Aegean Airlines Miles&Bonus - Feedback needed on getting A3 *G in this one proposed trip to Oz from Africa!

Hi All

I am based in DAR, Tanzania East Africa and a member of Miles & More and Emirates Skywards- have accumulated some points but never enough to qualify for Gold/Silver....

I usually take two business trips a year (mostly to DXB- Dubai) and a family holiday (mostly to BOM- mumbai India) as there is where the wife comes from and her parents live there ;)

I am planning to go on a family holiday to Australia Dec 2012-Jan 2013. Direct flights from here not available so it leaves me to go on Qatar, Emirates etc and transfer. The cheapest option for me is to fly to Mumbai (BOM) India and book separate return tickets from there.

I have been browsing intensively all the forum threads here and believe I have come up with a workable plan. I am not very familiar with the acronyms so I apologise for using full forms....

Since A3 only registers people over 12- I register myself and my wife to A3 FFP and my two kids (7 and 5) to Turkish Airlines FFP (so as not to waste their flight miles)...I also create a Master Turkish Airlines FFP for myself so that the two kids FFP points get pooled and transferred to my account.

Now I fly Ethipian airlines Economy class to BOM- the Ethiopian airlines mileage calculator shows me 6950 miles for the return trip @ 100% miles and the fare basis is WEE2MTZ ie 100% accrual allowed on A3 FFP
Subtotal 1- 6950 miles from DAR-BOM return

Then using Economy on Singapore Airlines I fly BOM- BNE and SYD-BOM open Jaw which I am told on the SQ airlines flight if I take the flexi saver rates I get 100% KrisFlyer miles and class of booking is WSAERT which I assume means W class and if I use my A3 FFP card I will get the same points. The two single legs are as follows

BOM- BNE 6251 miles in economy
SYD BOM 6312 miles in economy

Subtotal 2- 12563 miles from BOM-AUS return

Note that the total cost for us 4 passengers is about $800 more for flying Singapore over Malaysian Airlines on BOM-BNE and SYD-BOM routes, is it worth the gold card for Aegean and saving up on the airmiles to go for this fare?

Also Singapore airlines offers the Visit Australia pass with Virgin Australia. I plan on flying internal flights on these flights. Singapore Airlines does not mention if airmiles can accure using this pass. Does anyone have an idea?

If I take the 1000 airmiles on A3 on opening account and add the airmiles above I get 20513 miles- Is my calculation right? That would give me *G status immediately on this one trip.

I plan to put the same amount from my two kids ie the 19513 miles on their proposed Turkish airlines card which would get transferred to my master account. Would they accrue at 100% or 75% as they pay reduced rates

Also redemption plans- my wife and I’s 20513 plus any one future return trip to BOM in 2013 on Ethiopian would give me another 6950 miles ie 27463 miles which I would like to use on a DAR- Mauritius or Dar- Cape Town vacation on SAA as the A3 site clubs east and south Africa together - their Y class is for 25000 miles - if I buy it from SAA Dar CPT would cost me around $800 per person…Would there be any block out periods and how difficult would I find to get A3 to redeem two tickets on SAA?

Queries
1) Is there a better FFP combo for me and the family than the combo I propose?
2) Are my calculations right? Will i land gold for me and my wife?
3) Is it worth paying $800 extra for whole family flying Singapore rather than Malaysian in order to accrue miles
4) Will Visit Australia pass from Singapore Airlines accrue me A3 miles?
5) Would my two kids accrue 100% miles of 75% miles
6) Are my redemption calculations ok? Easy to secure?

Hope to hear from you guys soon- Love this forum!

Hi there,

Welcome to A3 forum.

I will try to answer what I can for you......

My first question would be what benefits do you want to get from *G status if you are only making 3 trips per year. ( 2 x Dubai & 1 Mumbai ). Do you plan to use only *A airlines for these future trips and not Emirates or Qatar ?

If you already have miles with EK or LH then why not build up your pot further with them in order to get the redemptions you want ?
Does your family have accounts with either of these airlines you have been flying with in the past ?

