Richelieu
Apr 23, 12, 12:32 pm
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/goldcircle-albums-assorted-ft-images-picture4378-aegean-faq.jpg
1. Introduction to Aegean Miles & Bonus (M&B)
1a. Quick presentation
M&B is Aegean Airlines (A3) loyalty programme. Aegean Airlines is a regional airlines based in Greece, and a member of Star Alliance since 2010. The programme is mostly known for its very low qualification thresholds to get *A elite status and perks, proabbly the less stringent of the whole alliance at this point.
1b. Status matches
While it can't be excluded, there was so far no report of successful status match TO M&B elite levels, except as a one time campaign tied to exit of airlines from Star Allliance. Most members won't be too concerned about matching in this case, as earning elite status is easy.
There was a handful of reports of Gold status being matched by other airlines (VS, AF/KL, DL...) but sometimes to a lower tier. It's understandable since Aegean's coverage is regional and other airlines may not expect much added business by luring one of A3's frequent flyers to their programme.
Status matches to other Star Alliance programme are not possible as airlines won't offer matches within an alliance as a general rule.
1c. How can I contact M&B
You can contact them by mail at miles_bonus@aegeanair.com. They are NOT quick to answer, but they do after a few days. If you want a quick answer, you can phone them (+30) 210 6261000 Mon-Fri 9am-11pm ATHENS TIME. Other phone numbers include :
France: 01 70 03 13 23
Germany: 06 - 92385630
Italy: 06 - 97150533
UK: 0871 200 0040
No, there are no offices in the US to provide service during US business hours.
2. Glossary
2a. Award miles
Award miles are the currency of M&B. They are used to get rewards such as free flights, upgrades on A3 flights, car rental within Greece, voucher in select Greek partner store... They come from a range of activities : flights, but also buying through A3's online stores and credit card spending. Award miles don't expire as long as the account is active.
2b. Tier miles
Tier miles are used to determine status. They only come from flights credited to the programme (and 1,000 of them from a special, unexpiring signup bonus). Tier miles expire 12-months after the flight that gave them, until you reach Gold status, at which point, they don't expire.
3. Membership Tiers
3a. Tier overview and thresholds
There are three levels in M&B. The first is the Basic Level. It's the level everyone starts with at enrollment.
When you earn 4,000 tier miles within a rolling 12-month period, you get promoted to Blue Level. Note that, unlike many other programs, the 1,000 miles signup bonus is 1,000 award AND tier miles, so effectively, you'll have to earn 3,000 tier miles within 12 months after enrollment to get upgraded to the next level.
Getting to Gold level require 16,000 tier miles within 12 months after you've been upgraded to Blue level, or within a 12-months rolling period while holding Blue status.
3b. Losing status
T&C doesn't state specific requalification requirements. As long as your account is active, you should keep your status. To maintain an account active, you're expected to credit a flight at least every 24 months as a Basic member, once every 36 months as an elite member.
3c. Is this too good to be true?
It seems. At this point, noone knows if there are further, hidden requirements as the programme is quite young and Gold members are yet to reach the validity period of their cards.
Keep in mind that A3 is a regional airline that just joined Star Alliance. Before that, it was difficult to get 4,000 and 16,000 miles by flying on Greek domestic routes only. It's certain that earning tier miles on long-haul flights has made it much easier. Note that, as usual with FF programme, rules can be amended at any time, but so far, it's how it works.
3d. When will I get my card?
Cards are sent once a month, usually around the end of the month. It can take additional time to deliver it around the world (they are shipped from Greece, and the nearer you are, the quicker you should get your card. Though the T&C states that you must use your card to get the benefits of the programme, there have been numerous reports of people being granted benefits, namely lounge access, by having their status printed on their boarding pass or showing a printout of their account showing status.
No card are issued for Basic Members, only Blue and Gold members.
3e. Blue level benefits
As a Blue member, you'll get:
Star Alliance Silver (*S) benefits, basically priority waitlisting and an additional piece of luggage with US-based airlines
5 kg of additional luggage capacity on Aegean flights
A plastic card showing your status
That's all! But you should not be Blue for a long time...
