stuckinadd

Hey all, first-time poster. I have been recently posted to the DRC by my employer and ET is broadly my only ticket out of there on a regular basis. I expect to fly relatively frequently but not loads. Mainly back and forth between DRC and Europe via ADD every 8 weeks with potential for a bit of intra-African business travel. My main goal at the moment is to achieve *A Gold, my employer rarely springs for business class (unless your itinerary is super long) so I definitely value the lounge access/perks. Did a bit of research and reckoned that Asiana Mileage Club was my best bet for reaching Gold given the relatively low threshold (40k miles) and the 24 month qualifying period. Wondering if anyone else who flies ET regularly has a different view? Cheers!

fifty_two

Hi , welcome to flyertalk aka FT

This sub section of flyertalk is best for such question = https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-alliance-413/

if you will fly economy (Y) with ET on long haul flights a lot and you are only interested in achieving gold to get standard gold benefits (luggage, lounge , etc ...) then i recommend you to check agean miles and bonus , also referred as A3 M&B

with A3 you can easily score 100% mileage on ET flights in Y, if you avoid cheapest fares (the booking clas is easy to find before purchase) and as distances within or to africa are huge you can easily reach 12k and 24k in short times





They have a forum there = https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aege...les-bonus-694/

The only trade off will be

• You will need 2 flights per year with aegean , however they are a regional airline , so you need to plan a flight via athens
• not have the full benefits compared to gold ET sheeba members , in some cases ET dont provide access to 3rd party lounges in africa for eite members of other star alliance FFPs

stuckinadd

Hi there, many many thanks for your response! I will indeed check out A3, seems like a no-brainer, especially considering the 100% accrual in ET economy in most fares. Will also definitely check out the Star Alliance forum.

Cheers!

B747-437B

Where does this happen? I've flown ET to/from literally half their African network and have never come across this.

fifty_two

happened to me in KGL , and maybe we can add MPM + DSS but those 2 require confirmation

B747-437B

I got invited to the crappy Pearl Lounge in Kigali as TK*G so maybe you just had a bad day. Granted this was many years ago, and I'm persona non grata in Rwanda nowadays so doubt I'll ever get a chance to check it out again!

Mwenenzi

stuckinadd Welcome to FT
What is your criteria for "best"?
What are your objectives from a ffp?
What do you expect *Gold to do for you?
How long will you be living in DRC?
What other ffp's are you a member of?
Now days economy does not earn much to most/all ffp's.

Links
Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here
https://www.wheretocredit.com/ethiopian-airlines

fifty_two

in my case it was january 2023

me too cause the new kigali airport is supposed to open soon

LoL !

sal77

I agree A3 M&B is the way to go especially as you will be travelling to/from Europe. Aegean usually have reasonable offers during the year to achieve the required legs on A3 metal required to achieve or maintain the relevant tier.

Goaguy

It definitely used to be Turkish Airlines until about 4 years ago. All ET tickets in Y used to credit 100% to Turkish where 40,000 miles were enough for a 2-year *Gold. Unfortunately they stopped this.
If you occasionally travel in business class, then you should be aware that most of ET's available and cheapest business class fares are in P-class which credits 0 miles to most FF programs except their own Shebamiles.

Besides from your target to become *Gold I would sincerely suggest you look at ET's Shebamiles. While it might not be an easy way to obtain gold without occasionally flying in business class, they have very good redemption rates of miles. Meaning you can fairly cheaply upgrade yourself to business class on a range of long flights for a maybe 25-35,000 miles. Also, as ET Silver you have access to a dedicated silver lounge in Addis. But granted - I have no idea what it looks like on the inside.

On a side note: I find that one of the main features as *Gold on ET is that they automatically block the seat next to you unless flight is fully booked. Meaning that you will rarely in economy end up with a person next to you, unless flight is full. It works much(!) better than the new function they have that allows you to purchase an empty seat.

I entered the main lounge in KGL twice as *Gold in the past 6 weeks without any issues.

stuckinadd

Very good bit of data, had no idea this was ET policy. Many thanks for your advice, much appreciated!

Goaguy

You're welcome. I like your username, by the way!
If you live in Addis, you will soon also realize the advantage of being able to buy ET tickets and pay in ETB.

stuckinadd

Haha, thanks! Am not in Addis, am based in DRC but spend much more of my life than I'd like sitting in ADD lol. I'm intrigued by the advantage of buying ET tickets in Adddis with ETB? Are they much cheaper when ticketed in Ethiopia / lower taxes or surcharges?

Goaguy

There's a massive shortage of foreign currency in Ethiopia. So yes, it makes it cheaper to pay in ETB.
But you will need to have proof of residency in Ethiopia and/or book tickets originating from Addis in order to pay in ETB.
You might also save about 3-5% by booking your tickets on their mobile app, compared to on website.

stuckinadd

Interesting, great tips! Thanks again.