Aegean Airlines just recently joined the Star Alliance, and they have the lowest Star Alliance Gold level qualification tier, at a measly 20,000 status miles to qualify. As a Star Alliance Gold member you get access to all Star Alliance Gold lounges whenever traveling, even on a domestic ticket. A lot of Continental, United, and US Airways elite members will credit excess miles to a foreign Star Alliance airline to gain lounge access on all itineraries, even domestic ones.
Aegean Airlines is even offering 1,000 status miles to new members, meaning you only need 19,000 more miles to qualify.
It’s worth paying close attention to their mileage earning chart, as not all fare buckets qualify for full mileage. For example, while first class on United accrues 300% mileage through Aegean, some discounted economy class buckets (W class and below) only accrue 50% mileage. On US Airways and Continental, however, all fare classes count for a minimum of 100% mileage credit.
(Tip of the hat to Musings of the Global Traveller)
I understand from the customer service of Agean that all is needed to renew an Aegean star gold is to credit to that card one star alliance flight per membership year, regardless of duration. How wonderful!
Please correct your blog post to note that a bunch of CO classes earn only 50%.
I'm trying to take advantage of this but am unclear on what "Minimum miles" refers to. Is it the minimum needed to get credit? Or is it the minimum that will be credited per segment? Thanks!
stranger still if I read this correctly is that you'll earn 300% in F on say Air China yet on SQ you will earn at the low rate of 160% (Suites) and 150 (F,P,A).
The "redemption per flight number" is a bit worrisome, if someone were to fly, for example, HKG-ICN-SFO RT on OZ in business the chart would read 150,000 miles. However, if the "redemption per flight number" were used to the letter, it would actually cost 192,000. Add on top of that 42k or 80k if you are going to a non-OZ gateway in the USA, and this becomes closer to Skypesos 2 (SkyDrachmae).
Does anyone...
The "redemption per flight number" is a bit worrisome, if someone were to fly, for example, HKG-ICN-SFO RT on OZ in business the chart would read 150,000 miles. However, if the "redemption per flight number" were used to the letter, it would actually cost 192,000. Add on top of that 42k or 80k if you are going to a non-OZ gateway in the USA, and this becomes closer to Skypesos 2 (SkyDrachmae).
Does anyone know if this is actually true? If so, it would seem that Aegean is not a soon-to-be-ex BD safe haven, and AC, OZ, or TK might work a little better.
It sure is easy to get status though!
other than thai and croatia, AC is the only other airline with 0% accrual factor on domestic and canada-usa flights :( any1 know why?
Lucky, Thanks for confirming that
Damn! My mother lives in Greece. Just had her credit 500 TK miles to UA on 6/30. Now I know, what needs to be done in the future thanks to Ben. So, hit 20,000 miles on Aegean and only once that is done each year, start posting to UA. Cool!
@ Bonesaz -- That's correct on both counts. :)
So If I understand this correctly, I can join Aegean, then fly a UA flight and credit my miles to Aegean? and a Z fare is 200% of the miles flown?
CP@YOW: For earning on CO, yes, but in terms of crediting CO flights to Aegean the lower fares do not earn full mileage.
I should have been more clear...
http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/Content.aspx?code=winFly
If the mileage charge is wrong about CO, what about AC? The chart says that some fares accure 0% for US-Canda flights. Say it ain't so....
It's 20000 miles to qualify and 16000 to renew the Gold status!
A bit annoying about all the non-qualifying booking classes, but certainly some interesting aspects to the programme too!
@Matthew - CO eliminated the 50% policy when they joined Star
http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US/Marketing/CustComm/Promotions/Pages/continental.aspx
I could easily make this with one A fare I have next week.
Looks interesting, although their T&Cs are a little messed up (doesn't mention Star Alliance).
Plus, there are only select fares that earn 300% unlike on BD and LH's reward programs. Most notable one is probably UA F, A - the others are your traditional 'heavy expensive' types, e.g. LH F. SQ continues to be pretty stingy.
Redemptions could be interesting (charged on every flight number flown, not an entire journey). Points prices look OK-ish.
Great news--this likely solves my BD/LH dilemma.
As an aside, W, E, S, T, N, L fare classes actually earns only 50% on CO.