiest Star Alliance Gold status to earn after the Aegean?
TK
Operating carrier pays for lounge access not the FQTV programme
True if you are traveling on a ticket that grants lounge access. Not if you are getting in on status only.
In Star Alliance it's the FFP that pays, unless the lounge access is already included in the ticket - and even then, if you have business lounge access based on the ticket but access a *G lounge (e.g. LO Elite Lounge or LHG SEN lounges), the FFP is billed for the difference.
I've been Star Gold with Aegean for almost ten years. I was already considering not renewing status from next year. I used to love visiting Greece and traveling through ATH, but lately the crowding and service have been horrible. Also, visiting Greece several times a year isn't as fun and enjoyable as it used to be given the crowds, higher prices, and diminished service I've experienced more recently.
I'll be sad to give up...
I've been Star Gold with Aegean for almost ten years. I was already considering not renewing status from next year. I used to love visiting Greece and traveling through ATH, but lately the crowding and service have been horrible. Also, visiting Greece several times a year isn't as fun and enjoyable as it used to be given the crowds, higher prices, and diminished service I've experienced more recently.
I'll be sad to give up the status most familiar to me, but these changes-along with what I described above-make the decision a little easier. I'll continue working towards OW status with Alaska now.
Considering that Aegean are already doing a bit of intercontinental flying (to the UAE and Saudi Arabia) and are planning to start proper long-haul service, I don't think that the new requirements for gold are excessive. It's also good that they're giving members plenty of notice. In that context, it's not surprising that they are no longer keen to have elites who don't fly with them with any regularity.
The platinum benefits do seem very...
Considering that Aegean are already doing a bit of intercontinental flying (to the UAE and Saudi Arabia) and are planning to start proper long-haul service, I don't think that the new requirements for gold are excessive. It's also good that they're giving members plenty of notice. In that context, it's not surprising that they are no longer keen to have elites who don't fly with them with any regularity.
The platinum benefits do seem very weak, but the new tier won't be going live for another year so presumably they'll have the opportunity to consider feedback from their members.
'proper long-haul service'... bring back Olympic!
This will basically obliterate most of A3's *G base. Getting four segments a year was easy - one round trip from Europe to any of the Greek islands did the trick. Getting 32 segments practically ensures that only actual A3 frequent flyers qualify for the status. For those who could earn Gold status "the hard way", they now have no particular reason to choose A3 over many other FFPs with lower qualifying thresholds.
Sorry, I meant to write 12* segments.
I'm quite sure that obliterating the *G members who contribute little to their revenue base is exactly what they have in mind. Loyalty programs are intended to reward loyalty, not freeloading.
Granting status to people who don't fly with you just creates cost, potentially a significant one - someone who will fly A3 once a year to earn four segments and then flies other *A airlines twice a month is exactly the type of customer A3 wants to get rid of.
The original idea was that you make up for the loses by having people credit their flights to you (thus generating revenue). But that doesn't...
Granting status to people who don't fly with you just creates cost, potentially a significant one - someone who will fly A3 once a year to earn four segments and then flies other *A airlines twice a month is exactly the type of customer A3 wants to get rid of.
The original idea was that you make up for the loses by having people credit their flights to you (thus generating revenue). But that doesn't work that well these days when many booking classes credit very little - if anything at all. OS is one example which is particularly bad, I saw intra-EU Y flights for 400€ return that didn't credit anything to other *A programs.
If that was the case, why not keeping the 12K miles for renewal for passengers flying 12 flights on Aegean every year? Increasing the miles demand by 50% AND adding 8 flight segments means simply to reduce number of *G status holders with A3, period. Aegean in my opinion will lose some very loyal and profitable passengers.
People who fly less than three times a year (assuming a roundtrip with a connection) with you and don't earn even 17k miles per year aren't "very loyal" and giving them gold status is hardly "very profitable".
I know people who would pay up to fly Aegean in Aegean business class for the purpose of *G re-qualification but will probably cutback on flying Aegean to some degree or another once this change hits them. But they tend to not be very frequent Aegean flyers beyond 4-6 Aegean segments a year and then use A3*G status primarily for other Star Alliance flights. Clearly, Aegean wants to cut back on such kind of A3*Gs...
I know people who would pay up to fly Aegean in Aegean business class for the purpose of *G re-qualification but will probably cutback on flying Aegean to some degree or another once this change hits them. But they tend to not be very frequent Aegean flyers beyond 4-6 Aegean segments a year and then use A3*G status primarily for other Star Alliance flights. Clearly, Aegean wants to cut back on such kind of A3*Gs otherwise they wouldn’t have hiked up the requirements so much.
I anticipate we will see Aegean pushing customers to buy access to the Aegean lounges instead of Aegean having to foot the bill for its A3*Gs using the lounges.