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
Sep 28, 2014, 3:21 pm
#106
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
You seem to be saying that the "too good to be true" aspect of the prior (current) incarnation of the program is due to the fact they were optimizing for domestic conditions. What's "too good to be true" for the rest of us is actually a rational fit for domestic flyers.
Okay, I get that. But, why, then, did they open the program to foreigners?
UA, for example, has two sets of rules. One for Americans and one for everyone else. There are reports on FT that they are enforcing this vigorously by demanding paperwork for proof of foreign residence. UA is the inverse of A3 in that it makes things easier for foreigners and harder for Americans, but still, this is an example of an airline drawing a line to distinguish what they want to do domestically vs globally.
If A3 is so smart, and this was all a clever and well reasoned plan, then why didn't they introduce a two-tier plan in the first place with different criteria for foreigners or with forced A3 metal, which is basically the same thing?
Seems to me they were caught off guard by the extent to which foreigners found ways to take advantage the generous benefits without ever touching A3 metal.
Okay, I get that. But, why, then, did they open the program to foreigners?
UA, for example, has two sets of rules. One for Americans and one for everyone else. There are reports on FT that they are enforcing this vigorously by demanding paperwork for proof of foreign residence. UA is the inverse of A3 in that it makes things easier for foreigners and harder for Americans, but still, this is an example of an airline drawing a line to distinguish what they want to do domestically vs globally.
If A3 is so smart, and this was all a clever and well reasoned plan, then why didn't they introduce a two-tier plan in the first place with different criteria for foreigners or with forced A3 metal, which is basically the same thing?
Seems to me they were caught off guard by the extent to which foreigners found ways to take advantage the generous benefits without ever touching A3 metal.
As for A3, Im sure UA was tired of having its clubs, Group 1 or 2 lines, giving away free bags etc etc to folks who maybe fly a few times a yr and within the US. So they put pressure on A3 to do away with those who never even flew on A3 yet were a drain to the other *A carriers for having to provide the benefits
Seems like it will kill the NA members but leave most Europeans in good shape, and that means UA and the other *A carriers having to give things away for Zippo.Im sure the # of folks who fly Eur-US ona monthly or bi-monthly basis isnt a lareg # , so they can live with that
Gone will be the familys going EWR-FL as they wont get 2 free bags per person, no more E+, no more Lounge access, no priority access etc etc all on ElCheapos. And UA wont end up lossing if they go elsewhere
Last edited by craz; Sep 29, 2014 at 8:32 am Reason: no free E+
Sep 28, 2014, 5:11 pm
#107
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: LHR
Programs: UA P, BA S, A3 *G, IHG Plat, Marriott Lt P, Hilton Gld, etc.
Posts: 1,078
AX
Sep 28, 2014, 9:42 pm
#108
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,484
As for A3, Im sure UA was tired of having its clubs, Group 1 or 2 lines, giving away free bags etc etc to folks who maybe fly a few times a yr and within the US, also free E+. So they put pressure on A3 to do away with those who never even flew on A3 yet were a drain to the other *A carriers for having to provide the benefits
Seems like it will kill the NA members but leave most Europeans in good shape, and that means UA and the other *A carriers having to give things away for Zippo.Im sure the # of folks who fly Eur-US ona monthly or bi-monthly basis isnt a lareg # , so they can live with that
Seems like it will kill the NA members but leave most Europeans in good shape, and that means UA and the other *A carriers having to give things away for Zippo.Im sure the # of folks who fly Eur-US ona monthly or bi-monthly basis isnt a lareg # , so they can live with that
Oh, and *G hasn't qualified for free E+ for many years (I think I've had it given a grand total of twice in the last 5 years, one of them when it was in UA's interests to get me closer to the front of the plane so I had a chance of making a tight connection caused by their mech so they wouldn't have to pay for an overnight), so there's no give-away there.
However, UA isn't exactly blameless in the limits being set low in the first place, given they would only pay A3 enough to allow 50% miles crediting
.
