I will take it as a good news :)

If they are going to send out every year, they should work on getting them out quicker.

It is not. Awardwallet doing a bit of guesswork, just like anyone here on FT. Frankly, no one knows, and that has been stated numerous times.

Maybe some * carriers are not pleased with a *G card valid for 3 years..
Or they plan to change the card design soon to include Olympic somehow...

Imminent changes to status validity?
 

Aren't all members required to maintain validity every 2 years. If so, 3 years card validity is a bit excessive. You could have a valid *G card, but an inactive account.

Good to know I got a 12/2016 batch of cards. Will be an interesting (or completely overhyped) time ahead.

Don't you mean flight mileage credits every three years, not two, to maintain *Gold?

I know that no one has concrete knowledge, but if you did not have Gold status yet, would you make the investment to do so? I fly only a few times a year, and the next time is in three weeks (likely before we know whether this is a programmatic change). To me, Gold would be worth the premium (about $400 on my route) if it were definitely good for 3+ years, but for one year in which I'll fly maybe once or twice more, that's a steep price.

Would you make the investment? How risky is this?

IMHO, this talk of changes to the program seems somewhat speculative; there's no hard evidence of any changes being made to policy. People are merely wondering if something's wrong, because they received cards with a 1 year expiry date. I agree it's a bit weird, but it still doesn't constitute hard proof of a policy change. Has anyone checked the Ts & Cs of their new card to see if there's been any changes made in writing? The current policy is apparently that every 3 years you need to make at least 1 qualifying flight. If that period was reduced to 1 year, surely you'd still just need to make 1 qualifying flight every year, yes? In which case the OP with his "maybe once or twice more" flying this year, would still re-qualify even if A3 did change their policy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong... I strongly suggest you read the first page of the FAQ No. 1 for Aegean Miles & Bonus: All You need to Know, specifically sections 3a, 3b and 3c. From section 3b, "Losing Status":

So if it was me, I'd ask myself the following questions:

1. Is this upcoming trip in 3 weeks' time going to get you *G in one hit?

2. How much more travel will you be doing after that, where you'd really get to enjoy/benefit from your *G status?

3. And this additional travel, will it be easily doable on *A carriers? Will there be $400-ish spend to fly *A that time also?

4. (related to question 2) Will you be able to rack up the additional 16,000 miles to get from Blue to Gold, within 12 months of qualifying for Blue? (4000 miles, or 3000 if you take into account the 1000 mile sign-up bonus)

I completely understand why you're asking yourself the question. $400 would more than cover quite a few pay-per-use airport lounge visits and/or food in the airside food hall. I think if someone can back up my point about re-qualification, that might resolve your query - a "qualifying flight" is just any *A flight that accrues any amount of miles on your account to keep it active. If it was me, I'd take the gamble, as there's no evidence of any changes being made, but a lot of this decision comes down to your attitudes to money & spending, and what $400 means to you. I already reached gold in 2012 and have simply been racking up miles on the card since then. However, as I'm about to spend most of those miles on an award flight, I might as well start accruing miles on a different, more established, *A program just to cover my a** in case A3 suddenly changes their tune. In other words, I've used A3 to quickly get *G, and now that I'm flying about 50k miles a year, it might pay for me to start pushing those miles into another program (maybe SQ KF). You could maybe do the same, depending on how many miles you fly each year. Just a thought, YMMV, etc etc :)

Smashingly, thanks for the comprehensive reply! FWIW, I reread the terms and conditions, and there have been no changes there.

Actually, no.

You would have a card that in print says "valid until XX/XX" but it would not be in the system. There would not be any *G on your BP and if swiped, it would not give you green light in a lounge gate.

Sure, maybe lounge is one thing, but:

- showing *G card at the gate to get priority boarding
- showing *G card at check-in to get *G bag allowance
- etc.

Showing the card is especially helpful for those who end up crediting to another FFP. Also, often times, staff just want to see a card. They don't really care what the system says (too lazy to check, think it's redundant, system might be wrong, etc.). The card is the gold standard.

Yes, and at some lounges (MAD, BLL etc) they don't even have a way to scan or process the card as you enter the lounge. They simply write down the card number manually in a book.

S.

Thats not entirely correct. The Star Alliance Reference Guide (http://www.starallianceemployees.com...GUIDE_2013.pdf) states that:
"Customers have access to any Star Alliance member carriers’ owned lounges with the Star Alliance Gold
logo at the entrance.
• Customer must present proof of SAG-level status via a valid frequent flyer programme SAG-level card or other valid indication of SAG-level status, such as XX*G on the boarding pass, where XX is the carrier code of the carrier with whom the customer has SAG-level status;
• Where a discrepancy exists between loyalty status level displayed on the frequent flyer programme card, boarding pass or other means presented for entrance and what is displayed in the Star Alliance Premium Customer Database, the highest displayed level will be honoured;"

So theoretically a situation with a valid card and invalid account could occur. And you would still get all the *G benefits...

Well, in theory one can always strike up conversation with airport staff and if the moon is in the seventh house, and jupiter aligns with march, then maybe... ;)

I have bolded something else in your qoute:
So what is a valid frequent flyer programme card? Is it valid just because printed text on it says it is? I still think that if the staff has access to a network, they will swipe the card and trust what the machine says.
"I'm sorry sir, this card is not valid anymore!"
Quoting internal documents rarely helps in those cases.

Thanks for the Star Alliance reference guide ;) Very useful.