Hi All,

I'm Contemplating about becoming a FF with A3 but given the recent and ongoing financial turmoil in Greece I'm hesitant. Anyone willing their to share their insights on how solvent and financially secure is A3?
from the Miles&bonus page:
In the event of AEGEAN’s bankruptcy, insolvency, merger or winding up in any manner, the Programme shall be automatically cancelled and at the same time all Accounts and Status Miles shall be cancelled. Consequently AEGEAN shall have no further liability towards its Members, whereas the Members shall have no right to pursue any claim against AEGEAN.

Thanks.

Which means the German tax payer.

But yes, solvency is one thing one should have in mind when joining a Frequent Flyer program. This is why many people don't bank US miles for too long and this is a good thing to do with any carrier. Earn miles, spend miles. Quickly.

• The provision you quote will be found in every airline's program.
• The solvency of A3 has about as much to do with the finances of Greece as the solvency of UA has to do with the finances of the US or JL with Japan's� there is correlation, but not causation.
• Plenty of airlines have undergone reorganization or liquidation but had their mileage programs preserved or acquired by another. Other airlines have done the same and had their mileage program disappear into oblivion. There's absolutely no way of knowing what might happen in an A3 bankruptcy, but A3 seems like a relatively healthy airline.

http://www.aviationexplorer.com/defu..._worldwide.htm

This is a site that lists bankrupt airlines from all-over the world. In addition to tens of US companies, the site lists 18 Australian ones and 44 German ones. As a matter of fact, I've flown on some of the "late" airlines, such as Arista, Braniff, Eastern, Panam, People Express and TWA (US) and several more from other countries. In addition, I lost a lot of money that I had invested in a safe, super-safe bond: Lehman Bros! The latter statement has nothing to do with frequent flying programmes, but that's the same for most of the previous posts!

Most questions of joining A3's programme in FT would not have come up, if Miles and Bonus hadn't been tailored mostly for Greek travelers. Now, though, people throughout the world are taking advantage of it's easy track for gold membership in order, basically, to use the tier's privileges without paying much. This sort of reminds me of the Greek economy or, at least, what Greece as a country is accused of having done!

And in case you didn't understand, I am Greek, I am not a thief, and I now earn 20% than last year in order for my government (my employer) to pay for our debt.

To clarify, my post was not intended to disparage Greece but to ask, in my opinion, a valid question whether it is judicious to join the FFP of a carrier operating in an economically-shaky environment.

Can someone point to a solid economic review of A3's financial standings?.

Google is your friend:

http://en.aegeanair.com/Content.aspx?Page=116

http://en.aegeanair.com/TABContent.aspx?Code=2009OK

It is interesting that this document sayswhich would in turn suggest that I was right...

End of September 2010 they held ca. €171 million in cash.

Cash is key.
It's not a shame to lose money - it's a shame to run out of money.

http://en.aegeanair.com/aegeanCMS/up...es_9M10_en.pdf

Does anyone have any experience of getting miles credited to their Miles and Bonus account of A3?
Retro-active crediting?

You can add flights of up to 6 months prior to the registration to M&B. There is a link when logged in, "Claim air miles" or similar and it's pretty easy, just make sure you mail to the email given the e-ticket/receipt info of your flight as well.