U, O and A Classes are also applied as promotional discounted classes within Turkish domestic routes

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To be able to hold any status on an airline comes with a certain set of perks, and to hold that status for your lifetime, you re putting yourself in quite a sweet spot. One of the sweetest spots there is in this respect is the ability to earn lifetime Star Alliance Gold status through Aegean Airlines. It s bit of a backdoor workaround, but bear with me, because with a little strategic planning, it can definitely be worth it.
What makes that so is that you only need to rack up 20,000 qualifying Aegean Miles Bonus miles within 12 months to reach Gold status. You get 1,000 just for signing atlantic city casino hotelsbook up so that means you have 12 months to earn another 19,000. In fact, it s actually a bit more lenient than that. If you fly 4,000 miles within 12 months you get Aegean s Blue status, which equates to Star Alliance Silver, and then you just have to fly 16,000 more miles (and you have another rolling 12-month period to do so), you get Gold.
The airline s T C page puts it this way: Members who hold a BLUE Card and who have earned at least 16,000 Tier Miles within atlantic city casino hotelsbook twelve (12) consecutive months from their first miles-accruing flight on the previous tier will receive the GOLD Card. If, however, the Blue Member, after completion of the aforementioned twelve-month period, has gathered less than 16,000 Tier Miles, then he/she shall remain atlantic city casino hotelsbook a Blue Member, whilst the Tier Miles collected during that twelve-month period shall not be automatically reset, atlantic city casino hotelsbook but shall rather be successively deleted one (1) year from the day of each respective flight event, effected within the 12-month period in question. So even if you don t hit 16,000 within the 12-month period, your Tier counter doesn t reset to zero, but is rolling.
Then, once you earn that status, it s good for your lifetime as long as you keep your Miles Bonus account active. That only involves crediting miles to your account from flight activity once every 36-month period. It s as simple as that. It sounds a bit more confusing than it is, but basically keep these two facts in mind Tier miles are earned over rolling 12-month periods and that once you have status, it s easy to keep it with a little planning. You can find all the terms conditions here .
Before you go crediting all your United and other Star Alliance flights to Aegean, however, it s important to note the airline s partner earning rules . Unlike US airlines where most fare classes earn at least 100% of mileage flown, Aegean credits Tier-qualifying atlantic city casino hotelsbook miles a bit differently, atlantic city casino hotelsbook where discounted fare classes earn lower (or no) percentage of the miles flown.
The best workaround for this use to be crediting US Airways flights to Aegean atlantic city casino hotelsbook since you could earn at least 100% mileage on pretty much any paid fare class but that changed when US Airways exited Star Alliance on March 31, even though US Airways and Aegean atlantic city casino hotelsbook remain airline partners .
Now, however, we re all stuck looking for other options among Aegean s partners, and unfortunately, the airline isn t as generous with crediting United fare classes with Miles Bonus Tier-qualifying miles. Here s what United s earning looks like.
As you can see, several discount (and not-so-discount) economy fares only earn 50% miles: W, S, T, L, K, G. And some booking classes are not even eligible for accrual: O, I, X, R, N, P and some of these are even discounted business and first fares like P! So if you are thinking about going the United route on this, then be sure to check and double check the fare class your ticket atlantic city casino hotelsbook is booked in.
And 50% internationally, though note that fare classes atlantic city casino hotelsbook I, X, F and R do not accrue any mileage. Air Canada Rouge is even worse, atlantic city casino hotelsbook with pretty much every fare class that earns miles at all earning just 25%.
U, O and A Classes are also applied as promotional atlantic city casino hotelsbook discounted classes within Turkish domestic routes with no mileage accrual. This applies only on Turkish domestic flights (flight numbers 2000-2999).
Though it seems like Aegean s Tier mileage-accrual policies atlantic city casino hotelsbook are restrictive, if you put in just a little more work, and possibly just a few more dollars to make sure you re booking an eligible fare class, that can make all the difference between earning full mileage and earning no mileage. But if you click on the link to Advanced Search, you can specify the fare class or classes you re looking for and pull up airfares that way.
That might not seem worth it just to collect another 2,500 miles or so, but when you consider that this one roundtrip would get you Aegean Blue status and thus Star Alliance Silver status, that could be worth it to you. Especially considering to earn United Silver status you d need to fly 25,000 miles or 30 segments instead of just 5,000 miles and 2 segments plus spend $2,500 thanks to United s new elite status spending requirements .