3f. Gold level benefits
As a Gold member, you'll get the following additional benefits:
One-category upgrade when renting an Hertz car
Priority passport control at IST airport
Guaranteed seat when booking full fare tickets at least 48h before a flight (on A3)
Fast-lane Security control where applicable when flying A3
Seat allocation 24h hours before a flight
Access to the three A3 lounges worldwide (ATH, SKG, LCA)
Oh, and you get Star Alliance Gold as well, if you are interested in that ;)
This means getting access to *A lounges even when flying an economy ticket. A3 is located in Europe, so you'll be granted access to lounges in North America even when flying a domestic flight.
3g. Getting benefits while crediting to another programme
It is possible to use a *A card to get benefits, like lounge access, while crediting the miles to another programme. PNRs have two different fields for entering the mileage programme used for credit (FQTV) and benefits (FQTS). Nothing in the term and conditions say you can't. It has been rumored that A3 is frowning upon that but it's unsubstantiated so far. This FAQ will we updated if A3 introduces crediting requirements in the future.
4. Earning miles
4a. Award and Tier miles with Aegean/Star Alliance flights.
You can read the earning page here. (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/program-description/earn-miles/)
Some precisions that aren't obvious...
Minimum earnings are applied after CoS bonus (called Accrual Factor) has been applied. o for example, MXP-ZRH is a 127 miles flight. On business, you'll get 200% of 127 miles (254 miles), bumped up to the minimum of 1000 miles, not 2,000 miles (127 bumped up to 1000, then doubled). On the other hand, flying the same flight in T (with a 50% accrual factor) grants 500 miles, not 250.
There are several fare bucket that are not listed on the page: they don't earn any mile, not even the minimum miles, and don't count toward maintaining activity on the programme
As usual with Star Alliance, it's the operating carrier, not the marketing carrier, that determines miles earned. So, for example, if you book an F ticket on a United codeshare flight operated by US Airways, you'll earn 150% and not 300%.
Do not assume that miles earning class in another program will necessarily let you earn miles with Aegean, check the official table for information. Note that sometime, a fare class from one carrier is mapped to another fare class when operated by another carrier. You could buy a ticket with a Z fare in a codeshare flight and it won't always be Z fare of the operating carrier.
4b. Problem with getting credit/getting perks
You should make sure your FF number is on the boarding pass, and ask check-in agents to check for that. You should also remember Aegean Airline code (A3) if you want to generally benefit from perks associated to the card. It's not a widely known airline, and some *A airlines employees don't know its existence or its membership of Star Alliance. So don't hesitate to tell the agent you're speaking to about that.
T&C of the programme state that miles should be posted on the next business day. After that, you should do a retroclaim application, providing your boarding pass as proof of travel to A3. The procedure can be initiated by logging to A3's website and selection Claiming Miles. Miles should then be posted within four weeks. You can retroclaim up to twelve month after a flight. And, if you have uncredited *A flights before joining, you can retroclaim them up to 6 months before your join date. Empirical experience shows that miles are posting quicker than when A3 joined *A, but it can still take a few days, so you could just wait a little before submitting a retroclaim. A3 doesn't provide follow-up email when considering a claim, so if you don't see the miles posted, you can call them once the normal delay has passed.
4c. Award miles with Booking.com
Aegean has a partnership to use Booking.com's engine and bring them revenue. When buying hotel rooms through this channel (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/partnerships/companies-offering-services/bookingcom/), you'll get 2 miles per euro spent. Be aware that several hotel chain programs don't grant points for consolidator fares, some of which you'll find via A3's website. Other may grant no points/benefits when booking via any third-party website.
4d. Award miles with CityDiscovery
CityDiscovery offers tours and travel activities, and booking with them
through A3's website (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/partnerships/companies-offering-services/city-discovery/) also get 2 miles per euro spent.
4e. Award miles with duty free shopping
You also get 2 miles per euro spent on on-board duty free on Aegean flights, and Hellenic Duty Free shops in Greece airports. You also get the same benefits when ordering online from the Eastpack store through A3's website (http://eastpak.aegeanair.com/main/index.php).
