Oct 20, 2014, 8:06 am
Last edit by: Snacky
This is the WIKI for the Aegean Airlines (A3) / Olympic Air (OA) Miles+Bonus frequent flier program. Please read all about it on their homepage: http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/
Please note that A3 is a Star Alliance (*A) member airline, OA is not.
If you have questions not answered in this WIKI or you can't find an answer on the A3 Miles+Bonus website, ask in the thread below.
Tiers (clicking on them takes you directly to the respective tier's Miles+Bonus benefits webpage)
BLUE
SILVER
GOLD
Miles
Miles are classified into two categories, tier miles and award miles.
Tier Miles determine the tier of the program to which the member belongs. These are miles that each member collects from qualifying flights with A3, OA and *A airlines in order to move through the membership levels to Silver and Gold, and then to retain those levels. They expire at the end of each membership year - any 'excess' miles beyond the Tier qualification do not carry forward into the following year.
Award Miles are miles that every member collects in order to redeem for redemption flights or other products and services. Award miles are accumulated from flights with A3, OA, *A member airlines and products and services of the program partners and do not expire provided the account remains active by crediting flights.
Tier advancement
Tier advancement is constantly evaluated and measured along a rolling 12 month period. This means your account will be upgraded as soon as you hit the requirements at any time, counting backwards within the last 12 months. A few days after a new tier threshold has been reached, there will be a "Card upgrade" transaction in your transactions overview.
SILVER
The BLUE member that accumulates 12K tier miles, including at least 2 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months, will be upgraded to the SILVER tier.
Upon the upgrade to the SILVER tier, the required 12K tier miles+2xA3/OA flights or 24K tier miles will be consumed instantly and the year start/end date will be reset. Any tier miles beyond the threshold will remain in your account for 12 months, and will therefore count towards any subsequent upgrade to Gold. All segments flown in qualifying for Silver will be reset to zero, so a further 4 segments will be required to qualify for Gold under the combined segment/miles option.
NOTE: In a scenario where you accumulate the required A3/OA flights some time after you already have accumulated more tier miles than what's required in the combined tier miles plus flights threshold (12K), but have not yet accumulated enough tier miles to reach the tier miles only threshold (24K), you will be instantly upgraded to the SILVER tier and your year start/end date for your subsequent GOLD upgrade will reset, but also be set to less than 1 year ahead in time (in effect the date of the first possible opportunity to reach the upgrade threshold for the GOLD tier), the date depending on when the last consumed tier miles for the SILVER upgrade were originally accumulated. A lesser amount of tier miles, equal to the difference between the remaining leftover tier miles and the qualification thresholds, will then be required for upgrade to the GOLD tier. BUT, be aware that tier miles expire after 12 months, and therefore expiration of older tier miles will continue all through your new membership year, meaning that in this scenario the "until"-date and qualification thresholds will change as time passes and more tier miles expire. Therefore, you'd be wise to check your account statement continuously and your transactions records rather accurately, to follow on which dates you previously accumulated your tier miles, AND when they expire, to plan your subsequent upgrade to the GOLD tier in the most effective way.
GOLD
The SILVER member that accumulates 24K tier miles, including at least 4 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 48K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, will be upgraded to the GOLD tier.
Tier retention
Tier retention is only evaluated at the end of each membership year (on the "until"-date in your account statement).
SILVER
The SILVER member that accumulates 8K tier miles including 2 flights with A3/OA or a total of 16K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the BLUE tier.
GOLD
The GOLD member that accumulates 12K tier miles including 4 flights with A3/OA or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the SILVER tier.
On reaching the retention criteria, the member's year-end date will not change, and the member's retained status will extend for 1 year from the year-end date (e.g. if the year-end date was 24th November 2015, the member's status will extend to 24th November 2016). The extension will however not be shown in your online statement until your status has been renewed (at the year-end date or immediately after). Also note that for retentions, any leftover tier miles exceeding the retention thresholds will be expired by the next time retention is evaluated, so thereby there are effectively no rollover tier miles helping you retain your status more easily.
