infinityx

Hey Guys here is the situation

I need 366 more points to Gold
I have until 22 April or I revert to silver
I am being asked to fly next monday Lon-BNA-ATL-LON (5th Feb) - I normally get about 8k point each way flying aircanada
I had flights last year 5th feb earning me 8k tier miles so if its a rolling year ill need 8k again starting next Monday and not 366 correct?

Aegean told me that even if i fly on Monday or get upgraded to gold today, I have to wait until 22 April to start accumulating points for renewal.
I.e. I will only earn award points starting monday if i fly aircanada after i become gold. hence id waste all the other tier points.

Any help would really be appreciated

I have the option of flying another airline though i dont have any other FF program, im thinking of either going delta or British Air or American airlines
Should i then buy the extra 500 tier miles so that i get to gold before monday and fly another airlines to earn status with them i.e. oneworld or skymiles?

swgsword

It's a rolling 12 month status-qualifying membership year, but in any case if it says 366 points until Gold before 22 April, then your flights next week will qualify and bring you to Gold.

infinityx

Im wondering if i just buy the 500 tier miles and get to gold for 50euro and fly delta instead (start earning sky miles).
Feels like a waste of tier miles cause if im hearing it correctly my status check isnt until 23 April. i.e. all the tier miles go into a black hole.

Xandrios

If you are currently silver I would expect you to upgrade to gold directly from the moment you reach the required number of miles. Which can happen by either flying, or by purchasing those 500 miles. I would also expect your year to reset at that moment, meaning that any flights taken after that moment will count for next years requalification.

If you would fly 8K miles now (while you only need <400) may mean that the other 7600 miles do not count for requalification, though I am not exactly sure about this.

I would expect that if you purchase the 500 miles, that you would be upgraded now, and can enjoy the benefits on your next trip. That also means that those 8K miles with your next trip would count for re-qulification.

This is how I understand the rules at least, maybe somebody else with more experience can confirm

groovyfly

Either you have been misinformed by Aegean or you've misunderstood their explanation.

Unlike other FFP's, there isn't a yearly status check, where A3 looks at how much you've flown. This is done on a rolling basis and the date of your earnings period starts/resets on the day you reach Gold. The excess miles from your upcoming trip (the 7600) will start counting towards your renewal and thus will not go into a black hole.

Of course, it will take a couple of days for the miles to post, and after that, typically also 12-24 hours before your status updates and new qualification period resets.

:D!

There is once you become gold!

But I am confused because the OP said

Firstly I am not even sure what infinityx's current status is. If they are currently Silver, I will guess that:

- 5 Feb 2017 - earned 8000 tier miles, but was still Blue - these miles are irrelevant
- 22 Apr 2017 - upgraded to Silver due to earning a further 4000 miles + two A3 flights OR 16K miles (Alternatively: was already Silver and renewed)
- between 23 April 2017 and now - earned either 23634 miles + four A3 flights OR 47634 miles

- 5 Feb 2018 - will upgrade to Gold with 366 miles and then 7634 miles go towards Gold renewal - status year now becomes approx 6 Feb to 5 Feb so need 4366 miles + two A3 flights OR 16366 miles by 5 Feb 2019


If infinityx is currently Gold then they simply need 12K miles + two A3 flights OR 24K miles between 23 April - 22 April every year to renew. Otherwise will drop to Silver on 22 April.


I'm struggling to understand why you would pay actual money to become Gold, and then start flying Delta You know you still earn award miles, and the entire reason to be Gold is that you get benefits beyond what you are nominally paying for, but only when flying Star Alliance....

irishguy28

But will the "tier miles" actually count for anything for you in Skymiles? Unless you can use them to attain status, then that is just as much putting them into a "black hole".

However, the issue of a "black hole" in Aegean only occurs when you are requalifying for Gold, i.e. once you already have had Gold for almost a year. As it sounds like you are still only Silver, then the "black hole" issue cannot happen for you now, on this upcoming AC trip.