4f. Award miles with credit card spending
You can earn miles using a Greek-based Visa linked to an account in Alphabank. Unless you live in Greece, it's unlikely you can use this channel to get points.
4g. Award miles with Hertz
You'll get a fixed amount of miles (from 350 to 1,000) depending on length of rental and location. You need to either book through A3's website or make sure you use A3's CDP when booking, just quoting your M&B number isn't enough. The eligible CDP are displayed on Hertz website and depend on your M&B elite level (https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/partner/index.jsp?targetPage=AegeanAirlines_Benefitspage.j sp&selectedPartnerCode=A3&partnerType=A&leftNavUserSelection=globNav_8_1).
4h. Transfering miles and points, buying miles (short answer: no)
No option exist to pool miles between accounts, transfer miles, convert to and from any other programme. It's also impossible to top up your account by buying miles.
There is no transfer options between account of the same program (like Household Accounts).
5. Spending miles
5a. Aegean award flights
Awards flight on A3 use mile per segment, not per origin-destination only. So if you want to fly LHR-ATH-SKG roundtrip, you'll have to count the international segment mileage (20,000) plus the domestic mileage (9,000). On the plus side, as it's basically two separate tickets, you can do an unlimited stopover...
It's generally considered that Business ticket on domestic Aegean flights have little to no value over Economy.
5b. Star Alliance award flights
The Star Alliance reward table can be found here as well (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/program-description/spend-miles/).
To clarify some poor wording on the website:
Stopover aren't allowed on award tickets
Only one connection is allowed (each way), but there may be some leeway if an itin is impossible with a single connection. If there is a flight, but no award availability on it, you won't be allowed two connections.
The mileage needed is read directly from the table, you don't compute it per leg as is the case with Aegean award
5c. Are award ticket flexible?
No, you can't change tickets and you'll have to cancel them, incurring a 50% penalty on the miles used. You can cancel ticket up to 24h before a flight. Book wisely!
5d. Can I book one-way flight?
Yes, they are priced at half the mileage stated in the chart. If you want to do a stop over within the same zone, it can be a solution, albeit costly: booking, say, FRA-BKK-NRT with a stopover in BKK isn't possible, so you'll have to split it into three o/w away award. FRA-BKK, BKK-NRT, and NRT-FRA. The total amount will be 105,000 miles in Eco instead of the direct 80,000.
5d. Are award transferable?
Yes, you can issue award tickets for other persons freely.
5e. Upgrade award
Aegean isn't part of the Star Alliance upgrade award. So far, you can only redeem miles to get an upgrade on A3 operated flights. Given the low value of upgrading to domestic business class, this FAQ will concentrate on upgrading international tickets.
Upgrade can be done from the following fare: Y, M, B, H, Q, V, W, O, L, K, S, J. The cost is half the miles for an award flight (10,000 instead of 20,000 per leg), but you still gain miles based on the original booking class. So the net cost will be 8,750 if booked in Y, M, B, H and 8,000 in the other classes.
You can't upgrade from the cheaper fares.
5f. How can I get an award?
Award flight can be asked through the form listed in a member's online account, or a mail submission can be made to ask for an agent to come back to you with availability proposals.
If you've already checked for availability, either through ANA's online tool or United website, and know exactly what flight you want to book, you'll get quicker service by phoning to M&B Customer Service : (+30) 210 6261000.
Be careful to use ITA or any comparable tool to check for the taxes amount that should be charged before calling. There have been report of uninformed agents calculating taxes on a full fare flight.
5g. Award car rental
You can use miles to get free car rental with Hertz in Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria.
5h. Award shop vouchers
You can redeem miles at Hellenic Duty Free shops to pay in 200 miles increments for 1 €. At half a cent per mile, it's considered poor value.
6. Tips and good value
Unlike other *A programmes, A3 groups North Africa and Europe in the same award zone. Flying from Europe to Egypt or Israel don't cost more than from Germany to France.
7. Useful links
8. Unanswered questions -to be edited-
Redeeming using complex route (Europe->Asia via the US) ?
