Star Gold status for only 20,000 miles with Aegean

[MSPeconomist]

If you get *Gold from A3, you should assume that when you fly AC and other *A partners, you will receive the *A mandated benefits but not more. Typically elites get additional benefits, such as free or instrument-supported upgrades, only when flying their home carrier. Hence, it often makes sense to concentrate on obtaining status with the airline you actually fly.

[HUGE AL]

The Lifetime Gold Party at Aegean is Over in November

http://www.newmilesandbonus.com/en/#tier-benefits

But requal still isn't horrible.

[demue]

I saw that discussion on FT the other day. Bit of a bummer as re-qualification via my usual Intra-SE Asia hops will be a bit painful though still doable at 24K mls. Just the annual re-qualification part is buggers, but it was too generous to last anyways. The 4 x A3 flights are close to impossible if you are Asia based unless you happen to be in Europe and plan to fly A3 or maybe do a 4-sector A3 "status run" out of there, e.g. Germany from where fares seems to be quite competitive from what I read.

[MAN Flyer]

Surprised it's taken them so long to be honest. You can only hand stuff out free to every Tom, Dick and Harry for so long and the world and his wife seem to be A3 Gold these days. Even I am, although not sure why I got it as I didn't need it. Probably just because it was free and everyone else seem to be getting it. Sure I got TK Gold as well at one point but don't think I have seen the card.

I have to say that I didn't even know they had Lifetime Gold status until today. Was that free as well ?.

[SQflyergirl]

The 4 x A3 flights are close to impossible if you are Asia based

Not really. I have been doing at least 4 X A3 metal flights a year even before this requirement came out and it wasn't any stress at all. I actually enjoy flying A3 - they're great.

Which is why i welcome these changes, no heartache to me, and will shake off the non-A3 folk

[kt74]

Which is why i welcome these changes, no heartache to me, and will shake off the non-A3 folk

As a bmi refugee, who used to actually fly bmi in preference to BA (and was a regular even before it was part of *A), I kinda wished that bmi had done the same...

...it was always difficult to get through to Pune, and the bmi FT board was full of whining members who hadn't even set foot on bmi metal before

Good on A3... it seems to be a smart little airline offering a nice service - I am pleased that they want to reward their own passengers

[demue]

Not really. I have been doing at least 4 X A3 metal flights a year even before this requirement came out and it wasn't any stress at all. I actually enjoy flying A3 - they're great.

Which is why i welcome these changes, no heartache to me, and will shake off the non-A3 folk

That's why I said unless one happens to travel to Europe or maybe has plans visiting Greece or similar. A3 are a fine little airline and I would have no problem flying them if it would fit into one of my schedules, but usually it will not hence it will be a bit tricky for me based on my travel patterns.

If it is an option on your usual travels than that's nice and you can take advantage of the lower re-qualifying threshold (if you even need that). Great. I don't think I'll manage on regular planned trips and would have to consider building in a run from somewhere in Germany maybe via ATH to HER or SKG or similar which may not work out time wise (I wouldn't mind a visit to Greece and the cost is okay).

Alas I will go for the 24K threshold and if it doesn't work out then such is life (my business travel has ground to a halt since starting work on a "fun" project). I still have enough miles to burn in different FFP programs before paying for premium cabin private travel .

So I may just turn into one of those non-A3 folk then that you won't have to worry about by 2016

[demue]

I have to say that I didn't even know they had Lifetime Gold status until today. Was that free as well ?.

I think people called it that as apparently back then the understanding was that one flight activity in a 3 year period would keep Gold alive / extend it. never heard of an actual life status that required no activity though above is pretty close to that

[sqdazz]

Not really. I have been doing at least 4 X A3 metal flights a year even before this requirement came out and it wasn't any stress at all. I actually enjoy flying A3 - they're great.

Which is why i welcome these changes, no heartache to me, and will shake off the non-A3 folk

That's nice for you but it's still a long way to go for Asian (even further for us Aussie) based people. I won't be making a special trip on A3 , will let it lapse. No big deal, I don't really use it.

[SQflyergirl]

As a bmi refugee, who used to actually fly bmi in preference to BA (and was a regular even before it was part of *A), I kinda wished that bmi had done the same...