If you buy 500 Tier Miles, the date they hit the account - which should be the day on which you buy them - is the day you exceed the Gold threshold, and your status is increased to Gold, and your anniversary/membership year switches to that date. [Let's say its 15 February]

Therefore, your Air Canada flight will most definitely earn both Award Miles and Tier Miles, and those Tier Miles will be the first miles you add to your account in your request to get to 12k Tier miles [with A3 segments]/24k miles [without A3 segments] by 15 February 2019.

the issue of the "black hole" can only arise for you later in 2018, or in early 2019. Once you have exceeded either of the Tier Miles thresholds listed above, you will have "retained Gold" for a second consecutive year, which runs from 15 February 2019 to 15 February 2020. As such, once you have already retained Gold, it is indeed true that any further Tier Miles added to your account after that date, but prior to the commencement of the second Gold year, would have no effect (and won't even be mentioned in your account. Your account will merely show a statement saying "Gold retained to 15 February 2020" or something, and won't show you your Tier Mile target/balance until that second year commences on 15 February 2018)

irishguy28

That's true for Blue and Silvers.

For Golds, effectively there is only one day when they look at your balance. There is a "black hole", in that any Tier Miles a Gold earns above the threshold for retaining Gold in any membership year, have no further effect. But this is a rather negative way to look at it...the vast majority of FFPs don't allow you to "roll-over" excess Tier Miles/points when you have exceeded the requirements for the top level in the current year.

irishguy28

Indeed, but it seems that (s)he is already Gold ("revert to Silver" was mentioned, which would seem to be a stronger statement than the "go to Gold" of the title - although that wording seems unusual if you are already at Gold). This definitely changes the discussion and the OP needs to clarify that.

Indeed, there seems no reason to buy Tier Miles in this case. The idea of turning away to another alliance once status is "wrapped up" in one alliance is also unusual. One normally sticks with one alliance to enjoy the "fruits" of all the hard labour that went into earning that status. Unless the OP consciously wants to build up status in a second alliance - and has a realistic prospect of doing so - there is no real reason to run to Delta.

"I now have Star Alliance Gold status - so I'll spend the next few weeks flying Delta" doesn't make a whole lot of sense, without further context...talking about a "black hole" or implying that Tier Miles are "wasted" implies that the only purpose of flying is to earn status, and that if you are simply enjoying status, then the trip is wasted (as you should be "earning" somewhere else, where you don't have status, and therefore can't enjoy status!)

infinityx

Thanks guys i read terms as well and i think i misunderstood the aegean lady or she misunderstood me.

I am indeed silver right now, and looking at it I think purchasing the 500miles might be better so that my first flight which is lon to toronto approx 6k miles doesn't go to waste. I does mean I think that ill miss out on 2 months where i could have used my 2 upgrade coupons (gutted) but if i am gold already i assume that ill earn a few more points when i take my flights in the coming weeks :P

but you are all right the advantage is for having award miles as well and by the looks of it if i get 20k more miles i can get 100k miles to go towards am award flight. i think ill aim for that. and plus air canada has much better business class seats than delta tbh.

Thanks guys, this has been really helpful!!

Phoenixtinct

So, I think I get your situation now - you're currently Silver and you have until April 22nd to earn 366 more miles to become Gold. If you can't, you'll REMAIN (and not revert) Silver. Since you have an upcoming flight that you can fly on AC, you're wondering if you should credit all flights to A3 and wondering if any miles in excess of the 366 you need will be counted towards requalification (for Gold). My guess is - probably Yes. Since I was Silver long time ago under the old program, I'm not 100% sure but I think it will go something like this. You fly AC on February 5th and after 1 flight you collect the needed 366 miles to upgrade to Gold. Whenever those miles credit, you anniversary date will change (let's suppose it's February 5th). From then on, you have 1 year to fulfill the renewal requirements. Once you get to Gold, the anniversary date doesn't change. But it makes sense that when you're still Blue or Silver, the date changes when you reach a new level. Other airlines with fixed membership years, just give you the status through the end of the current year and the following year. But Aegean doesn't do that.

