johnirvine

What is meant is that I believe a not insignificant proportion of legacy A3*G cardholders has probably already requalified and therefore have cards valid to 24/5/2022. To requalify, all that is currently required is 9,000 miles and four flights within 18 months. Perhaps this is difficult in the current circumstances for those who only just make the threshold each year, but *G is primarily intended for frequent flyers. Even to get a *S card with LH, for example, you need to fly 30 sectors with LH-Group airlines. For more frequent Aegean flyers, it is somewhat annoying to lose access to upgrades because the renewal period is extended unnecessarily. Of course, my views will not be popular, but I believe it is time that Aegean significantly increases its *G qualification criteria.

Ogunsoto

Spot on.

I think it's time and, to be honest, a great opportunity for Aegean to shake off the "parasites".

NWIFlyer

Parasite with 500k household miles across two people only here. At one point contributing around 50-60k per year into M+B.

Had flights which would have re-qualified both MrsNWI and me in May 2020, November 2020 and March 2021 cancelled and not able to reasonably re-schedule due to various travel restrictions. One final possible opportunity in May which I’ll try for but don’t expect it to work out.

Still accumulated about 15,000 status miles over the 12 months to November 2020. The cancelled flights would have put me at around 42k.

Sorry, but this sort of language really does show a complete lack of understanding of the position many find themselves in, and I’m not sure it’s quite in the spirit of FT where we help and support each other.

Rant over .

Ogunsoto

NWIFlyer, why make it personal? I think we both know that you are a proper frequent flyer and I wasn't picturing you when I said "parasite". My comment was not to offend anyone in particular but rather point out that A3 has been too generous than the average * airline. I think it's inevitable that the programme will squeeze out the excess sooner than later.

Having said that, I do understand your position as I'm based in the UK as well.

johnirvine

If your valid to date is May 2021, this means that you still have until then to requalify. So it is probably not the case that you 'didn't meet the requirement'. Everyone had their status extended by 6 months and, in your case as with mine, status is extended to May 2022 if you fly 4 Aegean sectors and 9,000 miles (or 24,000 status miles without the four A3 sectors).

:D!

So you don't foresee being able to fly for another 15 months?


I guess I am a parasite then. It was a good run. In 2012 I paid something like £20 to add an extra stop on a trip I was going to take anyway, this achieved "lifetime" gold.

In 2015 the program changes meant I had to fly A3, but I found the very cheapest flights every year and got them upgraded too... except in 2018 when I paid an exorbitant amount and there was no upgrade availability to boot. Anyway, I don't think A3 pays for lounge access when flying other airlines, especially if you are using that airline's own lounge.

In 2019 I had a baby and was unable to get my status extended due to A3's sexist policy, otherwise I wouldn't even be here (BA has sorted me until the end of 2022, from soft-landed Gold earned in 2017, so I've completely ignored all the fuss about BA's extensions or lack of)

I guess if I didn't have a baby I would have tried to make the cut in summer 2020 - but my wife didn't feel comfortable taking him for long trips with the additional covid-related hassles. As I wanted to be away for as little as possible I was only able to do my semi-essential short trips of which going to Greece did not count.

Assuming that I will be downgraded in May, I now need to consider whether I should stick with A3 and re-attain gold if the opportunity arises, or see if another FFP meets my needs.

giorginho

(nothing personal, this is a general comment and I totally understand the fairness of your arguments) I get that the "no further extension" policy will pretty much shut the door on those, who, as mentioned previously, up until now barely made the requalification each time (either due to simply never flying more than that much or due to them intentionally only flying or crediting just enough miles with Aegean or Star to maintain status!), but with numbers such as those you mention I would ask myself if it is worth the whole agitation to... simply miss out on a couple of free upgrades or lounge access vouchers until getting re-upgraded to gold from silver (where you 'd "soft land"). You'd have 2 upgrades and 4 lounge vouchers to begin with, you'd probably requalify for silver on the first business class return flight to Athens (and lets not forget, that the pandemic has opened up those Z and even some A fares, plus multiple discount codes, nearly across the whole network!), so you'd get 2 + 4 new vouchers and by the time you hit the 24.000 mark (which I believe will stay at 18.000 until September 2021, unless this changes somehow automatically with a downgrade!) you'd be gold again and get all those "perks" you wanted back! It's not like your whole flying "career" would be in ruins, it will be a minor inconvenience for maybe a couple of months and maybe 4 flights or so (and even less if those canceled flights were those expecting 2x miles)... Of course everyone knows their own booking profile much better than I could guess, I'm sure you can make the most out of a temporary downgrade (and it might even cost you less than requalifying for gold would have under "normal" circumstances). Was there another policy in place in 2019? They (now and since at least 1 year ago if I'm not mistaken) offer a one-year status-extension per child, for which someone (who is a father) has to demonstrate having received a minimum of 3 months parental leave (during the child's 1st year and of course prior to any status expiry). I think this is fair enough (it is assumed that a mother needs a minimum of 3 months around the time of birth, so they don't require any parental leave certificates, it's only logical that she doesn't work and even more logical that she doesn't travel during that time!) and I am planning to use this exact policy to extend my newely acquired silver status . Now if the country you live in doesn't give fathers the right to any parental leave, then that's definitely worse than simply sexist (but I thought this was supposed to be a EU-wide law by now). You obviously can't keep working (and thus travelling) as usual and expect a complimentary status extension and it is certainly not sexist to give this to mothers giving birth without further conditions!

