Oct 20, 2014, 8:06 am
Last edit by: Snacky
This is the WIKI for the Aegean Airlines (A3) / Olympic Air (OA) Miles+Bonus frequent flier program. Please read all about it on their homepage: http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonus/
Please note that A3 is a Star Alliance (*A) member airline, OA is not.
If you have questions not answered in this WIKI or you can't find an answer on the A3 Miles+Bonus website, ask in the thread below.
Tiers (clicking on them takes you directly to the respective tier's Miles+Bonus benefits webpage)
BLUE
SILVER
GOLD
Miles
Miles are classified into two categories, tier miles and award miles.
Tier Miles determine the tier of the program to which the member belongs. These are miles that each member collects from qualifying flights with A3, OA and *A airlines in order to move through the membership levels to Silver and Gold, and then to retain those levels. They expire at the end of each membership year - any 'excess' miles beyond the Tier qualification do not carry forward into the following year.
Award Miles are miles that every member collects in order to redeem for redemption flights or other products and services. Award miles are accumulated from flights with A3, OA, *A member airlines and products and services of the program partners and do not expire provided the account remains active by crediting flights.
Tier advancement
Tier advancement is constantly evaluated and measured along a rolling 12 month period. This means your account will be upgraded as soon as you hit the requirements at any time, counting backwards within the last 12 months. A few days after a new tier threshold has been reached, there will be a "Card upgrade" transaction in your transactions overview.
SILVER
The BLUE member that accumulates 12K tier miles, including at least 2 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months, will be upgraded to the SILVER tier.
Upon the upgrade to the SILVER tier, the required 12K tier miles+2xA3/OA flights or 24K tier miles will be consumed instantly and the year start/end date will be reset. Any tier miles beyond the threshold will remain in your account for 12 months, and will therefore count towards any subsequent upgrade to Gold. All segments flown in qualifying for Silver will be reset to zero, so a further 4 segments will be required to qualify for Gold under the combined segment/miles option.
NOTE: In a scenario where you accumulate the required A3/OA flights some time after you already have accumulated more tier miles than what's required in the combined tier miles plus flights threshold (12K), but have not yet accumulated enough tier miles to reach the tier miles only threshold (24K), you will be instantly upgraded to the SILVER tier and your year start/end date for your subsequent GOLD upgrade will reset, but also be set to less than 1 year ahead in time (in effect the date of the first possible opportunity to reach the upgrade threshold for the GOLD tier), the date depending on when the last consumed tier miles for the SILVER upgrade were originally accumulated. A lesser amount of tier miles, equal to the difference between the remaining leftover tier miles and the qualification thresholds, will then be required for upgrade to the GOLD tier. BUT, be aware that tier miles expire after 12 months, and therefore expiration of older tier miles will continue all through your new membership year, meaning that in this scenario the "until"-date and qualification thresholds will change as time passes and more tier miles expire. Therefore, you'd be wise to check your account statement continuously and your transactions records rather accurately, to follow on which dates you previously accumulated your tier miles, AND when they expire, to plan your subsequent upgrade to the GOLD tier in the most effective way.
GOLD
The SILVER member that accumulates 24K tier miles, including at least 4 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 48K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, will be upgraded to the GOLD tier.
Tier retention
Tier retention is only evaluated at the end of each membership year (on the "until"-date in your account statement).
SILVER
The SILVER member that accumulates 8K tier miles including 2 flights with A3/OA or a total of 16K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the BLUE tier.
GOLD
The GOLD member that accumulates 12K tier miles including 4 flights with A3/OA or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the SILVER tier.
On reaching the retention criteria, the member's year-end date will not change, and the member's retained status will extend for 1 year from the year-end date (e.g. if the year-end date was 24th November 2015, the member's status will extend to 24th November 2016). The extension will however not be shown in your online statement until your status has been renewed (at the year-end date or immediately after). Also note that for retentions, any leftover tier miles exceeding the retention thresholds will be expired by the next time retention is evaluated, so thereby there are effectively no rollover tier miles helping you retain your status more easily.
