jerry_greece

I would even welcome an increase of the 4 required flights per year on A3/OA.

FlyingDobber

I get the changes, and ok, I can either continue and have my 4 A3 flights and a low requalification or I can look elsewhere. I won't be flying 70k to reach Gold so I could look elsewhere. I was EU based but am now SE Asia based. A stop in Greece, 4 flights and a return to SIN/KUL/BKK would give enough miles to requalify.

However, I don't understand the current position - I need 4400 miles to requalify, and my expiry date is November 23. Do I need the 4400 miles by 31st May to requalify for Gold? or does it run until November and I join the new requirements from them, thus Nov - June?

It doesn't appear that clear to me.

Longer term as a SE Asian resident (work related) then I would have to look at this differently.

NWIFlyer

You will need the 4,400 by 31st May - and that highlights what's the worst thing about this announcement, that A3 has changed the rules without any notice mid-year. You might have planned a flight on 1st June to take you to 24k, and now you suddenly need another 46k or to plan time in Greece when you're in completely the wrong part of the world to make that straightforward.

It shouldn't have been beyond them to give notice that these would be the thresholds in each member's next earning year. This is a customer fail.

Phoenixtinct

When you're right, you're right. I remember last time there was a major change to the program - when they instituted the requirement for 4 flights on A3/OA or miles flown regardless of carrier on an annual basis as opposed to just having a flying activity before your card expires, there wasn't much notice either. But still, for the flights they require on their metal - they provide coupons for upgrade, so if you're lucky, all of them could be in Business and the rest of the travel can be on any other *A carrier which suits your needs. My point was that even as Silver, you are given upgrade and lounge coupons, which I find quite generous.

FlyingDobber

Agree on both counts here: I have flights planned from Singapore, and secondly it is a customer fail.
I feel it would have been better to say that it was changing from 31st May and would come into effect at your next membership date.

I will still be able to do the 12k and 4 flights it is just a PITA from Singapore. SQ doesn't fly to ATH only Scoot so even that routing is out.

KLouis

Nothing much has changed after Scoot was given the flight(s) to ATH by SQ: shortly before that happened, my son bought an one way A3 code-share ticket from SIN to ATH in coach. Not cheap, but he was aiming at the miles. After he arrived here he found out that the fare class his A3 booking mapped to was earning zero miles on M&B!

murilix

Guess I qualify for "zoo material" as I have only 11.750 + 5 flights (considering paying €37.50 or booking another A3 flight)...

OttoMH

Whoa.. my wife will get suspicious if I have to fly to Greece 4x a year

roberino

That’s really common on any *A partner flight. I always checking the fare class against the A3 website before booking.

Xandrios

That's the point. It may be booked in a fare class that is earning with A3, however because it is a codeshare there is no reasonable way te determine what the fare class is at the operating airline. Meaning that you cannot check if your ticket would be earning or not.

GUWonder

So in less than 10 years, A3*G retention qualifications have gone from having no flight requirement beyond making sure the account is active at least once every 36 months to now potentially needing up to 70k tier miles credited.

Why do I guess that the next shoe to drop for A3*G requalification will be the hiking of the 12k tier miles w/4 A3 segments requirement for re-qualification.

One trip with 4 segments — say AMS-ATH-SKG-ATH-SKG — can work. Or make a family trip out of it, especially if A3 has some kind of promo having children fly for just taxes.

romans

SKG-ATH-SKG would be even more suspicious

giorginho

lol, "why?"... because taking one look at the retention criteria as of June 1st, one finds it hard to believe that Aegean's only two methods (regarding total tier miles required) are now separated by nearly a factor of 6! That's simply huge! Anyway, since I'm not really a "frequent flyer" if that threshold moves up from 12k, I'm out (I'm already going a bit out of my way to reach that).

However, contrary to what murilix suggested (though clearly a pinch of irony was included), I really don't see how someone who's flying the bare minimum, taking 2-3 round trips with Aegean (meaning 2 or 3 lounge visits per year, probably less in average, if you only consider ATH and take into account the occasional delays due to traffic or slow check-in or security checks!!) is "zoo material". I would even argue it's the exact opposite, it's those who take 100 flights per year that actually contribute the most to making it a zoo (though I'd generally refrain from calling the lounge a "zoo" and also from trying to put the "blame" for that on any single customer or customer group of the airline, but since I see a very high sense of entitlement lately around here, perhaps it's time for some to take a look in the mirror... and if one is really flying that much, perhaps consider a switch to a FFP that offers more ...exclusivity?).

irishguy28

Hear, hear!

roberino

I’ve never had a problem doing that.