So, you're faced with a choice - pay for the needed miles to get to Gold now and enjoy the status on your next trip, which will get you lounge access and an extra bag. If you're flying business, you already have that. If you're not, it could be useful but you need to ask yourself, is it going to happen in time - today is the 1st and if you upgrade right away, the Aegean systems will probably recognize your status tomorrow - I have noticed that my account gets updated around noon the day after. So, the A3 system will know you're Gold but you need the *A network to know that, so that you can enjoy those benefits on AC. Not sure that will happen by Monday, the 5th.Thus, I don't advise you to purchase those miles.

Once you get to Gold though, your membership year is fixed. I was from the "old" Golds before Aegean changed the program, so my membership year is from November 24th until November 23rd each year. I just requalified yesterday, so any *A flights I take between now and November 23rd will NOT be carried over to my next qualification year, simply because it hasn't started yet. My balance always gets zeroed out on November 24th. I don't get carryover Tier Miles, I do however have use of the extra award miles but the extra Tier Miles are indeed wasted.

Since you're not Gold just yet, I wouldn't worry about it for now. I hope this has been helpful in making up your mind. Bottom line, any miles earned after you reach Gold, will NOT be wasted as they will be counted towards requalification and I don't think you should spend any money purchasing the missing miles to get you to Gold sooner as I'm not sure you'll be able to enjoy the benefits on your next trip.

irishguy28

If you do that, it's the €25 that will go to waste.

Aegean doesn't "throw away" tier miles in the manner you suggest; you can't lose 6k miles as part of going from Silver to Gold.

You can use them now, or at any time before you go up in status.

But are you actually going to use them? Since they removed the ability to upgrade from the cheapest tickets, I have not used my upgrade vouchers.

Phoenixtinct

Me, too. Since they implemented the change (sometime in 2016 I believe), I have been unable to use mine - either ineligible GoLight fare class or no space on flights with Business Class on board - because single class planes really don't offer anything else but Economy. I'm gonna go off-topic a little bit here but I just flew on an A319 that according to SeatGuru has a Business class section and the plane itself had 2 or 3 rows before the section divide. However, when I was checking in, I was able to select seats from all rows, including the first 3. Is Aegean just selling Economy even though it's not reconfiguring the plane? I was finally happy to see a regular plane on my route (SOF-ATH and vice versa) instead of the smaller torture chambers I have flown on in the past but was surprised there was no Business class at all.

:D!

As mentioned, it is likely that the money will be wasted rather than the miles.

Your AC flights will take you to gold already, and reset your membership year end to 6 February. (There is no way to stop this happening unless you don't credit these flights to Miles&Bonus at all.)

The only way the money would not be wasted is if you happen to just be 500 miles short of renewing your Gold status on 5 February 2019. But you won't know that until closer to the time. Granted, the price may go up (it recently doubled) but that is not really a good reason to spend the money now when you probably won't need to, or will need much more than 500 tier miles.


You only get more miles on Aegean flights, not Air Canada flights. As you are going to the USA in a few days, by the time you are next able to fly A3 in order to benefit from the increased earning rate (if you even have any plans to fly A3) you will be Gold either way, so buying tier miles makes no difference.


I did a quick search and it looks like the only way to get Business on ATH-SOF is to fly the A3 codeshare with FB, the A3 flights are Y only. They probably couldn't be bothered to move the curtain? Did you sit in row 1?

Phoenixtinct

No, I thought it had the tray table in the arm rest, so it had limited space, thus, I avoided it. Besides, all seats appeared to be occupied and I prefer an empty middle seat. It'was only when I got on board that I noticed the seats in row 1 were regular seats. Regarding the curtain, probably - but it could be that when they use the aircraft on other routes throughout the day, they actually offer a Business class, so they don't bother with the adjustments. I doubt the A319 is only used on that route for the 1 or 2 daily round trips and then sits idle for the rest of the day even if it's low season.