Sep 29, 2014, 1:08 am
#109
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: CKH
Posts: 575
Snacky
Sep 29, 2014, 4:02 am
#111
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: RTM, CDG
Posts: 180
Sep 29, 2014, 4:33 am
#112
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Netherlands
Programs: KL Platinum; A3 Gold
Posts: 28,768
Originally Posted by Aegean
How do I move up to a higher tier?
To move up to the next tier, you need to collect the required amount of Tier Miles and take the required number of flights within 12 months from your earliest recorded flight activity. To upgrade from Blue to Silver Tier, you need to collect 12,000 Tier Miles, including 2 flights with AEGEAN and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 24,000 Tier Miles regardless of which airline you choose to fly with. To upgrade from Silver to Gold Tier you need to collect 24,000 Tier Miles, including 4 flights with AEGEAN and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 48,000 Tier Miles regardless of which airline you choose to fly with.
To move up to the next tier, you need to collect the required amount of Tier Miles and take the required number of flights within 12 months from your earliest recorded flight activity. To upgrade from Blue to Silver Tier, you need to collect 12,000 Tier Miles, including 2 flights with AEGEAN and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 24,000 Tier Miles regardless of which airline you choose to fly with. To upgrade from Silver to Gold Tier you need to collect 24,000 Tier Miles, including 4 flights with AEGEAN and/or Olympic Air, or collect a total of 48,000 Tier Miles regardless of which airline you choose to fly with.
Sep 29, 2014, 5:11 am
#113
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: CKH
Posts: 575
This should never have been in doubt. The very first question in their FAQ clearly explains this:
You must first attain Silver status, before you can attain Gold. The requirements to reach Silver are plainly set out, and apply to those holding Blue cards. The requirements to reach Gold are plainly set out, and apply to those holding Silver cards.
You must first attain Silver status, before you can attain Gold. The requirements to reach Silver are plainly set out, and apply to those holding Blue cards. The requirements to reach Gold are plainly set out, and apply to those holding Silver cards.
This also means that new members/members with blue status only, starting from scratch on or after 24/11/2014, will have to earn a whopping total of 72000 tier miles to qualify for Gold, if they only fly non-A3/OA *A partner flights, but will have up to two years to do so (by for example qualifying for Silver in the first 12 months, and then from there qualify for Gold within the following 12 months).
Is this in concurrence with requirements for status in other *A FF-programmes aswell? Seems a little demanding in my opinion. SAS EuroBonus for example, does not zero out your tier points after you reach Silver (at 25000 points), and if you earn enough to reach Gold (a total of 50000 points) within the 12 month period, you will be Gold.
Snacky
Last edited by Snacky; Sep 29, 2014 at 5:28 am
Sep 29, 2014, 8:44 am
#114
Suspended
Join Date: Nov 1999
Posts: 24,153
The spirit of what you say is absolutely correct, I'm sure. Possibly a bigger factor was the loss of UA Club paid membership.
Oh, and *G hasn't qualified for free E+ for many years (I think I've had it given a grand total of twice in the last 5 years, one of them when it was in UA's interests to get me closer to the front of the plane so I had a chance of making a tight connection caused by their mech so they wouldn't have to pay for an overnight), so there's no give-away there.
However, UA isn't exactly blameless in the limits being set low in the first place, given they would only pay A3 enough to allow 50% miles crediting.
Oh, and *G hasn't qualified for free E+ for many years (I think I've had it given a grand total of twice in the last 5 years, one of them when it was in UA's interests to get me closer to the front of the plane so I had a chance of making a tight connection caused by their mech so they wouldn't have to pay for an overnight), so there's no give-away there.
