Originally Posted by dvs7310

A3 is now a bit steep for initial *G qualification if you don't fly Aegean ever, but the annual renewal is very easy. If you fly to Greece on A3 once a year (need 4 flights so one of the islands connecting in Athens) then it cuts in half. If you can make the qualification, honestly A3 is one of the better ones out there still because of the easy *G annual renewal plus their miles are actually pretty worthwhile (high multiplier for premium cabins, good award chart and now online booking). The problem is if you don't have any Aegean flights this year (4) then you need 72,000 miles to make Gold the first time (24k for Silver then an additional 48k for Gold). After that it's just 24k a year to maintain Gold. For your First Class trip to SYD, they credit Swiss at 300% and Singapore at 150%, so you'll have to do the math on that since you haven't mentioned which fights are which carrier. This trip, assuming CDG-ZRH-SIN and SIN-ZRH-CDG all on LX metal and only SIN-SYD-SIN on SQ metal is 51k miles to A3. Memphis if you fly Business Class and avoid LH (their P fares earn 0% in most programs), then you're likely around 10k-15k more to A3 (for example LX Z fare is 150% and LX P fare is 100%, UA P and Z are both 100%). It's pretty easy to come up with another 10k or so miles if needed for your initial qualification just to get in the door.