Qualifying flights
For the purposes of accumulating either two (for SILVER) or four (for GOLD) A3/OA flights, the metal travelled on counts. So if A3 marketed, but another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) operated the flight(s), they do not count. If another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) marketed, but A3/OA operated the flight(s), they should count (might be subject to the online retro-claim procedure). Also note that there are some non-earning fare buckets on OA flights; these are not believed to count (if this happens to be the case, someone is bound to learn this the hard way; we'd very much like to hear your reports).
Tier and Award miles purchase (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may top up their accounts by purchasing additional tier miles in order to upgrade to the next tier or to retain their current tier. The maximum amount of tier miles that can be bought, are 1000 for SILVER members and 2000 for GOLD members (in increments of 500) priced at 10 eurocents/mile (€50 per 500 tier miles).
Award miles are also available for purchase, even for BLUE members. The maximum amount of award miles that can be bought is 50000 (in increments of 1000), priced at 2.5 eurocents/mile (€25 per 1000 award miles).
NOTE:All miles purchases are credited to your account immediately and are non-refundable.
Together Account (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may activate a together account and add up to 5 members (family, friends etc.), regardless of their tier. All the award miles earned by each member will then be automatically transferred to the together account, letting the head member of the together account make full use of the collective award miles balance for redemptions. There is also a setting in "Manage my together account" where you can allow or disallow members to see the transactions in the together account and to redeem miles on their own. Please note that all the members of the together account will still continue to receive their tier miles to their own personal accounts, in order to be eligible for status tier upgrade or retention.
Happy Miles (new)
Happy Miles is a unique service that allows you to spend up to 30% fewer miles on specific flights throughout the Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air network. Simply login to Miles+Bonus, select “Request award ticket” from the navigation list of your account menu and pick a happy mile flight. Keep checking in to find out about new destinations to come as happy miles flights are updated every three months.
Please note that A3 is a Star Alliance (*A) member airline, OA is not.
If you have questions not answered in this WIKI or you can't find an answer on the A3 Miles+Bonus website, ask in the thread below.
Tiers (clicking on them takes you directly to the respective tier's Miles+Bonus benefits webpage)
BLUE
SILVER
GOLD
Miles
Miles are classified into two categories, tier miles and award miles.
Tier Miles determine the tier of the program to which the member belongs. These are miles that each member collects from qualifying flights with A3, OA and *A airlines in order to move through the membership levels to Silver and Gold, and then to retain those levels. They expire at the end of each membership year - any 'excess' miles beyond the Tier qualification do not carry forward into the following year.
Award Miles are miles that every member collects in order to redeem for redemption flights or other products and services. Award miles are accumulated from flights with A3, OA, *A member airlines and products and services of the program partners and do not expire provided the account remains active by crediting flights.
Tier advancement
Tier advancement is constantly evaluated and measured along a rolling 12 month period. This means your account will be upgraded as soon as you hit the requirements at any time, counting backwards within the last 12 months. A few days after a new tier threshold has been reached, there will be a "Card upgrade" transaction in your transactions overview.
SILVER
The BLUE member that accumulates 12K tier miles, including at least 2 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months, will be upgraded to the SILVER tier.
Upon the upgrade to the SILVER tier, the required 12K tier miles+2xA3/OA flights or 24K tier miles will be consumed instantly and the year start/end date will be reset. Any tier miles beyond the threshold will remain in your account for 12 months, and will therefore count towards any subsequent upgrade to Gold. All segments flown in qualifying for Silver will be reset to zero, so a further 4 segments will be required to qualify for Gold under the combined segment/miles option.
NOTE: In a scenario where you accumulate the required A3/OA flights some time after you already have accumulated more tier miles than what's required in the combined tier miles plus flights threshold (12K), but have not yet accumulated enough tier miles to reach the tier miles only threshold (24K), you will be instantly upgraded to the SILVER tier and your year start/end date for your subsequent GOLD upgrade will reset, but also be set to less than 1 year ahead in time (in effect the date of the first possible opportunity to reach the upgrade threshold for the GOLD tier), the date depending on when the last consumed tier miles for the SILVER upgrade were originally accumulated. A lesser amount of tier miles, equal to the difference between the remaining leftover tier miles and the qualification thresholds, will then be required for upgrade to the GOLD tier. BUT, be aware that tier miles expire after 12 months, and therefore expiration of older tier miles will continue all through your new membership year, meaning that in this scenario the "until"-date and qualification thresholds will change as time passes and more tier miles expire. Therefore, you'd be wise to check your account statement continuously and your transactions records rather accurately, to follow on which dates you previously accumulated your tier miles, AND when they expire, to plan your subsequent upgrade to the GOLD tier in the most effective way.
