jkgrpas I don't fully understand that argument either for two reasons: 1. Only the awards with connecting flights aren't accessible/bookable online! As far as I could check, every direct connection is available! So at least in terms of first class redemptions, I believe at least 90% of what was bookable before is bookable now (the other 10% being first class awards with two flights in first class, a real rarity in Star Alliance), since you can book your non-first connection separately for the same amount of miles and only have perhaps a couple more euros to pay as well as an additional ticket to cancel as drawbacks, compared to booking non-first and first together as one ticket. For business class sure this has a much bigger impact, but.... 2. The "ticket office business" can also still book everything by telephone. I don't know if perhaps they are too ashamed to do it, but the end result should be pretty much the same as by booking online. If their bookings are flagged as suspicious, well, they will get flagged either way. Booking awards for dozens of different people, none of which are in your together account, family members or otherwise closely connected to the account holder (and not flying with them either) is most definitely suspicious and I personally wouldn't be too sad either, if Aegean did manage to "get them" (more award space for us "normal people"
). But, again, excluding connecting flights from the award search engine should have nothing to do with that. Didn't they shut down a "father and son" business with millions of miles about 2-3 years ago?