GoldCircle

You are now in The Zone
Welcome to the Aegean Airlines Newbie Zone on Flyertalk! Whether you are new to Flyertalk, or just new to Aegean's Miles&Bonus programme, this is the thread to post those newbie 'I don't quite get it' questions.

This zone is populated by helpful, knowledgeable and patient Flyertalkers who will aim to bring you up to speed on this programme and help you to help yourself. The notion of flame-free zones does not even arise, as we are all that nice round here.

Do take a look at the various FAQs at the top of the forum before posting - they will answer most questions, or assist you to find the answer yourself, or generate a better, more appropriate question. No question is too stupid (ok, honestly, some are, but hey, what you post is a reflection on you, not on us! ) so don't be afraid to ask. Everyone here* was an A3 newbie just a few months ago...

GoldCircle
A3 forum Moderator


* except KLouis and a few others who've been round a bit longer

gruszkatt

Hey guys, I want to know... if after receiving the Blue card, I will need to gain 16 000 miles more within one year to be Gold from the day of upgrading to Blue. What if the deadline for being Gold passes and I can't still gain 16 000 miles? Does it count if I will gain 16 000 more miles in the second year?

thk u

intuition

Yes, that is the current understanding. From what we know at this point is that the 16k miles must be collected in a consecutive year, but it doesn't need to be connected to your first year.

MSPeconomist

We think from the program rules that status miles will be deleted from your account when then become a year old, so you should be able to see where you are from your online account statement. However, this is a new program, so no one really knows and some of the rules are stated in confusing ways.

gattboy

Hi folks I tried to wade through the FAQs and didn't see my issues addressed directly so I apologize in advance if these issues were covered after all

1. At a regional airport served by skywest as UAL express (RDM) I had the gate agent reject my A3 *S card twice, once by sliding it and once by typing it in... however a week later at a mainline airport (PDX) it was accepted. What are the chances this was an actual issue vs. agent incompetence? This also segues into my second ques. which is the real problem

2. I earned some 9k miles to my A3 acct without any hitch and with all segments crediting either automatically or through the request form... however since then none of my segments have credited either way (and submitting the same info several times using the form). I even MAILED my fricken boarding pass copies (along with a copy of my Blue card) to Greece months ago, still nothing

Many of these prior segments were the same route (PDX-RDM) in both directions and in different fare buckets, and all earned the same miles consistently. However one of the three uncredited legs was also a PDX-RDM segment.

(some inside baseball: due to it being a combined multi-day UAL/US Airways itinerary, and flying right during the notorious UAL/Continental computer switchover snafu, it took 2 PDX gate agents about an hour to issue me a BP for this leg, after repeatedly being rejected by the computer system- and although I got my free bag, the BP didn't have my A3 number on it, and I was running late at that point so i didn't whine, figured the request form would work as it has in the past)

So one question is, what are the chances that somehow, always using the same TA, I ended up in a fare bucket that A3 won't credit for this one leg? Is there any way to look this up without going through A3? Or somehow the leg is not in the *A system at all even though I flew it? It looked like the agents had to work VERY HARD to figure out a way to print my BP even though they were easily able to verify I was ticketed... and the BP looked a little different than most (it had less info on it for sure)- was it some kind of general-purpose BP that "doesn't count" in the real world?

My other question is more general... what do I do now? I kinda thought that mailing the BP's in would solve the situation but it hasn't... is there any chance this is related to the economic collapse in Greece right now, and my letter just got lost in the mail or the fires?

Finally- what do people think the best was to contact A3 customer service is, as an english-speaker in the USA? I was hoping to avoid a long distance telephone call to Europe obviously, but I have received no response using the website contact form, so the phone call is looking inevitable at this point. Should I go with the UK line or the Greek line?

Any advice or constructive criticism is much appreciated (also i will try to answer your questions if you have any)

kaka

Just to ask -when did everything happen?
It had taken me over 3 weeks for retro-claiming miles to appear in my account, but i'd assume more than 3 mths had past. I've also read somewhere here it can take up to 2 mths for miles to appear.

I'd assume you have to ask ur TA to chwck what fare basis ur flights were. or you can guess by seeing if the fares that its miles didnt go thru were cheaper than the rest.

KLouis

Do you blame the fires in Greece or in the States?

zerogx

I don't think you'll be able to call the UK number from the US, or it will cost you something crazy, and anyway I think it just redirects to the Greek number. Get a phone card or something that will let you call Greece for 1-2c/min.

DELLAS

Probably a bit of both , I heard A3 are not accepting smoke damaged BPs anymore . Oh you couldnt write it if you tried.....

antichef

Try a VoIP system - like Skype for cheap long distance calls.

zerogx

1. Plan to achieve *G is:

LX S LHR-ZRH-HKG = 500 + 5788 (this is how many miles UA credited for this flight in 2008)
LX W HKG-ZRH-GVA-LHR = 5788 + 500 + 500
LX S LHR-ZRH-HKG = 500 + 5788
Total = 19364

Am I correct in applying the 500 minimum miles to each flight? And I assume that if the ZRH-GVA leg is operated by "Swiss European" then it still counts, as e.g. LH booking classes are different for domestics etc.

2. On the other threads here, it seems like LX flights can take up to a week to credit for some people, and then it takes a month or so for the *G card to arrive.

Can I make use of the *G status before getting the card? I registered with M&B using my Hong Kong address, so I should get it before I return to London the second time. However, I may have more flights on *A before returning to London, and obviously want to use the status if I can. I will credit everything to A3, so can the other airline somehow see my A3*G status without me actually showing the card? Hopefully my *S card would have arrived by then, if it helps.

3. There is a "news item" on the M&B website: "In order for you to have your valuable miles credited to your account, it is necessary that the name associated with your Miles&Bonus membership card matches the one on your flight ticket." Perhaps this is why some people have had trouble getting their miles credited. I did not add my middle name when registering, but always add it when booking flights. Should I get it added to my M&B account?

4. Maybe I should ask this on the LX forum, but I found the flights I want on ITA and they aren't available on the LX website. Would calling the London ticket office help, or any obscure online travel agents? Not available on Expedia.

MSPeconomist

To calculate mileage credit in the A3 FF program, you absolutely must look at the Aegean website. The number of miles that UA gave you for the same flights and same fare class is irrelevant.

zerogx

I meant that is the distance. Aegean website doesn't tell you distances as far as I can see. S class earns 100%.

witlesspax

Only A3 rules apply, both for booking class and number of miles between airports. Having said that, there should not be a big difference between what different programs award for the same airport pairs. (Great Circle Mapper indicates 5776 miles for ZRH-HKG.)

You should be able to as long as *G is printed on your boarding pass (consider removing and then putting back in your M&B number from any existing flights after you hit *G or just do it at check in), and if you're carrying a website printout that indicates your *G status. Note that it can apparently take about a week for your status to propagate through *A systems, and that some lounge dragons (reportedly LH in particular) do require that you be holding an actual physical *G card, even if this seems to be contrary to the *A rules.

Probably a good idea, although I am in the same situation and never had a problem that wasn't easily solved by retro crediting.

I haven't tried this, would be interested to hear the answer as well.

intuition

KLouis and a few others may not fit into that description

Anyway, happy to see the new sticky, thanks!