Only you can judge whether the additional $800 spend is worth it or not ? Not sure who Malaysian partners with for you to credit these to but someone more experienced than me should be able to tell you this.

As Virgin Australia is not a Star member I am certain that flights operated by this airline irrelevant of ticket stock will not get A3 miles.

W class on SQ does earn 100% miles in A3 M&B so your earning rates look ok for the ex BOM and return sectors.

Hope the above helps a little, I am sure someone with additional knowledge can fill in the gaps.

1) Is there a better FFP combo for me and the family than the combo I propose?

It depends on your goal. Especially the part involving if 800 USD are worth the status. The other choice would be pooling everything in a family account with TK, or, betting that everything goes according to plan, expect Malaysian to be part of OW at the time of your trip. So you could get miles for the Australian part of your trip flying Qantas. I wouldn't advise that, as so many things can delay MH from joining for a few weeks, I just mention that this possibility exist.


2) Are my calculations right? Will i land gold for me and my wife?


Your calculations are right regarding earning. If you only take twice yearly trips, I am not sure the status is worth the extra expanse, but that's just me. You would only gain lounge access you would not use commonly... There might be better use of 800 dollars, especially if A3 status starts expiring at some point.


3) Is it worth paying $800 extra for whole family flying Singapore rather than Malaysian in order to accrue miles

If the choice is between wasting miles for all the family, maybe... but if you have other options by then (like crediting to MH and wait for them to become part of OW if they are not already), it's not a total loss of miles. So you'd only buy the difference for flying SQ instead of MH (in economy, I can't comment, but I liked MH business product very much...) and the Gold status, which I commented on above.


4) Will Visit Australia pass from Singapore Airlines accrue me A3 miles?


No, the operating carrier is the key. There are some exception to this when a carrier is a 100% subsidiary of another carrier like the regional arms of some US carrier, or the regional arms of LH... but it's not the case with Virgin Australia so I am pretty sure you won't be able to credit to them.

Hi Airframe

Thanks for your reply. Let me answer on your quotes

Firstly, I have those three flights as a minimum- there are several others for eg in 2010 went to Germany and Egypt, ie those three flight are always there plus extra

Benefits- I am looking for lounge access, plus 20 kg extra per flight (when I fly BOM my wife brings back quite a lot of stuff as its cheaper there- the extra 40 kgs will not hurt!) and of course accumulation of miles

I tried enrolling in M&M and skywards a few years back but since then, I have not really chosen my flights based on the mileage collected- rather i flew the most convenient flights based on rates. So last year flew to Egypt with whole family on Egyptair but no mileage was collected. Since I am flying to Oz and 20000 miles per pax times 4 pax I thought maybe better to accumulate them in one flier programme- so I can redeem them for future flights eg DAR CPT Return next year- I have only 7500 points on M&M not sure about Skywards balance and so not much to lose as I will not reach Gold with either...My family members have no FFP programme and we have done all the flights every year without collecting any points

Malaysian was planning to join Oneworld third quarter 2012 but no concrete news so far- the $800 difference is if I fly Malaysian with 50% economy miles- if I fly full economy (100% miles) the difference is $400. But If I gather these points on Enrich FFP from Malaysian (hoping for future redemption against Oneworld) I will split my points so that I would not get Gold on A3 and also half on oneworld and half on * alliance.

Virgin Australia is not a Star Member but since the Visit Oz Airpass if offered as code shared by Singapore-the points should be creditable to * Alliance if there are indeed any points (which was my original question)

Thanks for your confirmation about the BOM OZ sectors....

cheers for you reply...Hope for more feedback to fill in my blanks!

Firstly, I have those three flights as a minimum- there are several others for eg in 2010 went to Germany and Egypt, ie those three flight are always there plus extra

OK, it makes a little more sense them. The more you get to use the status the better it is, obviously.


