taliesin

AS at least has 500-mile minimum for all flyers, not just elites.

PVDtoDEL

It's entirely unclear whether you need to renew every 12 months, every 36 months, or something else.

I think Blue is every 12 months and gold is every 36, but don't quote me on that - it's not clear.

I would credit a flight every 12 months at the very minimum just to be safe.

However, if you want to contribute to A3's financial health, you should credit all your miles to A3 - after all, status is pretty useless if they are bankrupt.

intuition

Yes, just like PVDtoDEL says, and like I stated in the masterpost, rules of renewal are unclear at this time. I will update the masterpost when we have better knowledge.

The rules are likely to change over time anyway. I agree that a sensible thing would be to credit a flight at least once a year. Even if you end up never using the miles, it isn't that big a loss.



For the "keeping active" part, it does not grant you a new 36 month period from each crediting flight. It will just keep your account alive, ie making it possible to renew after the initial X month period. What this renewal will require is unknown.
What is know is that failing to keep it active will result in a freeze of the account and later on deletion.

pinniped

Is Aegean in particularly bad shape right? (I mean, I know it's an airline, and I know we're talking about Greece here, but is there anything specific about Aegean that we should be extra concerned about?)

Kallio

Here's one opinion that does not sound too alarming. All the disclaimers apply of course.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/18366042-post14.html

PVDtoDEL

While Aegean isn't in a precarious state, it is an airline, that serves a very troubled economy right now (Greece). Considering that airlines are notoriously unstable, I think they've been doing a pretty good job so far. But you can't count on anything in this industry.

Every Euro helps their bottom line, and therefore, every Euro helps fellow FTers.

Nisse

Fully agree, just returned from long-haul UA Business and was credited 200% for both award and tier miles on A3 FFP. ^^^

gordo6

Thanks. My plan is to use A3 as my main *A program, since I won't be flying *A that much, and also because I have just used all my LH miles, so I'm starting from the beginning. As I have said, I'm not flying *A that much - mainly LY and BA.

In the end of Aug I'll be flying TLV-PHL-ATL return in business (and first for domestic) class with US, which, according to mileage calculators on the internet, should give me 19300 miles. I just hope that this calculator is accurate...

PVDtoDEL

19300 is accurate as long as you aren't booked into an A, P, or O fare.

gordo6

Doesn't A 150%? that's what Aegean's website says...

PVDtoDEL

Sorry, typo. P, O, or J

Ivanhoe3079

Hi all,

We fly Emirates whenever we can - we have status with Skywards and should reach Gold shortly, when we can't, we've tended to fly with MAS with short trips hopping around Asia and, most likely will ever remain Enrich Blue; however, I enrolled Mrs Ivanhoe and myself with Aegean last year, but have yet to fly with a *A airline, and have just remembered our enrolment.

All of our thirteen flights for this year have already been booked, but in February 2013 we'll fly KUL-BKK-CNX-BKK-RGN-BKK-PEN with Thai Air (Business) and will receive 200% bonus... right?

In August/September 2013, we're off to Europe... once more with Emirates but will need to fly CPH-CDG (SAS?) in economy with 100%... correct?

The rationale for M&B is status for lounges... not really looking for up-grades as, from what I've read, it seems that they're not much bandied around with A3 status.

I've tried looking for a 'miles calculator' and failed so don't know how many miles we'll have achieved with the above flights in a 12 month window, but should we need more, we could simply fly over the ditch to NZ with Air New Zealand to add the required amount... my query is: is M&B, and indeed *A, for us?

I welcome any suggestions from your knowledgeable selves.

Cheers ツ

The following answers are relevant to M&B:

(1) What is your home airport? MEL & KUL - we purchase returns to MEL from KUL but reside mostly in MEL
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? C
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? +/- 20k - 60K> with Emirates
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Basic
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Priority Services, Lounge Access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often International
(7) Preferred Airlines ?
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? F.I.T. Leisure

enelym1978

Not sure *A would be THE best choice for you, considering you're almost G with SkyWards and fly (I assume) most of your longest trips between MEL and KUL? EK seems to be a nice choice since it flies direct. But if you fly *A, you will have to fly SQ for example, which means a stop over...

You would reach *G very quickly since you fly in C and with A3, only 20k miles are needed but then, with that status, will you really be enjoying the perks? You will have to fly *A to enjoy the lounge access and, depending on your routes, that might not be always the most straight forward alliance to fly with.

Or you could mix and match... EK for the long haul then *A for the intra-Asia flights. Out of KUL, same issue, you'd have to connect through BKK or SIN (for the closest to KUL) most of the times.

This is just my 2 cents from a noob of course

intuition

Well, in your part of the world, the benefit of M&B *G would be if you fly NZ, especially extensively domestic NZ in "grab a seat" and alike. Then lounge access is then "invaluable".
If you just do the MEL-AKL-... as your first jump out, and especially if you do it in C, then *G would not be of great benefit to you.

enelym1978

Now that I think of it, by flying mostly in C, don't you get lounge accesses anyway?