Renewal requirements
1. Introduction to Aegean Miles & Bonus (M&B)
1a. Quick presentation
M&B is Aegean Airlines (A3) loyalty programme. Aegean Airlines is a regional airlines based in Greece, and a member of Star Alliance since 2010. The programme is mostly known for its very low qualification thresholds to get *A elite status and perks, proabbly the less stringent of the whole alliance at this point.
1b. Status matches
While it can't be excluded, there was so far no report of successful status match TO M&B elite levels, except as a one time campaign tied to exit of airlines from Star Allliance. Most members won't be too concerned about matching in this case, as earning elite status is easy.
There was a handful of reports of Gold status being matched by other airlines (VS, AF/KL, DL...) but sometimes to a lower tier. It's understandable since Aegean's coverage is regional and other airlines may not expect much added business by luring one of A3's frequent flyers to their programme.
Status matches to other Star Alliance programme are not possible as airlines won't offer matches within an alliance as a general rule.
1c. How can I contact M&B
You can contact them by mail at miles_bonus@aegeanair.com. They are NOT quick to answer, but they do after a few days. If you want a quick answer, you can phone them (+30) 210 6261000 Mon-Fri 9am-11pm ATHENS TIME. Other phone numbers include :
France: 01 70 03 13 23
Germany: 06 - 92385630
Italy: 06 - 97150533
UK: 0871 200 0040
No, there are no offices in the US to provide service during US business hours.
2. Glossary
2a. Award miles
Award miles are the currency of M&B. They are used to get rewards such as free flights, upgrades on A3 flights, car rental within Greece, voucher in select Greek partner store... They come from a range of activities : flights, but also buying through A3's online stores and credit card spending. Award miles don't expire as long as the account is active.
2b. Tier miles
Tier miles are used to determine status. They only come from flights credited to the programme (and 1,000 of them from a special, unexpiring signup bonus). Tier miles expire 12-months after the flight that gave them, until you reach Gold status, at which point, they don't expire.
3. Membership Tiers
3a. Tier overview and thresholds
There are three levels in M&B. The first is the Basic Level. It's the level everyone starts with at enrollment.
When you earn 4,000 tier miles within a rolling 12-month period, you get promoted to Blue Level. Note that, unlike many other programs, the 1,000 miles signup bonus is 1,000 award AND tier miles, so effectively, you'll have to earn 3,000 tier miles within 12 months after enrollment to get upgraded to the next level.
Getting to Gold level require 16,000 tier miles within 12 months after you've been upgraded to Blue level, or within a 12-months rolling period while holding Blue status.
3b. Losing status
T&C doesn't state specific requalification requirements. As long as your account is active, you should keep your status. To maintain an account active, you're expected to credit a flight at least every 24 months as a Basic member, once every 36 months as an elite member.
3c. Is this too good to be true?
It seems. At this point, noone knows if there are further, hidden requirements as the programme is quite young and Gold members are yet to reach the validity period of their cards.
Keep in mind that A3 is a regional airline that just joined Star Alliance. Before that, it was difficult to get 4,000 and 16,000 miles by flying on Greek domestic routes only. It's certain that earning tier miles on long-haul flights has made it much easier. Note that, as usual with FF programme, rules can be amended at any time, but so far, it's how it works.
3d. When will I get my card?
Cards are sent once a month, usually around the end of the month. It can take additional time to deliver it around the world (they are shipped from Greece, and the nearer you are, the quicker you should get your card. Though the T&C states that you must use your card to get the benefits of the programme, there have been numerous reports of people being granted benefits, namely lounge access, by having their status printed on their boarding pass or showing a printout of their account showing status.
No card are issued for Basic Members, only Blue and Gold members.
3e. Blue level benefits
As a Blue member, you'll get:
Star Alliance Silver (*S) benefits, basically priority waitlisting and an additional piece of luggage with US-based airlines
5 kg of additional luggage capacity on Aegean flights
A plastic card showing your status
That's all! But you should not be Blue for a long time...
