Ever since Aegean phased in a requirement to retain A3*G status, I have been curious when/if Aegean would introduce a way to achieve lifetime A3*G status.

Has Aegean ever said anything about potentially introducing a lifetime status benefit for long-term A3*Gs?

 

I don't think its a viable option for A3 to do this.

 

Looking at how incredibly easy it is to maintain status (and therefore, how little Aegean would earn from that) I would agree with djjaguar64. Are there any *A programmes that do offer lifetime status? Would the alliance even allow this as it 'waters down' the elite pool with potential non-frequent-flyers?

 

For such a minor minnow player I highly doubt it.

 

Aegean used to have a de facto lifetime elite status: qualify once, keep account active and status remained indefinitely.

For starters this month: SAS, United, Lufthansa all have lifetime *Gs whom I know to have lifetime *G status. EgyptAir also has lifetime elites, but they may have put a cap on that for new ones since.

 

They are not stupid. Why to do something like that?

 

Until around 7 years ago, Aegean elite status was provided on a basis that had the elite status remain indefinitely without expiration for active elite status accounts. Was Aegean stupid then?

 

No, but time is changing. With 6-9 euro lowcost ticket prices, they can not keep people gold without flying and paying.

 

Routes? Dates???

 

Check Ryanair, Wizzair, Volotea websites! :-)

 

Since when do those airlines’ websites sell A3 flights?

Those LCC airlines’ flights can’t even be credited toward getting A3 elite status; and at least two of those above three mentioned airlines were around for years even before A3 stopped with its de facto lifetime elite status practice.

 

https://newsroom.aviator.aero/volote...avel-restarts/

Who knows

 

Their flights do not earn miles with Miles&Bonus, as can be seen on the booking engine. Also, no status benefits as far as I can see.

 

Good to know, but can you kindly point us to 6-9 euro tickets that are good toward earning Aegean status?

For what it's worth, I have been finding it costs substantially more money to earn A3 miles from flying in more recent years than it cost several years ago (and before) when Aegean elite status was a "earn it once and keep it indefinitely" thing.

 

Which is exactly what Aegean wanted (to raise their revenues) to achieve by terminating lifetime gold memberships and this was the point of powergean's post, but you completely missed it. The point being that if you had secured lifetime gold status then you'd definitely book those 6-9 Euro tickets that have nothing to do with Aegean or miles&bonus over let's say a 60� Aegean ticket, whereas without lifetime gold you'd be "motivated" (or call it forced) to book the more expensive Aegean ticket in order to maintain status. That post (I'm referring to #8) never implied that you would gather Aegean miles by flying a LCC, or at least that much was clear to me.
And I don't know about the costs of gold 10 years ago, but in 2020 I got those 12.000+ miles (and segments needed) for around 230�, which included flights in business class. Was it doable cheaper than that at any time in the past?