Qualifying flights
For the purposes of accumulating either two (for SILVER) or four (for GOLD) A3/OA flights, the metal travelled on counts. So if A3 marketed, but another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) operated the flight(s), they do not count. If another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) marketed, but A3/OA operated the flight(s), they should count (might be subject to the online retro-claim procedure). Also note that there are some non-earning fare buckets on OA flights; these are not believed to count (if this happens to be the case, someone is bound to learn this the hard way; we'd very much like to hear your reports).
Tier and Award miles purchase (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may top up their accounts by purchasing additional tier miles in order to upgrade to the next tier or to retain their current tier. The maximum amount of tier miles that can be bought, are 1000 for SILVER members and 2000 for GOLD members (in increments of 500) priced at 10 eurocents/mile (€50 per 500 tier miles).
Award miles are also available for purchase, even for BLUE members. The maximum amount of award miles that can be bought is 50000 (in increments of 1000), priced at 2.5 eurocents/mile (€25 per 1000 award miles).
NOTE:All miles purchases are credited to your account immediately and are non-refundable.
Together Account (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may activate a together account and add up to 5 members (family, friends etc.), regardless of their tier. All the award miles earned by each member will then be automatically transferred to the together account, letting the head member of the together account make full use of the collective award miles balance for redemptions. There is also a setting in "Manage my together account" where you can allow or disallow members to see the transactions in the together account and to redeem miles on their own. Please note that all the members of the together account will still continue to receive their tier miles to their own personal accounts, in order to be eligible for status tier upgrade or retention.
Happy Miles (new)
Happy Miles is a unique service that allows you to spend up to 30% fewer miles on specific flights throughout the Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air network. Simply login to Miles+Bonus, select “Request award ticket” from the navigation list of your account menu and pick a happy mile flight. Keep checking in to find out about new destinations to come as happy miles flights are updated every three months.
Please note that A3 is a Star Alliance (*A) member airline, OA is not.
If you have questions not answered in this WIKI or you can't find an answer on the A3 Miles+Bonus website, ask in the thread below.
Tiers (clicking on them takes you directly to the respective tier's Miles+Bonus benefits webpage)
BLUE
SILVER
GOLD
Miles
Miles are classified into two categories, tier miles and award miles.
Tier Miles determine the tier of the program to which the member belongs. These are miles that each member collects from qualifying flights with A3, OA and *A airlines in order to move through the membership levels to Silver and Gold, and then to retain those levels. They expire at the end of each membership year - any 'excess' miles beyond the Tier qualification do not carry forward into the following year.
Award Miles are miles that every member collects in order to redeem for redemption flights or other products and services. Award miles are accumulated from flights with A3, OA, *A member airlines and products and services of the program partners and do not expire provided the account remains active by crediting flights.
Tier advancement
Tier advancement is constantly evaluated and measured along a rolling 12 month period. This means your account will be upgraded as soon as you hit the requirements at any time, counting backwards within the last 12 months. A few days after a new tier threshold has been reached, there will be a "Card upgrade" transaction in your transactions overview.
SILVER
The BLUE member that accumulates 12K tier miles, including at least 2 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months, will be upgraded to the SILVER tier.
Upon the upgrade to the SILVER tier, the required 12K tier miles+2xA3/OA flights or 24K tier miles will be consumed instantly and the year start/end date will be reset. Any tier miles beyond the threshold will remain in your account for 12 months, and will therefore count towards any subsequent upgrade to Gold. All segments flown in qualifying for Silver will be reset to zero, so a further 4 segments will be required to qualify for Gold under the combined segment/miles option.
NOTE: In a scenario where you accumulate the required A3/OA flights some time after you already have accumulated more tier miles than what's required in the combined tier miles plus flights threshold (12K), but have not yet accumulated enough tier miles to reach the tier miles only threshold (24K), you will be instantly upgraded to the SILVER tier and your year start/end date for your subsequent GOLD upgrade will reset, but also be set to less than 1 year ahead in time (in effect the date of the first possible opportunity to reach the upgrade threshold for the GOLD tier), the date depending on when the last consumed tier miles for the SILVER upgrade were originally accumulated. A lesser amount of tier miles, equal to the difference between the remaining leftover tier miles and the qualification thresholds, will then be required for upgrade to the GOLD tier. BUT, be aware that tier miles expire after 12 months, and therefore expiration of older tier miles will continue all through your new membership year, meaning that in this scenario the "until"-date and qualification thresholds will change as time passes and more tier miles expire. Therefore, you'd be wise to check your account statement continuously and your transactions records rather accurately, to follow on which dates you previously accumulated your tier miles, AND when they expire, to plan your subsequent upgrade to the GOLD tier in the most effective way.