Let s multiply it a couple times to get to Gold. If you were flying this route, you d need to fly 4 roundtrips in order to earn the 20,000 total Tier miles necessary for Aegean Gold. With fare classes pricing out like this, that would mean you d be paying an extra $740 for all those trips total to hit Gold.
So instead of flying the 50,000 miles or 60 segments United would require and spending $5,000 to hit United Premier Gold, you d be flying 20,000 miles and 8 segments not a bad alternative, even if you are purchasing higher fare classes.
As a Gold Status holder you can choose not to travel light. We allow an additional 20 kg (44 pounds) where the weight concept applies, or one additional piece of luggage where the piece concept applies.
So in the case of United, you do give up certain perks by going for generic Star Alliance Gold via Aegean instead of United Premier Gold you can find our in-depth analysis of this status here . You give up elite-based upgrades and access to Economy Plus seating as well as elite mileage bonuses on United. The checked luggage benefit is also only one bag instead of two, and you don t receive award travel atlantic city casino hotelsbook benefit and fee waivers like close-in booking and award redeposit.
However, one major benefit is that, though United Premier Gold s do not get United Club access when flying atlantic city casino hotelsbook domestically, Star Alliance Gold elites who earned that status with a non-US airline do , so if you re just flying LAX-SFO or ORD-LGA, you would not get into the United Club as a Premier Gold, but you would as an Aegean Star Alliance Gold and if United Club access is something you re interested in, this is a nice way to get it and elite status all in one go.
So if you just have a few United flights this year and aren t going to hit the airline s own elite status thresholds in terms of mileage or spending, then it might be worth looking into Aegean Gold and seeing if you can get Star Alliance Gold that way. Not only that, but even if you do have a lot of United flying to do and are going to hit your elite status threshold, then you might want to hedge your status by going for Aegean Gold since it s good for a lifetime and you just have to credit a flight every 3 years to keep it active for the rest of your life.
Disclaimer: The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I was flying from New York to Ukraine and returning from Belgium to Austin. The initial flights I found were around $900. With some creative routing and paying for slightly atlantic city casino hotelsbook more expensive fare classes, I was able to pay around $1,000 and earn around 15,000 Aegean miles.
On the way to Ukraine, I routed New York-Miami-Zurich-Kiev, rather than the more direct New York-Zurich-Kiev atlantic city casino hotelsbook route. I flew United V on the first leg, and then Swiss V on the other two legs for 100% earning.
On the return, I had a wacky Brussels-Frankfurt-DC-Denver-Austin. The Brussels-Frankfurt-DC leg was Lufthansa Q, which at the time I flew it gave me 1,000 miles on Brussels-Frankfurt and 100% on the Frankfurt-DC leg. It looks like Q gives you 50% now. But the 1,000 extra miles were huge considering such a short flight, and the fact that I didn t take the direct Brussels-DC flight.
It was an exhausting itin for sure, but the extra time spent in the air got me a lot of extra free miles. Even after weeks of planning this itinerary, I messed up and overlooked atlantic city casino hotelsbook that Zurich-Kiev was operated by Ukraine International and not Swiss, so I did not earn miles for that leg. Very frustrating. But again, the rest of the itinerary was like a work of art to me.
Are you sure it s lifetime status? I earned gold on Aegean last year but my card indicates it expires at the end of 2014. So I ve just started collecting all Star Alliance atlantic city casino hotelsbook points on Aegean since Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines are basically horrible.
The card body itself will be renewed (my wife s new Blue card just arrived). The lifetime status can be maintained if you register eligible flights once every 36 months. Last time I registered a flight was last year in May, I will register another this April, and doing this for the last 4 years I have been retaining my Gold status. Trust me.
Is there any way to change mileage accrual from United to Aegean after the fact? Just got back from a long Australia trip in business class which would qualify me. Miles for the return legs have yet to post to my acct. I don t travel that much and will not earn beyond United atlantic city casino hotelsbook Silver
I m not sure how are awards for Star Alliance network, I haven t used them. But I d say you just maintain the status for the perks and collect wherever you see it s better for you. For example, although I live in Greece, I travel a lot to Scandinavian countries atlantic city casino hotelsbook and I use SAS Eurobonus for miles collection. I just keep my Aegean Gokd status alive.
Rob, I m confu