However, UA isn't exactly blameless in the limits being set low in the first place, given they would only pay A3 enough to allow 50% miles crediting
.But when you have familys traveling & all of them getting 2 free bags be it on a Dom or Intl tkt, that adds up very fast
Personally I believe that *S & *G should be 1 set of requirements no matter the Carrier. And each carrier can have its own set of requirements which may be losser for its own levels. eg *G needs 50k but UA G can be set say at 40K only you wouldnt be *G and thusly only get *S when flying anyone but UA if a person flew say 41K
The problem will be when the ranks of folks getting access into the clubs thins out after 12/15, UA still wont up its offerrings
Sep 29, 2014, 1:12 pm
#115
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Ottawa
Programs: A3 G, SPG, Fairmount
Posts: 1,113
As a current Air Canada Altitude E50 (*G) who was dissatisfied with the devaluation of the benefits and co-pay for upgrades (int'l) I had been steadily accumulating A3 points. Now sitting at 18950 with two more trips coming before November 15 2014 which will mean that at the sweep after Nov 15, I will be sitting at 27,500.
Please help me understand the new rules.
I think i should get the card upgrade on or about November 16th 2014. That should mean i get GOLD status before there new rules come into effect.
Will the expiry date be Nov 24 2015 ? in order to match the new re-set date for re-qualification?
If so, I will then need to fly in 2015 at least 12 or 24k miles (really 24 and 48 at 50% miles earning in the low fares category) in order to re-gain either Silver of Gold.
Please correct me if I understood poorly. I do think the free ride is over and will need to consider my options again for earning status in 2015 for 2016.
Please help me understand the new rules.
I think i should get the card upgrade on or about November 16th 2014. That should mean i get GOLD status before there new rules come into effect.
Will the expiry date be Nov 24 2015 ? in order to match the new re-set date for re-qualification?
If so, I will then need to fly in 2015 at least 12 or 24k miles (really 24 and 48 at 50% miles earning in the low fares category) in order to re-gain either Silver of Gold.
Please correct me if I understood poorly. I do think the free ride is over and will need to consider my options again for earning status in 2015 for 2016.
Sep 29, 2014, 1:55 pm
#116
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: CKH
Posts: 575
... at the sweep after Nov 15, I will be sitting at 27,500. Please help me understand the new rules.
I think I should get the card upgrade on or about November 16th 2014. That should mean I get GOLD status before there new rules come into effect.
Will the expiry date be Nov 24 2015 in order to match the new re-set date for re-qualification?
If so, I will then need to fly in 2015 at least 12 or 24k miles (really 24 and 48 at 50% miles earning in the low fares category) in order to re-gain either Silver of Gold.
I think I should get the card upgrade on or about November 16th 2014. That should mean I get GOLD status before there new rules come into effect.
Will the expiry date be Nov 24 2015 in order to match the new re-set date for re-qualification?
If so, I will then need to fly in 2015 at least 12 or 24k miles (really 24 and 48 at 50% miles earning in the low fares category) in order to re-gain either Silver of Gold.
Q2. Yes, your Gold status will last until November 23rd 2015 no matter what happens.
Q3. To retain Gold after 2015 you must earn the amount of tier miles you mentioned, or a little less, depending on how many of your 27500 tier miles have been earned between November 24th 2013 and November 23rd 2014, as you will be able to roll over any surplus above 24000 tier miles (or above 12000 tier miles if you have flown at least 2 flights on A3/OA) earned in that particular period, to your 2015 requalification period. All tier miles earned before November 24th 2013 will be expired (or in effect discarded). If you earn less tier miles than required (or none) in 2015 you will be bumped down to Silver for 2016.
Complicated, right?!?!?!
Snacky
Last edited by Snacky; Sep 29, 2014 at 2:45 pm
Sep 29, 2014, 3:48 pm
#117
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 1
RTW - what to do now?
Hi, these threads have been very helpful and I used them to choose Aegean initially for a Round The World trip for my partner and I booked for next summer; however I now think that Aegean may not be so good due to the changes.
Based in London. Flights booked are:
LHR to Tokyo with ANA business
Narita to Auckland Air NZ business
Domestic in New Zealand Air NZ economy
Auckland to Nadi(Fiji) Air NZ business
Nadi to LAX business with Air Fiji (I am using American Airlines frequent flyer for this sector)
LAX to LHR Air NZ business
Unlikely to fly much else with Star Alliance in next few years, but if did then Aegean or Turkish most likely. Using Aegean before, it looked like we would get gold status and a free European trip just based on the one RTW trip; however this will no longer be the case.