3f. Gold level benefits
As a Gold member, you'll get the following additional benefits:
One-category upgrade when renting an Hertz car
Priority passport control at IST airport
Guaranteed seat when booking full fare tickets at least 48h before a flight (on A3)
Fast-lane Security control where applicable when flying A3
Seat allocation 24h hours before a flight
Access to the three A3 lounges worldwide (ATH, SKG, LCA)
Oh, and you get Star Alliance Gold as well, if you are interested in that ;)
This means getting access to *A lounges even when flying an economy ticket. A3 is located in Europe, so you'll be granted access to lounges in North America even when flying a domestic flight.
3g. Getting benefits while crediting to another programme
It is possible to use a *A card to get benefits, like lounge access, while crediting the miles to another programme. PNRs have two different fields for entering the mileage programme used for credit (FQTV) and benefits (FQTS). Nothing in the term and conditions say you can't. It has been rumored that A3 is frowning upon that but it's unsubstantiated so far. This FAQ will we updated if A3 introduces crediting requirements in the future.
4. Earning miles
4a. Award and Tier miles with Aegean/Star Alliance flights.
You can read the earning page here. (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/program-description/earn-miles/)
Some precisions that aren't obvious...
Minimum earnings are applied after CoS bonus (called Accrual Factor) has been applied. o for example, MXP-ZRH is a 127 miles flight. On business, you'll get 200% of 127 miles (254 miles), bumped up to the minimum of 1000 miles, not 2,000 miles (127 bumped up to 1000, then doubled). On the other hand, flying the same flight in T (with a 50% accrual factor) grants 500 miles, not 250.
There are several fare bucket that are not listed on the page: they don't earn any mile, not even the minimum miles, and don't count toward maintaining activity on the programme
As usual with Star Alliance, it's the operating carrier, not the marketing carrier, that determines miles earned. So, for example, if you book an F ticket on a United codeshare flight operated by US Airways, you'll earn 150% and not 300%.
Do not assume that miles earning class in another program will necessarily let you earn miles with Aegean, check the official table for information. Note that sometime, a fare class from one carrier is mapped to another fare class when operated by another carrier. You could buy a ticket with a Z fare in a codeshare flight and it won't always be Z fare of the operating carrier.
4b. Problem with getting credit/getting perks
You should make sure your FF number is on the boarding pass, and ask check-in agents to check for that. You should also remember Aegean Airline code (A3) if you want to generally benefit from perks associated to the card. It's not a widely known airline, and some *A airlines employees don't know its existence or its membership of Star Alliance. So don't hesitate to tell the agent you're speaking to about that.
T&C of the programme state that miles should be posted on the next business day. After that, you should do a retroclaim application, providing your boarding pass as proof of travel to A3. The procedure can be initiated by logging to A3's website and selection Claiming Miles. Miles should then be posted within four weeks. You can retroclaim up to twelve month after a flight. And, if you have uncredited *A flights before joining, you can retroclaim them up to 6 months before your join date. Empirical experience shows that miles are posting quicker than when A3 joined *A, but it can still take a few days, so you could just wait a little before submitting a retroclaim. A3 doesn't provide follow-up email when considering a claim, so if you don't see the miles posted, you can call them once the normal delay has passed.
4c. Award miles with Booking.com
Aegean has a partnership to use Booking.com's engine and bring them revenue. When buying hotel rooms through this channel (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/partnerships/companies-offering-services/bookingcom/), you'll get 2 miles per euro spent. Be aware that several hotel chain programs don't grant points for consolidator fares, some of which you'll find via A3's website. Other may grant no points/benefits when booking via any third-party website.
4d. Award miles with CityDiscovery
CityDiscovery offers tours and travel activities, and booking with them
through A3's website (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/partnerships/companies-offering-services/city-discovery/) also get 2 miles per euro spent.
4e. Award miles with duty free shopping
You also get 2 miles per euro spent on on-board duty free on Aegean flights, and Hellenic Duty Free shops in Greece airports. You also get the same benefits when ordering online from the Eastpack store through A3's website (http://eastpak.aegeanair.com/main/index.php).