GOLD
The SILVER member that accumulates 24K tier miles, including at least 4 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 48K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, will be upgraded to the GOLD tier.
Tier retention
Tier retention is only evaluated at the end of each membership year (on the "until"-date in your account statement).
SILVER
The SILVER member that accumulates 8K tier miles including 2 flights with A3/OA or a total of 16K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the BLUE tier.
GOLD
The GOLD member that accumulates 12K tier miles including 4 flights with A3/OA or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the SILVER tier.
On reaching the retention criteria, the member's year-end date will not change, and the member's retained status will extend for 1 year from the year-end date (e.g. if the year-end date was 24th November 2015, the member's status will extend to 24th November 2016). The extension will however not be shown in your online statement until your status has been renewed (at the year-end date or immediately after). Also note that for retentions, any leftover tier miles exceeding the retention thresholds will be expired by the next time retention is evaluated, so thereby there are effectively no rollover tier miles helping you retain your status more easily.
Qualifying flights
For the purposes of accumulating either two (for SILVER) or four (for GOLD) A3/OA flights, the metal travelled on counts. So if A3 marketed, but another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) operated the flight(s), they do not count. If another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) marketed, but A3/OA operated the flight(s), they should count (might be subject to the online retro-claim procedure). Also note that there are some non-earning fare buckets on OA flights; these are not believed to count (if this happens to be the case, someone is bound to learn this the hard way; we'd very much like to hear your reports).
Tier and Award miles purchase (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may top up their accounts by purchasing additional tier miles in order to upgrade to the next tier or to retain their current tier. The maximum amount of tier miles that can be bought, are 1000 for SILVER members and 2000 for GOLD members (in increments of 500) priced at 10 eurocents/mile (€50 per 500 tier miles).
Award miles are also available for purchase, even for BLUE members. The maximum amount of award miles that can be bought is 50000 (in increments of 1000), priced at 2.5 eurocents/mile (€25 per 1000 award miles).
NOTE:All miles purchases are credited to your account immediately and are non-refundable.
Together Account (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may activate a together account and add up to 5 members (family, friends etc.), regardless of their tier. All the award miles earned by each member will then be automatically transferred to the together account, letting the head member of the together account make full use of the collective award miles balance for redemptions. There is also a setting in "Manage my together account" where you can allow or disallow members to see the transactions in the together account and to redeem miles on their own. Please note that all the members of the together account will still continue to receive their tier miles to their own personal accounts, in order to be eligible for status tier upgrade or retention.
Happy Miles (new)
Happy Miles is a unique service that allows you to spend up to 30% fewer miles on specific flights throughout the Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air network. Simply login to Miles+Bonus, select “Request award ticket” from the navigation list of your account menu and pick a happy mile flight. Keep checking in to find out about new destinations to come as happy miles flights are updated every three months.
New Program Details for M&B
Nov 9, 2014, 10:58 pm
#331
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: YYZ, HKG, MFM
Programs: AC35K, AS MVP, WS Gold, ITA EP, Marriott Plat, Hyatt-Explorist, IHG Diamond
Posts: 2,019
[QUOTE=theworld;23816932]Same here, I remember speaking to A3 every two weeks for 4 months to get updates. Stupid AC IT system made it not eligible for miles, so glad that was sorted out.
Nov 11, 2014, 6:44 am
#332
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,379
I have also found it impossible to get Lufthansa S class intra-Europe miles credited.
Nov 12, 2014, 5:47 am
#336
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Netherlands
Programs: KL Platinum; A3 Gold
Posts: 28,802
Even if the miles don't reach your account until December, when the new rules are in effect, once your account has been updated with flights taken in early November which would have brought you up to a new status level under the rules in effect on that date, your account will be updated to that new status, even if the requirement for status under the new rules is not met.
