Ed Size

I don t really get for what are the vouchers good you get once you become a Silver member, it sounds like you can use them on any flight, but this is too good to be true. So what are the conditions? Intra Greece only?

Chiller3333

If you are referring to the upgrade vouchers they are good for all flights within the Aegean network as long as they are ticketed on Aegean/Olympic stock and aren't light fares in U,T,P.
As long as there is availability in I (Business class award) the upgrades usually go through.
Refer to the long thread on vouchers for more details
Seat upgrade coupons

frenchft

I didn't know silver had lounge and upgrade coupons. It's very generous from A3 based on the low requirements.
The conditions are the same as gold coupon. Check the fare (light fare in U T P are exluded) and that there is I availability. Best way is to call them before booking to check it's ok. For some routes they will tell you there is a waiting list, I kind of don't like it so never accept the waiting list but some had good success to get the upgrade cleared.
Also keep in mind that the coupons with A3 are per segment not per ticket. For exemple you fly CDG-ATH-CAI : if you want to upgrade the 2 flights you will use 2 coupons. If you want to upgrade only one flight it's possible (even on the same ticket) but will take little more time to be done by agent as they need to get it manually done by another department in such case.
If you need extra luggage but want to use only one coupon for a 2 segments flights I would advice use to use the coupon for the first segment, it will change you luggage allowance for the whole ticket even if second segment is in Y.

AlwaysFlyStar

As far as luggage, whenever I have upgraded the second leg of one direction, I have still received the luggage allowance for the whole direction.
And as for the waitlist, if you are on it, they will upgrade you so long as a seat is available in business. If you get onboard and your upgrade hasn't cleared, but a seat is available, the cabin crew is able to process your upgrade on the spot. So I would say the waitlist isn't that scary unless on a very busy route or if you definitely need the upgrade on that segment.

As far as silver being easy/the vouchers they provide being generous, I am not so sure that I would agree. I mean, it is a nice perk for sure, but getting to silver requires 12.000 miles in a year including 2 A3 flights or 24.000 miles. Retaining requires 8.000 including 2 A3 flights or 16.000. Considering that getting silver the first time is almost the same as maintaining gold, and considering that Star Alliance silver is worth virtually nothing, I would say that it makes sense to give them this handful of benefits to make it worth maintaining silver for those customers who can't quite make it to gold. I would say that the benefits other airlines provide to their silver members on their own flights are comparable. Different and unique to each, but comparable. Also, consider that if a member is exclusively flying Aegean, it is hard to get to silver unless they are buying more than the light fare. AMS-ATH at 400 miles per flight would require 15 round trips in a year for silver. I wouldn't consider 4 lounge visits and 2 upgrades per year to be overly generous for those passengers personally.

giorginho

Having very recently spent 11 months and 1 week as a silver member of Miles & Bonus, here's my take on the matter: Silver at 12.000 miles was difficult to get to in the past with just my 3-4 yearly trips, which were mostly in paid economy until about 4 years ago and mostly as miles redemptions thereafter. I never went out of my way to reach status and I normally never would have. I made it with the reduced threshold last year at 9.000 miles, using one 93 Euro return ticket in economy and about 60% of the miles, that a 190 Euro return (!) ticket in paid business class got me (so a total calculated cost of no more than 210 Euros). Even without counting all the award miles I got out of those flights and the fact that I took 4 flights, that I very much wanted to take, I got 4 lounge vouchers (of which I got to actually use 1, I was spared the use of a second voucher, for reasons not relevant to this matter, I would have gladly used it though since I had more vouchers than I could spend and I would have managed to use a third one, had a specific lounge been open, when it should have been). I also used both provided upgrade vouchers to upgrade two international tickets I bought at 44 Euros, where the business class tickets would have each cost at least 130 Euros more! Even if I completely disregard the value of the lounge vouchers, I stilll got more value out of the two upgrade vouchers than the entire status acquisition cost me (260 Euros vs 210 Euros)! Requalifying for silver at 8.000 was alraedy ~60% done by the remaining 40% of the miles from that trip that got me qualified in the first place, those two 44 Euro tickets, that were upgraded, did the rest of the job... Of course I never got to use the new vouchers, since I made gold before my silver year ended, mainly thanks to another 167 Euros business class trip...