4f. Award miles with credit card spending
You can earn miles using a Greek-based Visa linked to an account in Alphabank. Unless you live in Greece, it's unlikely you can use this channel to get points.
4g. Award miles with Hertz
You'll get a fixed amount of miles (from 350 to 1,000) depending on length of rental and location. You need to either book through A3's website or make sure you use A3's CDP when booking, just quoting your M&B number isn't enough. The eligible CDP are displayed on Hertz website and depend on your M&B elite level (https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/partner/index.jsp?targetPage=AegeanAirlines_Benefitspage.j sp&selectedPartnerCode=A3&partnerType=A&leftNavUserSelection=globNav_8_1).
4h. Transfering miles and points, buying miles (short answer: no)
No option exist to pool miles between accounts, transfer miles, convert to and from any other programme. It's also impossible to top up your account by buying miles.
There is no transfer options between account of the same program (like Household Accounts).
5. Spending miles
5a. Aegean award flights
Awards flight on A3 use mile per segment, not per origin-destination only. So if you want to fly LHR-ATH-SKG roundtrip, you'll have to count the international segment mileage (20,000) plus the domestic mileage (9,000). On the plus side, as it's basically two separate tickets, you can do an unlimited stopover...
It's generally considered that Business ticket on domestic Aegean flights have little to no value over Economy.
5b. Star Alliance award flights
The Star Alliance reward table can be found here as well (http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/program-description/spend-miles/).
To clarify some poor wording on the website:
Stopover aren't allowed on award tickets
Only one connection is allowed (each way), but there may be some leeway if an itin is impossible with a single connection. If there is a flight, but no award availability on it, you won't be allowed two connections.
The mileage needed is read directly from the table, you don't compute it per leg as is the case with Aegean award
5c. Are award ticket flexible?
No, you can't change tickets and you'll have to cancel them, incurring a 50% penalty on the miles used. You can cancel ticket up to 24h before a flight. Book wisely!
5d. Can I book one-way flight?
Yes, they are priced at half the mileage stated in the chart. If you want to do a stop over within the same zone, it can be a solution, albeit costly: booking, say, FRA-BKK-NRT with a stopover in BKK isn't possible, so you'll have to split it into three o/w away award. FRA-BKK, BKK-NRT, and NRT-FRA. The total amount will be 105,000 miles in Eco instead of the direct 80,000.
5d. Are award transferable?
Yes, you can issue award tickets for other persons freely.
5e. Upgrade award
Aegean isn't part of the Star Alliance upgrade award. So far, you can only redeem miles to get an upgrade on A3 operated flights. Given the low value of upgrading to domestic business class, this FAQ will concentrate on upgrading international tickets.
Upgrade can be done from the following fare: Y, M, B, H, Q, V, W, O, L, K, S, J. The cost is half the miles for an award flight (10,000 instead of 20,000 per leg), but you still gain miles based on the original booking class. So the net cost will be 8,750 if booked in Y, M, B, H and 8,000 in the other classes.
You can't upgrade from the cheaper fares.
5f. How can I get an award?
Award flight can be asked through the form listed in a member's online account, or a mail submission can be made to ask for an agent to come back to you with availability proposals.
If you've already checked for availability, either through ANA's online tool or United website, and know exactly what flight you want to book, you'll get quicker service by phoning to M&B Customer Service : (+30) 210 6261000.
Be careful to use ITA or any comparable tool to check for the taxes amount that should be charged before calling. There have been report of uninformed agents calculating taxes on a full fare flight.
5g. Award car rental
You can use miles to get free car rental with Hertz in Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria.
5h. Award shop vouchers
You can redeem miles at Hellenic Duty Free shops to pay in 200 miles increments for 1 €. At half a cent per mile, it's considered poor value.
6. Tips and good value
Unlike other *A programmes, A3 groups North Africa and Europe in the same award zone. Flying from Europe to Egypt or Israel don't cost more than from Germany to France.
7. Useful links
8. Unanswered questions -to be edited-
Redeeming using complex route (Europe->Asia via the US) ?
Renewal requirements