Benefits- I am looking for lounge access, plus 20 kg extra per flight (when I fly BOM my wife brings back quite a lot of stuff as its cheaper there- the extra 40 kgs will not hurt!) and of course accumulation of miles


You won't get any extra miles being A3 G rather than A3 nobody. There is no elite bonus with A3 (just to be clear).


Virgin Australia is not a Star Member but since the Visit Oz Airpass if offered as code shared by Singapore-the points should be creditable to * Alliance if there are indeed any points (which was my original question)


Unfortunately, it's the operating carrier that counts with Star Alliance. You won't get anything even if it's a codeshare.

Won't want to bet on Malaysian joining OW as they have already slipped from Q3 2012 to Q1 2012 (read it as a quote from them on one of the threads in forum...also pooling all in TK would still mean I cant fly Malaysian- I would have to fly SQ and TK *G limit quite high- family pooling is for award miles not tier miles so I would have to accumulate enough there...

Just the extra 20 kilos weight per trip from BOM into dar is worth $150, for two pax thats $300 on one flight- since A3 gold doesnt expire then every year thats a saving of $600.

Also there are very few *G members from Tanzania and thus a lot of business seats are empty on many sectors- I am betting that if i fly economy, I might be able to sweet talk into free upgrades at check in here

I get the 20000 miles each for me and my wife. if on A3 *G, 25,000 miles is a DAR- CPT return ticket which is worth $850, then those 20000 miles would be worth around $680 to me each- ie if i fly without accumulating, I would lose these....for two pax that is around $1400 in saving

You rightly say the A3 may change their conditions anytime, if A3 changes requirments that I have to fly A3 metal in order to continue *G status then I would be in deep trouble....I mentioned I am getting TK FFP as well, my plan is to add one more ticket on the A3 *G after this trip so I can claim the reward for the DAR-CPT ticket. Thereafter I have read about the status match being offered by TK and I was thinking of writing in and asking for an upgrade to TK to gold and accumulating my miles there- since ...TK flies out from DAR and A3 doesnt...

Of course I would fly on * partners only once I am on this (ie goodbye Emirates Kenya Airways and Others!) but I have a good range to choose from- Egypt Air, Ethiopian,Lufthansa, Turkish, SAA all fly out from DAR so should be covered plus Egypt Air and Ethiopian are usually the cheapest anyway out from DAR to most destinations while offering 100% tier miles on economy (even on discount tickets)...

I think I may not get the miles but I still will fly Virgin cos their airpass is around $3300 for the family BNE-CNS(viaSYDto) CHC (via SYD to) ADE but the slightly less coverage on South Pacific Air pass from Star alliance is EUR 4000!!! (CNS-CHC via AKL and then CHC to ADE via AKL again) for the family which is a massive difference- I would lose around 5000 miles per pax but guess no way to help it

While A3 says that M&B is only for passengers over the age of 12, I have enrolled many people under the age of 12, and everything has worked just fine. No need to enroll in Turkish Airlines as well.

For the flights that you can't credit to *A (A3 for you and wife, TK for kids), think about DL. It's not great for redemptions and you can't do family accounts, but miles don't expire. Depending on the timing of your trip, Malaysian is still a partner while Virgin Australia is not only a partner but seems to be getting closer. It's better than totally wasting credit for those flights; you might eventually be able to use DL FF miles for short flights within Asia, hotel stays, magazines, etc.

While A3 says that M&B is only for passengers over the age of 12, I have enrolled many people under the age of 12, and everything has worked just fine. No need to enroll in Turkish Airlines as well.

Hi Wow, that would be so simple then- but do you mean that when filling in enrollment you would declare their correct ages and they would issue the kids a FFP number or do you mean that you misdeclare their ages and they dont bother to check against the passports

Also once FFP no for kids on A3 are opened and the miles are credited- would we run the risk of them cancelling the account later on by saying we are not allowed to open an account for kids and thus lose everything on their account?