If you made "old Gold" under the old rules, then you will be granted new Gold, with fixed Tier Mile collection period of 24/11/2014-23/11/2015 in which to retain status - the same as anyone who achieved Gold in the old scheme, even if the system doesn't recognise you as Gold at the actual time of the changeover.
If the Tier Miles you are currently missing are not sufficient to change your status under the old rules, then nothing will happen. The Tier Miles will be merely added to your account with an activity date equal to the date of each flight in question; these Tier Miles, like all others, will expire 1 year from the relevant activity dates.
Nov 12, 2014, 12:40 pm
#337
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2012
Programs: A3, AA. Plasticy things! That give me, y'know, Stuff!
Posts: 6,293
Have I missed something on the changeover? Qualified for Gold through to 12/2015 back in August, card arrived in Sept. Just got a new card sent to me congratulating me on reaching Silver through 12/2015. Just to make it more entertaining, the website account page says I have no status at all.
Not that 24,000 miles will be difficult (twice to PVG will more than take care of that, even in Y) but ...?
ETA: Just called Aegean and actually got someone on the line. Seems the Silver card had been in the mail since July when I hit Silver, and looking at the envelope now that appears to be true! I love the Greek & US postal systems.
Not that 24,000 miles will be difficult (twice to PVG will more than take care of that, even in Y) but ...?
ETA: Just called Aegean and actually got someone on the line. Seems the Silver card had been in the mail since July when I hit Silver, and looking at the envelope now that appears to be true! I love the Greek & US postal systems.
Last edited by SeriouslyLost; Nov 12, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Nov 12, 2014, 9:34 pm
#338
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,578
Have I missed something on the changeover? Qualified for Gold through to 12/2015 back in August, card arrived in Sept. Just got a new card sent to me congratulating me on reaching Silver through 12/2015. Just to make it more entertaining, the website account page says I have no status at all.
Not that 24,000 miles will be difficult (twice to PVG will more than take care of that, even in Y) but ...?
ETA: Just called Aegean and actually got someone on the line. Seems the Silver card had been in the mail since July when I hit Silver, and looking at the envelope now that appears to be true! I love the Greek & US postal systems.
Not that 24,000 miles will be difficult (twice to PVG will more than take care of that, even in Y) but ...?
ETA: Just called Aegean and actually got someone on the line. Seems the Silver card had been in the mail since July when I hit Silver, and looking at the envelope now that appears to be true! I love the Greek & US postal systems.
Nov 13, 2014, 9:27 am
#339
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2014
Programs: Top Tier with all 3 alliances
Posts: 11,748
Let me tell you something about the Hellenic postal service...When they deliver the mail in an apartment complex in Greece, at least in my experience in different residential buildings in various cities, they do not bother to put your mail into the individual mailboxes for each apartment, they just drop everything in a pile on the floor or on table, for the whole building to sort through and find their individual mail. So, your recovery rates are about 70%, with all unusual looking mail getting lost or stolen, and only the bills always left...I don't understand how these people still have jobs, we're talking disgraceful service...
Nov 13, 2014, 2:26 pm
#340
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2012
Programs: A3, AA. Plasticy things! That give me, y'know, Stuff!
Posts: 6,293
Then agreed that maybe there was something wrong and she'd pass it on to be looked at. Logged on later & everything looked fine. I obviously can't tell if those were related events, but I'll assume they were because that makes them look good (& me less bad if I was somehow screwing something up.) 
No idea what was going on with the webpage/account, but I have to say that so far I've been happily impressed with their customer service people and follow up. I just have to remember not to panic when the postal services conspire to make me panic.
Nov 14, 2014, 9:23 am
#341
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: CKH
Posts: 575
Just got an answer to my question I sent on email to A3 CS a long time ago, about how crediting the miles from my Gold qualifying flight after the 24th would affect my status upgrade. I'm pleased I got a definite answer just in time for my outbound flight tomorrow (which would have ment a change in what FF-programme I would want to credit those miles to, if the answer had been a negative one). I have ofcourse already gotten a confirmation elsewhere (here in this forum) that this will not be a concern, but at the time I asked I had no written confirmation of this. I believe it is an airlines duty to properly and timely inform it's passengers about things that could seriously affect their chances at increasing their level of comfort when they travel.