GOLD
The SILVER member that accumulates 24K tier miles, including at least 4 flights with A3/OA, or a total of 48K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, will be upgraded to the GOLD tier.
Tier retention
Tier retention is only evaluated at the end of each membership year (on the "until"-date in your account statement).
SILVER
The SILVER member that accumulates 8K tier miles including 2 flights with A3/OA or a total of 16K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the BLUE tier.
GOLD
The GOLD member that accumulates 12K tier miles including 4 flights with A3/OA or a total of 24K tier miles regardless of *A airline, within a period of 12 consecutive months from the last tier upgrade/retention, his/her status will be automatically extended for 1 year. If the member does not manage to accumulate the above within the determined time, then he/she will be downgraded to the SILVER tier.
On reaching the retention criteria, the member's year-end date will not change, and the member's retained status will extend for 1 year from the year-end date (e.g. if the year-end date was 24th November 2015, the member's status will extend to 24th November 2016). The extension will however not be shown in your online statement until your status has been renewed (at the year-end date or immediately after). Also note that for retentions, any leftover tier miles exceeding the retention thresholds will be expired by the next time retention is evaluated, so thereby there are effectively no rollover tier miles helping you retain your status more easily.
Qualifying flights
For the purposes of accumulating either two (for SILVER) or four (for GOLD) A3/OA flights, the metal travelled on counts. So if A3 marketed, but another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) operated the flight(s), they do not count. If another *A airline (or non-*A partner airline) marketed, but A3/OA operated the flight(s), they should count (might be subject to the online retro-claim procedure). Also note that there are some non-earning fare buckets on OA flights; these are not believed to count (if this happens to be the case, someone is bound to learn this the hard way; we'd very much like to hear your reports).
Tier and Award miles purchase (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may top up their accounts by purchasing additional tier miles in order to upgrade to the next tier or to retain their current tier. The maximum amount of tier miles that can be bought, are 1000 for SILVER members and 2000 for GOLD members (in increments of 500) priced at 10 eurocents/mile (€50 per 500 tier miles).
Award miles are also available for purchase, even for BLUE members. The maximum amount of award miles that can be bought is 50000 (in increments of 1000), priced at 2.5 eurocents/mile (€25 per 1000 award miles).
NOTE:All miles purchases are credited to your account immediately and are non-refundable.
Together Account (new)
SILVER and GOLD members may activate a together account and add up to 5 members (family, friends etc.), regardless of their tier. All the award miles earned by each member will then be automatically transferred to the together account, letting the head member of the together account make full use of the collective award miles balance for redemptions. There is also a setting in "Manage my together account" where you can allow or disallow members to see the transactions in the together account and to redeem miles on their own. Please note that all the members of the together account will still continue to receive their tier miles to their own personal accounts, in order to be eligible for status tier upgrade or retention.
Happy Miles (new)
Happy Miles is a unique service that allows you to spend up to 30% fewer miles on specific flights throughout the Aegean Airlines and Olympic Air network. Simply login to Miles+Bonus, select “Request award ticket” from the navigation list of your account menu and pick a happy mile flight. Keep checking in to find out about new destinations to come as happy miles flights are updated every three months.
New Program Details for M&B
Nov 21, 2015, 7:39 pm
#1006
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: NW London and NW Sydney
Programs: BA Diamond, Hilton Bronze, A3 Diamond, IHG *G
Posts: 6,347
So if your 23 Nov 2015 flight counted, then your tier would only be retained until 22 Nov 2016. A day doesn't seem like much, although it can sometimes make all the difference, but...
Suppose you fly four A3 segments and 12000 miles between 24-30 Nov 2015. Now you have two choices -
1) you requalify for Nov 2016 - Nov 2017, but flights between Dec 2015 and Nov 2016 fall into a "black hole" (this is how it actually works)
2) the clock restarts straight away, so your status is only valid until Jan 2017, and you now have another 12 months to requalify for Dec 2016 - Dec 2017 (but if you happen to fully requalify in December, then the clock resets again, etc etc)
Which would you prefer?
