romans

I have always an issue with automatically crediting OS *PE classes, weird it's still on...

matio_svk

Premium Eco legs did not credit automatically (outbound on SN I had to do retrocredit-worked, return on OS actually did not work at all, and customer service is solving it), I also flew with her and nothing has changed in my account either and the award miles amount has also stayed the same...
In trasactions there is only the outbound flight and FFP Department - Card Renewal on the date of renewal

And did the retrocredit on A3 web work for you? I got a "95-Your request has been rejected. Please check the details, request again or contact us" and have written an email to A3 support, which answered ,that they contacted OS regarding this

romans

yes it always worked but talking about OS operated flight ( not codeshared or similar)

intuition

So, the big day of nov 23 is coming up, where a bulk of Golds are up for renewal.

I am personally short a few hundred tier miles, and will buy 500 at 37,5€. I am perfectly fine with that.

What I was thinking of though, was that I lack the function to exchange award miles for tier miles. This is an option in my other main program (Finnair plus) where you can exchange award points for tier points at the rate 3:1. It is very convenient.

As I look at Aegean "purchase miles" option, I do notice that Aegean has the same valuation - tier miles are sold at exactly 3x the price of award miles. So I would have loved to see this exchange function in M&B too, but I realise that it is not very likely to happen. The purchase tier miles function is already in place and I'm sure it is a decent source of revenue for Aegean.

Still, it is a very nice option to be able to exchange award miles for tier miles, so I am hoping for it.

HEhatesusall

A3 do indeed have that option, but only for the most expensive alpha-bank A3-cobrand credit cards, but at an outrageous 20:1 ratio!

https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...an-bonus-visa/

here's hoping we can get this as a gold benefit!
But I wouldn't count on it... they dont even give us free upfront seat selection

futuramadramallama

I fell to Silver this cycle and am trying to figure out which mileage number on my account's dashboard I should be paying attention to. As usual, there's a: In my case, x is 128 and y is 8128; for a requalifying-Silver, it makes sense that y is always 8k tier miles more than x.
But because it's been quite a few years since I went through the process of upgrading a tier, and there's a temporary 25% reduction in required tier miles, there's a new number I'm not quite familiar with: In my case, z is 4854. Doing a bit of math, I see that z is "18k minus everything I flew since 31/05/2022," and y is "18k minus everything I flew since my account anniversary" this past autumn.

I'm a bit confused. I don't suppose I can simply earn 5k tier miles by May 31st (when the 25% reduction expires for everyone) and be Gold for the rest of my account year, and into the next account year, yes? After all, normal upgrade from Silver to Gold requires 4 A3/OA segments and 24k tier miles, or 48k tier miles (with no A3/OA segments). But the way they've worded the "to upgrade my tier" makes it seem like one only needs the tier miles and no A3/OA segments.

Before I try to work 4 A3/OA segments into the next trip, I'm wondering if I actually need them. Curious what others think?

P.S. Admittedly this isn't the most matching thread for this question, but in that it concerns maintaining status during the last few years of confusion, I thought it might be ok here.

:D!

I'm confused about why you needed to use x, y and z when you reveal the numbers later? I assume the redacted date is something like September 2023.

When you move from silver to gold your account date gets reset to 12 months from that date, i.e. if you become gold on 30 April 2023, then you have gold until 30 (29??) April 2024 and thereafter your anniversary stays constant while you continue to maintain gold.

Did you fly four A3/OA flights between 1 June 2022 and [September??] 2022? This may be a logic error in the programming though and an unintended loophole.

giorginho

Of course this is no loophole, it is exactly how the Miles&Bonus program is supposed to work! And futuramadramallama has in fact taken at least 4 Aegean flights post May 31st 2022, othewise he'd be required to fly additional segments to reach the magic number 4.
When your status is downgraded, your former, higher status level still requires the upgrade criteria to be met within 12 rolling months always counting everything backwards from each current day! So right now every flight he's taken between today and 365 days ago actually counts towards tier upgrade (albeit with the higher upgrade requirements and not the lower retention requirements), there is no fixed tier upgrade deadline, but the occasional "deadline" derives from the dates one has taken flights within the previous 365 days.
Since the account is showing May 31st as the next deadline, I'd assume that he's either credited 0 tier miles between January 16th and May 31st 2022 or that the ones he possibly did credit were less than 6000 miles, which is what that 25% reduced thresholds accounts for until May 31st. This is actually a very good chance to re-upgrade, I think and futuramadramallama got most facts correct, except for the fact that I think the silver status retention without the segments is at 16k and not 18k (edit) and, crucially, that if he makes Gold up until May 31st 2023, he's only getting 12 months of gold tier from the day of the flight that pushed him over the gold threshold (the anniversary always resets when tier gets upgraded!) and not more than 12 months! (/edit)
He does need the segments to maintain silver at the reduced threshold, because his silver year actually does have a deadline, 1 year from the day of the downgrade and no flights prior to that day count towards tier retention.
Hope this clarifies things.

futuramadramallama

Interesting! So there's actually a separate "upgrade-tier timer" not-synced to one's "maintain-tier timer" (I'll call this UTT and MTT for now); usually UTT is one-and-the-same with the MTT, but in a handful of grey areas (such as when one drops from Gold to Silver), it reveals itself to be a constantly-incrementing, 365-days-backwards-looking counter. The "account anniversary date" (maybe I'll call this AAD) is now also kaput, and will be set again if-and-when one reaches the next higher tier.