This is the very polite and much valued answer I received:
Dear Snacky,
Thank you for contacting the Customer Relations Department of Aegean and please accept our apologies for our late reply. Indeed on November 24th, Miles&Bonus Program is redesigned, so as to offer more benefits and services to its Members. You may achieve Gold status before the launch of the New Program, by collecting additional xxxxxxxx Tier Miles, until 23NOV2014. It does not matter if the miles will be credited after November 24th, as long as the flights are executed before 24NOV2014. We look forward to welcoming you on board our flights soon.
So, soon to be Gold then. It will be interesting to see when I get my Gold card. I don't expect it to arrive until January 2015 (my status will probably change too late for the November batch card shipments). Doesn't really matter, because I don't have any upcoming flights where I can enjoy my Gold benefits until a little later. We'll see if I can requalify, but 12K+4xA3/OA or 24K is low enough to say right now that I'm atleast gonna try, although I won't be flying all that much next year. Maybe I'll take that small holiday in Greece I never came around to doing before, next summer ...
Snacky
This is the very polite and much valued answer I received:
Dear Snacky,
Thank you for contacting the Customer Relations Department of Aegean and please accept our apologies for our late reply. Indeed on November 24th, Miles&Bonus Program is redesigned, so as to offer more benefits and services to its Members. You may achieve Gold status before the launch of the New Program, by collecting additional xxxxxxxx Tier Miles, until 23NOV2014. It does not matter if the miles will be credited after November 24th, as long as the flights are executed before 24NOV2014. We look forward to welcoming you on board our flights soon.
So, soon to be Gold then. It will be interesting to see when I get my Gold card. I don't expect it to arrive until January 2015 (my status will probably change too late for the November batch card shipments). Doesn't really matter, because I don't have any upcoming flights where I can enjoy my Gold benefits until a little later. We'll see if I can requalify, but 12K+4xA3/OA or 24K is low enough to say right now that I'm atleast gonna try, although I won't be flying all that much next year. Maybe I'll take that small holiday in Greece I never came around to doing before, next summer
...Snacky
Last edited by Snacky; Nov 14, 2014 at 1:13 pm
Nov 14, 2014, 11:33 am
#342
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: ZRH/YXU
Programs: A3*G, OZ*G, OW Sapphire
Posts: 526
Once again: Do you think current Gold members will receive their 4 upgrades after the 24th when the new program begins or only after "real" re-qualification flying the requisite amount of miles after the 24th?
Nov 15, 2014, 9:49 am
#343
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: DCA
Programs: DL FO; A3 *G; AA PLT; et cetera
Posts: 163
No one knows the answer, but we should know in ten days when the new program begins. It would be nice if we get them at the cut-over.
Nov 18, 2014, 12:23 am
#344
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 3
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(and my wife) will surely be a part of this outrageous alteration to our thousands of dollars of investment. We even had to take unnecessary trips to make it to Gold.
Please comment below so we can gather to take actions.
If there is a lawyer along us who would start a class action, I(and my wife) will surely be a part of this outrageous alteration to our thousands of dollars of investment. We even had to take unnecessary trips to make it to Gold.
Please comment below so we can gather to take actions.
Nov 18, 2014, 12:57 am
#345
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: YYZ, HKG, MFM
Programs: AC35K, AS MVP, WS Gold, ITA EP, Marriott Plat, Hyatt-Explorist, IHG Diamond
Posts: 2,019
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(and my wife) will surely be a part of this outrageous alteration to our thousands of dollars of investment. We even had to take unnecessary trips to make it to Gold.
Please comment below so we can gather to take actions.
If there is a lawyer along us who would start a class action, I(and my wife) will surely be a part of this outrageous alteration to our thousands of dollars of investment. We even had to take unnecessary trips to make it to Gold.
Please comment below so we can gather to take actions.
Compare to other *A partner, their requirement to maintain Gold status is pretty good.