GUWonder

No matter the justification, it's still a sexist policy to treat fathers differently than mothers when dealing with how the birth of a young child entitles access to the A3 status extension benefit. But that's the parental leave status extension issue.

The Covid-19 status extension issue with A3 is just non-sexist and weird in it is rewarding some A3 elites with a mere six month status extension while others are being rewarded with a much longer status extension period.

NWIFlyer

You make a very persuasive argument ... but on the flip side if I abandon *A and instead put all those extra miles into BA then I’ll have absolutely no problem re-qualifying for Gold there (which is a much more useful status than with Star), I’ll trigger an upgrade voucher which I can use on long haul to get in to F, I’ll possibly also reach GGL which brings all sorts of perks, and I should reach lifetime Gold much more quickly.

If ever I want *G back for some reason then BA Gold is normally good for a status match somewhere.

So if A3 decides it doesn’t need me to credit my between 25k and 40k typically a year (so yes, there’s been years when I’ve also just qualified after work travel to Star destinations pretty much totally dried up) then I’ll move on and concentrate on a single program, with an airline that’s approached this much more sensibly and logically and has a much more extensive network from the UK.

There’s a counter argument to the ‘A3 is too generous with qualification levels’, which is that for many the FFP is a good second program. It keeps those people within Star who won’t make Senator but can still contribute a reasonable amount per year. Star will lose those customers.

So if come May I drop to Silver I’ll be looking for a First redemption somewhere to burn my miles and I’ll move everything to BA. It won’t stop me visiting Greece because BA still fly there, typically for less money than A3. If ever it came to a choice that was always going to be the result - this just forces the decision that much earlier.

yauee

what do you mean some got 6 months and some got longer? do you mean the 2021 vs 2022?

yauee

Don't really see our boarder will be open freely in the coming months (despite completed 2 dose of covid-19 vaccination) . Even it does open, we might/might not only allows to travel to country will high compliance or low covid-19 casualty country. We appreciate what New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Vietnam had done. They have been protecting their country and people well (reactive lockdown) and also prevent further global spreading. So Yes, unlikely to travel for the next 15 months.

GUWonder

I see A3*G accounts where the members flew enough within the first quarter or half of 2020 to requalify for A3*G and have 6 figure A3 miles each but are still having their A3*G status expiring in 2021 because A3 only extended their status by 6 months in total. Most of those accounts historically seemed to have used few or none of the the upgrade vouchers because their travel patterns using A3 are akin to mine.

Is it worth worth it to ditch A3's program because A3 has been more miserly with extending their *G status than it has been with others who flew less than them? Probably not, but that doesn't disappear the inequity of the extensions.

justforfun

You also have to take into consideration that for many flying Aegean is very seasonal. For those of us that do no live in Greece, travels to Greece are more concentrated in the summer. So an extension over the winter doesn't mean much. Not to mention a global pandemic where many borders, including those of Greece, closed to most travelers. And no, I'm not a parasite because my travel patterns don't include A3 travel year-round.

yauee

Still try to figure out, as you mention they are account which get extension more than 6 months. Can expand more please? as you also mentioned inequity

murilix

Is "shaking off the parasites" a good idea? Well, I have some EUR 250 in A3 tickets issued, but cancelled. If my status isn't extended, I'll have to use these 250 E to book a full earning flight on TK to cater for the 13K-point difference...