What program do you think would now be best for us? Thanks for all your help.
Based in London. Flights booked are:
LHR to Tokyo with ANA business
Narita to Auckland Air NZ business
Domestic in New Zealand Air NZ economy
Auckland to Nadi(Fiji) Air NZ business
Nadi to LAX business with Air Fiji (I am using American Airlines frequent flyer for this sector)
LAX to LHR Air NZ business
Unlikely to fly much else with Star Alliance in next few years, but if did then Aegean or Turkish most likely. Using Aegean before, it looked like we would get gold status and a free European trip just based on the one RTW trip; however this will no longer be the case.
What program do you think would now be best for us? Thanks for all your help.
Sep 29, 2014, 5:12 pm
#118
Community Director
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Norwich, UK
Programs: A3*G, BA Gold, BD Gold (in memoriam), IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 8,484
You might have better luck looking in the Star Alliance forum where there's a dedicated sticky on just this subject.
Sep 29, 2014, 10:39 pm
#119
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 77
One thing that is worth noting is that Aegean accrual rates are consistently amongst the highest of Star Alliance carriers and there are some real gems in there
(150% discount economy on SAA for example - It is still the case for less than $2000 and 1 ECONOMY return SAA flight you can requalify without ever sitting on an Aegean plane)
If you are already gold, having weighed up the various options, I can't currently see a reason to switch. A TK status match should buy you another year of Gold if you really don't fly anywhere often.
If I were starting from scratch, it would be OZ for me most likely unless I could do 4 quick A3 flights cheaply (I can't - I'm in Japan).
(150% discount economy on SAA for example - It is still the case for less than $2000 and 1 ECONOMY return SAA flight you can requalify without ever sitting on an Aegean plane)
If you are already gold, having weighed up the various options, I can't currently see a reason to switch. A TK status match should buy you another year of Gold if you really don't fly anywhere often.
If I were starting from scratch, it would be OZ for me most likely unless I could do 4 quick A3 flights cheaply (I can't - I'm in Japan).
Sep 29, 2014, 11:37 pm
#120
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: SoCal
Programs: AA EP, OZ Diamond, WS Plat, Avis CHM, Hertz PC, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Gold, Hyatt Explorist
Posts: 910
Ok, so let me recap and confirm what is being said (mainly from jerry_greece's post, and some from conjecture reading this thread) about requalification for those of us currently at A3 Gold: We will retain status until Nov 24 2015, regardless of what happens. However, if between Nov 24 2013 and Nov 24 2014 we were/are able to fly 12k + 4x A3/OA flights (or fly 24k non A3 but star tiered miles), we retain gold until Nov 24 2016, with any over and above that rolling over / going toward the 2017 status year (to confirm?). Any tier miles less than meeting that gold threshold (via either path) vanishes as of Nov 24 2014, given the launch of the new program, and (I'm assuming most of us here) the member will then have 1 year to do that between Nov 24 2014 and Nov 24 2015, in order to retain gold until Nov 24 2016.
If true, that means you either try to (or should be pretty darn close to) requalify for 2016 based on existing travel patterns (ie a 24k+/year A3 accrued star traveler or a Greece/A3/OA based flier) or you sit tight and don't begin trying to requalify for 2016 until after Nov 24 2014, of which you'd have a year to do so.
Call me crazy, but this kind of makes sense the more I think about a fair transition. I'm not based anywhere close to an A3 flight myself, but it seems like they've thought this through.
If true, that means you either try to (or should be pretty darn close to) requalify for 2016 based on existing travel patterns (ie a 24k+/year A3 accrued star traveler or a Greece/A3/OA based flier) or you sit tight and don't begin trying to requalify for 2016 until after Nov 24 2014, of which you'd have a year to do so.
Call me crazy, but this kind of makes sense the more I think about a fair transition. I'm not based anywhere close to an A3 flight myself, but it seems like they've thought this through.
Last edited by Insiderdude; Sep 29, 2014 at 11:44 pm