For the flights that you can't credit to *A (A3 for you and wife, TK for kids), think about DL. It's not great for redemptions and you can't do family accounts, but miles don't expire. Depending on the timing of your trip, Malaysian is still a partner while Virgin Australia is not only a partner but seems to be getting closer. It's better than totally wasting credit for those flights; you might eventually be able to use DL FF miles for short flights within Asia, hotel stays, magazines, etc.

Interesting - thanks I will read this up- but the point is that if the airpass was issued by SQ in conjunction with the international travel BOM-BNE, SYD-BOM ticket ie one physical ticket - would I be able to credit the international portion on the A3 FFP and the airpass (codeshare with Virgin Aus) to the DL FFP? I always thought each ticket can only be credited to one FFP and not multiple- please correct me if I am wrong...

Hi Wow, that would be so simple then- but do you mean that when filling in enrollment you would declare their correct ages and they would issue the kids a FFP number or do you mean that you misdeclare their ages and they dont bother to check against the passports

Also once FFP no for kids on A3 are opened and the miles are credited- would we run the risk of them cancelling the account later on by saying we are not allowed to open an account for kids and thus lose everything on their account?

Declare the correct ages. They don't check.

If they give you a hard time about it, you can point out that the website allows you to create accounts for children, and there is no obvious warning on the website that kids cannot register. They can't possibly expect everyone to read through each term and condition.

...I also create a Master Turkish Airlines FFP for myself so that the two kids FFP points get pooled and transferred to my account....

As for this part - It would only work if you already have some status with TK. Only 'classic plus' and above can apply for family account. So I suggest to take PVDtoDEL's advice.

Interesting - thanks I will read this up- but the point is that if the airpass was issued by SQ in conjunction with the international travel BOM-BNE, SYD-BOM ticket ie one physical ticket - would I be able to credit the international portion on the A3 FFP and the airpass (codeshare with Virgin Aus) to the DL FFP? I always thought each ticket can only be credited to one FFP and not multiple- please correct me if I am wrong...
I don't know how it would work if you have a *A FF program on the boarding pass or whether you can change the FF program number back and forth in the middle of an itinerary. If there's no FF program number associated with the reservation at all, you can claim with A3 (or other *A carrier) retrospectively for the *A operated ("metal") flights and follow the procedure to get DL credit for the Virgin Australia and Malaysia (assuming they're not in oneworld by the time of your trip). There are rules about getting credit for flights taken shortly before enrolling in the FF program, but it's much easier (and doesn't cost anything, so why not?) if you set up a FF account before departure.

Just got off the phone with Singapore Airlines and they confirmed the internal flights on the Virgin Australia pass dont qualify for any FFP miles!

Also as interesting side note- the $800 extra for family I am paying for flying SQ has been offset by the reduced cost of the tickets internally in Australia & NZ on their SQ Visit Australia pass- the cost of this (operated by DJ) is $2200 (additional taxes maybe e $0 or max around $300- but will not be confirmed till I book) for 4 pax while the same pass direct from Virgin australia for use with Malaysian Airlines would have costed me $3400 incl Taxes....

Declare the correct ages. They don't check.

If they give you a hard time about it, you can point out that the website allows you to create accounts for children, and there is no obvious warning on the website that kids cannot register. They can't possibly expect everyone to read through each term and condition.

Great thanks for your help- this will really save me a lot of time.!!

Thanks to all the contributors and members who responded to my query- I am really thankful for your ideas!

You can buy, change date airpass directly from virgin australia site - 100% miles can be credited to Delta.

While A3 says that M&B is only for passengers over the age of 12, I have enrolled many people under the age of 12, and everything has worked just fine. No need to enroll in Turkish Airlines as well.
They need to be older than two years, otherwise the system rejects them. Then again, infants under the age of two w/o their own seat don't earn miles anyway.

Been there, done that, seen the look on the face of the SQ purser trying to greet *A gold card holders "Messrs tulpe" and seeing only one of them because tulpe Jr. is about 90 cms (3') tall, and in a middle seat ("I had been wondering why a gold card holder had ordered a baby meal.")