Even if I had paid more to reach silver, I would still consider the perks of the status to be very generous (the least of which is a 10% award miles bonus). That's of course since I'm flying Aegean anyway and I have always stated that regarding my silver status I never had to take any flights I wouldn't have otherwise taken (I made one very small exception for gold, mostly because of the segments rule and because those benefits are worth way more than my little day-trip to the vice-capital ). So basically whatever I got out of that status (which was quite a lot!) came at virtually no (or to extremely little) added cost.
I'm not sure if I'd consider the silver benefits "too good to be true", like the OP does, but I can certainly understand the surprise effect if one is used to actually completely worthless "in-between" statuses, which some airlines do "offer"...

If I ever fall back down to blue (which from a basically already extended gold won't happen for a minimum of another 3 years and if the re-booking "trick" works with the latest double miles offer, I'll probably add at least 1 more year to that), I will be on the lookout for a similar opportunity to go after silver again.

frenchft

I agree with you on the waiting list but it does not suit my needs. Every time I use a voucher it's because I need more luggages and being the upgrade to clear while onboard is not ok for me, this is why I don't use the waiting list as I need the upgrade to be confirmed before check in.

For silver, you should compare with other *A airlines and you will see that A3 silver is very easy.

Knobbgb

I was a bit peeved not to get upgraded on my ATH-LIS last week. I contacted the call centre 24hrs before departure and they said it would probably happen on the day. I asked at check-in and in the lounge but they said "maybe at the gate". In the end, no luck and there were 3 or 4 empty seats in business class. I guess I should have asked onboard, but I didn't want to appear pushy, rude or self-entitled. Ah well - It's not the end of the world.

eshroom

I've used many upgrade vouchers over the years. The majority of the time I've been waitlisted. Of those times, about 75% cleared within 48 hours (even last night I was waitlisted, this morning I got upgraded), 20% didn't clear and 5% cleared closer to the flight. So it is definitely worth using waitlist. If it doesn't clear within 48 hours, simply withdraw your waitlist request and buy some luggage...

I've also never been charged additional taxes when waitlisted (shhhh), whereas I've always been charged additional taxes when there has been availability.

The only strange thing was once when I had been waitlisted for 3 months when my girlfriend then joined for the trip on a separate booking, she was then waitlisted for 1 week before departure and 24 hours before, she got the upgrade rather than me, when I should have been ahead in the queue (business class was virtually empty too). It made no difference as I would have put her in business anyway as she rarely has the opportunity, but it did make me wonder what is going on in the back end. Since then I've cancelled a couple of long waitlists and then re-added them, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Reading this thread, has anyone actually requested the upgrade on-board while they've been on the waitlist? I've boarded in Economy with availability in business and me on a waitlist, but had no idea I just had to ask and I'd be upgraded. Do cabin crew know about this? What is the process? Just ask while boarding? Do they have access to the waitlist on-board?

giorginho

I was asking the phone agent about the waitlist's "behaviour" when I entered an upgrade request per voucher and got waitlisted a couple of days ago, but I can't say I received any convincing answers. She told me that as soon as upgrade seats become available, then the waitlisted upgrade requests will clear automatically, but didn't clarify on whether this is stricktly done on a "first come first served" basis, despite my asking twice about this (she sort of said that this is indeed how it should be done, but not in a very reassuring way). She did say that upgrade space isn't the same as award space, despite the fact that when I is available the upgrade gets processed on the spot. She said upgrade availability could open up even when award availability won't (I am not referring to upgrades as late as at the check-in desk or at the gate, when it's 100% certain that no more award space will open up). I was asking tose questions because I was considering the possibility, that upgrade space might become available at some point, but that it might not be the oldest requests that get the seats first (in my head are running thoughts like "maybe the requests from gold members get priority, maybe it's all completely random, maybe it's intended in one way, but it's a mess and nobody know what's going on... ) and then they might not get them at all (so I am trying to figure out if there's a "strategy" that will get you that upgrade with a higher degree of certainty than others)...

eshroom

Yes, I don't think there's any logic. For example I am gold, my girlfriend is not. I also check J award availability before buying a ticket if I expect I'd like to use a voucher, yesterday there was J availability, but I was still waitlisted (but it did go through today). Really no rhyme or reason. But it works well enough and to me is the most generous FFP I have been gold (or similar) on.