...it was always difficult to get through to Pune, and the bmi FT board was full of whining members who hadn't even set foot on bmi metal before

Good on A3... it seems to be a smart little airline offering a nice service - I am pleased that they want to reward their own passengers

That was another airline I actually flew (and quite a fair bit of too) - lovely little airline, and I remember once getting a ride from LHR-DME in lovely full sized seats in J when BA was still playing that CE stunt as far afield as that. Superb little airline - and i miss them (others say they miss them - but they really miss diamond club)

[demue]

Hey i miss DC for sure (ahh the sweet sound of a Pune DC agent versus LM call center when trying to cancel an itinerary ), but I also took BD a few times especially on LHR - ALA RTs and my Gold upgrades cleared every time for Eco to Biz and product was very decent when compared what was offered by the others (even though it was an Astraeus 757).

However, most of us won't be able to match your travel patterns, so for many it will be a tough goal to meet the A3 flight criteria if you are Asia or OZ based. Fair enough, either one meets the still reasonable re-qualification requirements with A only flights or it lapses. No harm done. No more mileage credits to A3 either though so some revenue loss is to be anticipated by them.

[SQflyergirl]

Hey i miss DC for sure (ahh the sweet sound of a Pune DC agent versus LM call center when trying to cancel an itinerary ), but I also took BD a few times especially on LHR - ALA RTs and my Gold upgrades cleared every time for Eco to Biz and product was very decent when compared what was offered by the others (even though it was an Astraeus 757).

However, most of us won't be able to match your travel patterns, so for many it will be a tough goal to meet the A3 flight criteria if you are Asia or OZ based. Fair enough, either one meets the still reasonable re-qualification requirements with A only flights or it lapses. No harm done. No more mileage credits to A3 either though so some revenue loss is to be anticipated by them.

Fair enough - the whole "for life" thing was not sustainable - so they changed it. Surely no one expected it to last forever?

[fone]

Actually, 24k miles a year is still much more do-able than 50k a year.

There's no mention explicitly of the expiry of status. However, they did mention that you have "12 months from the upgrade or renewal of tier" to collect the required miles. Does this necessarily mean that the status will only be valid for 12 months? This also implies that I do not need the full 48k miles to get gold, if I get 24k within 12 months of expiry of status (ie renewal).

Maybe I should not be lazy and go read flyertalk.

[MAN Flyer]

That was another airline I actually flew (and quite a fair bit of too) - lovely little airline, and I remember once getting a ride from LHR-DME in lovely full sized seats in J when BA was still playing that CE stunt as far afield as that. Superb little airline - and i miss them (others say they miss them - but they really miss diamond club)

I miss both, BD and DC. Being MAN based meant I could benefit from the excellent but sadly limited long haul BD services from there, mainly to ORD but also a few times to BGI, UVF etc. As for DC, well, there is nothing left to be said about the wonderful crazy programme. When we see that LM is the closest to it and yet in comparison how crap it really is, before you even try and cancel a booking, then it really brings it home.

A3 also fly from MAN, to ATH, and myself and a number of our Engineers have been using those flights for the last few years, mainly ATH-MAN as that leaves and arrives at a decent time whereas MAN-ATH departs around 10pm and arrives at silly o clock in ATH. Fortunately they are intending going all year round with different timings which make MAN-ATH attractive. Unfortunately they have dropped J on the route, which they only used to charge a little more for at times but which due to the sector length was worth the extra imo.

[FlyingDobber]

I miss both, BD and DC. Being MAN based meant I could benefit from the excellent but sadly limited long haul BD services from there, mainly to ORD but also a few times to BGI, UVF etc. As for DC, well, there is nothing left to be said about the wonderful crazy programme. When we see that LM is the closest to it and yet in comparison how crap it really is, before you even try and cancel a booking, then it really brings it home.

A3 also fly from MAN, to ATH, and myself and a number of our Engineers have been using those flights for the last few years, mainly ATH-MAN as that leaves and arrives at a decent time whereas MAN-ATH departs around 10pm and arrives at silly o clock in ATH. Fortunately they are intending going all year round with different timings which make MAN-ATH attractive. Unfortunately they have dropped J on the route, which they only used to charge a little more for at times but which due to the sector length was worth the extra imo.

I dont think that the changes will make too much of a difference to me also being MAN based. Looking fowrad to more A3 travel from MAN rather than LON, sad that they have dropped J though. Another flight out of ATH and you have fulfilled you A3 requals so only 12k go get! SQ to SIN for the day then. Out in the morning, arrives morning, trip too the zoo etc, food and back on the evening flight. Ideal.