Nov 22, 2015, 12:32 am
#1007
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,479
kuba1234, as you seem to have very quickly grasped the requirements with a little help from the forum, it just leaves me to give you a (slightly belated) welcome to FT.
I hope you'll achieve your qualification goals, and will be able to contribute here as your experience with A3 and M&B grows.
I hope you'll achieve your qualification goals, and will be able to contribute here as your experience with A3 and M&B grows.
Nov 22, 2015, 10:34 am
#1008
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 58
Well, think of it like this: you have to requalify within a 12 month period, and your status is also valid for 12 (actually 14) months.
So if your 23 Nov 2015 flight counted, then your tier would only be retained until 22 Nov 2016. A day doesn't seem like much, although it can sometimes make all the difference, but...
Suppose you fly four A3 segments and 12000 miles between 24-30 Nov 2015. Now you have two choices -
1) you requalify for Nov 2016 - Nov 2017, but flights between Dec 2015 and Nov 2016 fall into a "black hole" (this is how it actually works)
2) the clock restarts straight away, so your status is only valid until Jan 2017, and you now have another 12 months to requalify for Dec 2016 - Dec 2017 (but if you happen to fully requalify in December, then the clock resets again, etc etc)
Which would you prefer?
So if your 23 Nov 2015 flight counted, then your tier would only be retained until 22 Nov 2016. A day doesn't seem like much, although it can sometimes make all the difference, but...
Suppose you fly four A3 segments and 12000 miles between 24-30 Nov 2015. Now you have two choices -
1) you requalify for Nov 2016 - Nov 2017, but flights between Dec 2015 and Nov 2016 fall into a "black hole" (this is how it actually works)
2) the clock restarts straight away, so your status is only valid until Jan 2017, and you now have another 12 months to requalify for Dec 2016 - Dec 2017 (but if you happen to fully requalify in December, then the clock resets again, etc etc)
Which would you prefer?
Nov 22, 2015, 12:26 pm
#1009
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,479
You will not gain any status requalification advantage - the miles will be lost a day later.
Nov 22, 2015, 2:04 pm
#1011
Moderator: Aegean Miles+Bonus
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: AMS / ATH
Programs: AFKL Plat, A3 Gold
Posts: 7,342
This is not different from other FFP's though. When I credit to (eg) Flying Blue after having reached the threshold, all I end up with are additional award miles. Since the first day of the next qualification year all tier miles are lost. So the additional tier miles do not help me in any way (unless I credit enough to go up one tier, which never happens).
Nov 22, 2015, 11:13 pm
#1012
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,479
The only FFP I know of which encouraged crediting beyond re-qualification point for the highest tier was BD's Diamond Club. Re-qualification for Gold was at 38k, but if you reached 55k all status miles above that were converted to award miles. On a Lufthansa flight in First, that meant you effectively earned (with LH Group bonus) at 635%!
BD had a reasonably large number of US members, so this might well have been a tool aimed at them so the people with big annual mileages didn't split their earnings between, say, UA for the upgrades and BD for the status benefits. In contrast, whilst BD encouraged them, A3 seems to be actively trying to lower the number of non-European members it has by dint of the way re-qualification is now structured.
Additionally, with a still comparatively low re-qualification rate, I think it's highly unlikely A3 will ever go down that line, although it has introduced some of the decent features of Diamond Club (eg upgrade vouchers).
BD had a reasonably large number of US members, so this might well have been a tool aimed at them so the people with big annual mileages didn't split their earnings between, say, UA for the upgrades and BD for the status benefits. In contrast, whilst BD encouraged them, A3 seems to be actively trying to lower the number of non-European members it has by dint of the way re-qualification is now structured.
Additionally, with a still comparatively low re-qualification rate, I think it's highly unlikely A3 will ever go down that line, although it has introduced some of the decent features of Diamond Club (eg upgrade vouchers).
Nov 23, 2015, 6:58 am
#1013
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,567
FB, while I was actively collecting miles, had a similar system. While you needed 70K to become Platinum, everything above 105K, if I remember well, was carried over to the next year. I don't know whether they still have a similar system as I hardly ever earn more than ~2000K per year.