So the fact I took 4 Aegean flights and a few other partners flights before my [now former] AAD is not a total waste; it still counts for something. That's a pleasant surprise.

I took some A3/OA and some partner flights, and have ~5k left to go it seems.

Good to know, and thanks for the clarification. Also, yes, 16k seems right; I can't maths sometimes.

It sounds like the choices are:

• To Reach Gold
  • Without needing 4 new A3/OA segments
    • Collect ~5k tier miles by end of May 2023. The 4 A3/OA segments (from I think July 2022) are set. Expected Result: Gold, and new AAD of (whenever the goal is reached, say), May.
    • Collect ~11k (5k + 25% reduction lapsed) tier miles by June 2023. Expected Result: Gold, with new AAD of say, June.
    • Collect [increasingly more, up to 48k] tier miles by Sept 2023. Expected Result: Gold, with new AAD of say, Sept.
  • Needing 4 new A3/OA segments
    • Collect [increasingly more, up to 24k] and four new A3/0A segments, or by Sept 2023. Expected Result: Gold, with new AAD of say, Sept.
• To Keep Silver
  • Without needing 2 new A3/OA segments
    • Collect ~8k tier miles by end of May 2023. Expected Result: Silver, same AAD as before.
    • Collect something by Sept 2023, I can't think and probably won't take this path. Result would be Silver.
  • Needing 2 new A3/OA segments
    • Collect ~100 tier miles and 2 A3/OA segments by May 2023. Silver, same AAD.
    • Collect something something by Sept 2023. Silver.
• To Give up and go back to Blue
  • Read the newspaper and eat a biscuit.

If this is all correct, I'll have to think about what to do, maybe go for Gold.

Thanks for the clarification that upgrade-timing and maintain-timing are different (if that's indeed what you're saying).

giorginho

The system always works on the 365-day basis, but when you reach a certain tier, that tier gets an "anniversary" that's now fixed and then those "365 days" also become fixed. After you lose that tier, those 365 days get "unfixed" but still run all the way 365 days in the past as they used to before you got to that tier (they start "rolling" again, which is why everyone refers to Aegean's tier qualifications as it being a "rolling year").
You already understood it quite well in the section quoted above! It is what Aegean is also informing you in your account and it is what is actually happening.
Think about it this way: You are in blue tier and reach silver today! Your silver "maintain timing" will be 365 days from today, however you could (theoretically) reach gold already the day after tomorrow!

Regarding your "choices", again, what you see in your account is exactly what your choices are! You can indeed re-upgrade to gold with no additional A3 segments (and a reduced threshold till end of May), but you do need 2*A3 segments to maintain silver with the lower amount of miles (no need to metion how many miles in this case, as you'll only need 128 and you'll be getting 200 as the absolut minimum, no matter what A3 segments you credit), however since your anniversary is in Autumn I don't see the need to get those by the end of May and I'm quite sure your account reads "Up to....XX/09/2023"!

I think you got the rest .

futuramadramallama

I was indeed aware of the rolling-year method, and that an anniversary is "set" upon reaching Gold. What I seemingly didn't know was that it reverts to rolling if-and-when when you lose a tier, and there's a "set point" at every tier. I suppose I never contemplated moving down a tier, and accordingly most of the resources on FT and the web are solely about earning status and retaining status. (At least the ones I've read.) I suppose it's like unboxing a new appliance/electronic from its packing material, but not knowing how to pack it back in--it never seems to fit correctly.

Thanks for clarifying.

Thanks, and good to know that what the dashboard says isn't an error/oversight. Let's see if I can manage something by May. Thanks again.

giorginho

https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...spurchasepromo
Theoretically you could purchase 4000 of the required miles for 300€ up to May 31st (or better yet exactly May 31st, in order to have the most time to retain your tier, if no flights other than perhaps the one that will get you those other 800-something miles are planned until then). It's not quite cheap, but I wouldn't expect you to be able to easily come up with a plan involving flying that will cost less than that, all factors considered (cost of getting to the airport(s), possibly positioning flights etc.). Sadly, only Gold members can purchase up to 5000 tier miles, which is what would have made it possible for you to upgrade without flying at all.
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futuramadramallama

Oh, the irony!

I do have one or two itineraries booked. A big/bigger concern was whether I also needed to wind in four A3/OA segments. Since it sounds like I don't, I think I'll be ok. Thanks for the suggestion about buying tier miles though.

giorginho

Sorry, I fail to see what you refer to.

futuramadramallama

It sounds like Silver can only buy 4k tier miles a year, but I need almost 5k. Ironically, if I was already Gold and somehow needed 5k, I would be allowed to buy it. It's a bit of a Catch-22.