Dec 1, 2015, 1:42 pm
#1014
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: PARIS
Programs: miles and bonus
Posts: 8
I am a little bit confused about Gold Tier Renewal:
I have just qualified Gold Tier on 20 november 2015 - The A3 website tells me my gold Tier is valid till 20 november 2016 -
I will get 12000 tier miles and fly 4 A3 segments by 15 may 2016 - my question is :
Will my gold tier be requalified till 20 november 2017 or 15 may 2017 ?
I have just qualified Gold Tier on 20 november 2015 - The A3 website tells me my gold Tier is valid till 20 november 2016 -
I will get 12000 tier miles and fly 4 A3 segments by 15 may 2016 - my question is :
Will my gold tier be requalified till 20 november 2017 or 15 may 2017 ?
Dec 2, 2015, 12:36 am
#1015
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PAS, Paros Greece
Programs: A3 *G
Posts: 1,375
I am a little bit confused about Gold Tier Renewal:
I have just qualified Gold Tier on 20 november 2015 - The A3 website tells me my gold Tier is valid till 20 november 2016 -
I will get 12000 tier miles and fly 4 A3 segments by 15 may 2016 - my question is :
Will my gold tier be requalified till 20 november 2017 or 15 may 2017 ?
I have just qualified Gold Tier on 20 november 2015 - The A3 website tells me my gold Tier is valid till 20 november 2016 -
I will get 12000 tier miles and fly 4 A3 segments by 15 may 2016 - my question is :
Will my gold tier be requalified till 20 november 2017 or 15 may 2017 ?
Remember that between 15 May and 20 November 2016, all further tier miles you credit to M&B will be worthless.
Dec 2, 2015, 1:50 am
#1016
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Heraklion, Greece
Posts: 7,567
The tier miles will be "worthless", as you state, but these are absolutely linked to the award miles and can't be separated from them. Since award miles are not worthless for several of us, it is sort of "misleading" to be talking about the value of tier miles as such.
Dec 27, 2015, 2:58 pm
#1017
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: CKH
Posts: 575
The paragraph below has been removed from the WIKI, as it is no longer relevant information.
What has happened to the tier I belonged to under the old program?
Old Basic ---> BLUE
Old Blue ----> BLUE, or SILVER if either 16K tier miles or 8K tier miles+2xA3/OA flights were accumulated in the 12 months before 24/11/2014.
Old Gold ----> GOLD
Further, I will neither be contributing to the A3 M+B forum nor update the WIKI in the future, as I have moved to other programs (still have some A3-miles to burn though). I would like to thank all that have been (and will be) a part of this community for their contributions to making this forum and the WIKI in this thread, a source of vital information for anyone that needs to know how to best navigate the M+B frequent flyer program.
Snacky
What has happened to the tier I belonged to under the old program?
Old Basic ---> BLUE
Old Blue ----> BLUE, or SILVER if either 16K tier miles or 8K tier miles+2xA3/OA flights were accumulated in the 12 months before 24/11/2014.
Old Gold ----> GOLD
Further, I will neither be contributing to the A3 M+B forum nor update the WIKI in the future, as I have moved to other programs (still have some A3-miles to burn though). I would like to thank all that have been (and will be) a part of this community for their contributions to making this forum and the WIKI in this thread, a source of vital information for anyone that needs to know how to best navigate the M+B frequent flyer program.
Snacky
Last edited by Snacky; Dec 27, 2015 at 3:20 pm
Dec 28, 2015, 2:15 am
#1018
Join Date: Dec 2015
Programs: A3
Posts: 15
Dec 29, 2015, 8:30 am
#1020
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: SFO, BRU, ADB
Programs: UA Gold, BA Silver, Marriott Titanium, IHG Plat, Hilton Gold
Posts: 707
Hi Snacky,
I got matched to O6 Gold and I don't know if I should keep using A3 or go over to O6, could you tell me what made you switch? Earnings are pretty much the same (expect for LH earning on O6 that are very bad for some reason) but award tickets are crazy espensive on O6, almost double the price of A3. A North America to Western Europe is 30k miles on A3 while it is 55k on O6!!
I got matched to O6 Gold and I don't know if I should keep using A3 or go over to O6, could you tell me what made you switch? Earnings are pretty much the same (expect for LH earning on O6 that are very bad for some reason) but award tickets are crazy espensive on O6, almost double the price of A3. A North America to Western Europe is 30k miles on A3 while it is 55k on O6!!