Chances are, most people have never heard of Aegean Airlines and have no idea who they are. Well, Aegean Airlines is Star Alliance airline based in Greece with a fleet of 29 short haul aircraft. It’s understandable that most people have not heard of them- they do not fly outside of Europe. However, what some other people may not know is that they offer the lowest elite qualification tiers of any Star Alliance carrier- 4000 miles for Star Alliance Silver and 20000 miles for Star Alliance Gold status. With the current 1000 bonus miles promotion they are having (though it has been going on for quite a while now), that means Star Silver status (and free checked bags on Continental, United and US Airways) for a mere 3000(!) miles, and Star Gold status (free Star Alliance lounge access) for a mere 19000 elite qualifying miles, which is hard to beat. So let’s have a look at their program in detail.

Elite Status on Aegean is obtained by accruing either 4000 or 20000 elite qualifying miles (known as Tier Miles) on Aegean or Star Alliance partners, and once obtained, is valid for three years. Mileage can be obtained based on the mileage accrual tables and are determined by operating carrier- so for example, a United-coded flight operated by Hawaiian would not earn miles. Aegean bases their elite qualification earnings on an absolute sum per segment, rather than per actual mile flown. Super-discounted fares (UTPE) do not earn full mileage credit, and bonuses apply to business and full fare passengers. 500 miles per domestic and 1000 miles per international flight is the base mileage for Aegean-operated flights. Given that Aegean do not fly medium and long haul routes this is actually a better deal than it appears- especially for flights of shorter stage lengths. For partner earning, Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines and Austrian adopt a similar flat mileage system, but for all other Star Alliance partners mileage is based on actual flown miles. There are a number of fare classes that do not earn miles, but on the other side they do offer 300% mileage on paid first, 200% on paid business and 150% accrual on Y fares. The class of service bonuses are greater than those at North American-based Star Alliance carriers, making it a lucrative proposition for flyers who purchase paid F or J tickets.

One of the major “groups” of people that should be looking at being an Aegean elite are United/Continental/US Airways elites, as they do not currently gain lounge access when flying domestically (even in first). However, when one credits their miles from a Star Alliance flight to Aegean, naturally they are then ineligible to accrue miles in their primary frequent flyer program for said flight. If we take a look at the partner earning chart, we can see that all US Airways revenue fares earn at least 100% mileage on Aegean- so all US Airways flights can essentially be credited to Aegean for full mileage credit. However, on United and Continental operated flights, the deeply discounted fare buckets (so that’s W, S, T, L, K and G) only earn 50% mileage credit on Aegean. So for these flights, it would be best to credit to Mileage Plus not only to earn full mileage credit but also any applicable elite bonuses. For all other partners, chances are the ideal program to credit to varies on a case by case basis. To calculate the mileage earned on Aegean, I recommend the Wandering Aramean’s brilliant Star Alliance mileage calculator- which tells you exactly how much mileage accrual on Aegean one would receive for a particular route and fare bucket. You can then compare the mileage accrual for United/US Airways and determine where best to credit your miles. Note that Aegean does not offer any elite bonuses, a general member would receive the same number of miles as a Gold member.

A couple more things to note here. Even if you are crediting your miles to Aegean, you can still benefit from elite perks such as complimentary domestic upgrades- simply make the reservation with your United/US Airways frequent flyer number, then switch the frequent flyer program after your first class (or economy plus) upgrade is confirmed.

After you accrue a certain number of Aegean miles, naturally you’d want to spend them. Their award chart can be found here. They have two separate award charts for Aegean-metal redemptions and Star Alliance redemptions. So let’s briefly go over Aegean’s own-metal awards first. The first thing that one needs to understand is that Aegean’s program is sector-based- that is, any stopover will break the award into two. The actual rates are pretty reasonable- 6250 per sector domestically and availability is quite good.

Another thing to note here is that different carriers across the world have different interpretations of certain concepts. While most carriers (especially those in the US) regard a stopover as being over 24 hours in duration, Aegean interprets stopovers as being up to 24 hours in length. So no stopovers of 24 hours are permitted on any awards, otherwise the award will price out by adding the cost of the two applicable one way awards (the award chart shows prices in terms of round trip awards, simply halve the mileage cost for a one way award). Therefore, unlike the North American programs, it is impossible to manage to book awards such as mini-round the world trips or other convoluted routings. For simple awards though, Aegean does the trick very nicely.

On the whole the redemption rates are a bit on the steep side (150,000 for Hawaii to US in first), but award tickets that are wholly within one region are a flat rate of 25000 miles in economy class. The mileage requirement for business and especially first increases exponentially for 1-zone redemptions. Still, there are good redemption offers to be had, such as North America to Europe for 90000 miles in business class, which is superior to North American frequent flyer programs. Even better, Aegean’s zone-based award chart lumps North Africa in the same zone as Europe. Again, their restrictive routing rules may limit the full “potential” of such an award- allowing one stopover of up to 24 hours- but that stills gives you some time to explore an European stopover point en route to North Africa.

The breadth of destinations that the Star Alliance offers to North Africa and the quality of airline partners (well, maybe except Egypt Air… ) is also excellent. To Cairo, for example, it is possible to redeem on Lufthansa business via Frankfurt or Munich, or Swiss business class via Zurich- on their wide-body Airbus A340 aircraft. From Istanbul, Turkish flies their Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft, featuring International business class flat beds to Algiers, Tunis and Casablanca- offering even more choice in terms of award redemptions. And as Istanbul is considered part of Europe- unlike some programs like Aeroplan which split Europe into East and West Europe- you can redeem for Turkish business class from San Francisco direct to Istanbul on the new Boeing 777-300ER’s leased from Jet Airways (featuring fully flat herringbone seats in business class)- then connecting in Istanbul to Algeria, Tunisia or Morocco- and the price remains an incredible 90,000 miles round trip. Or, one can simply connect in either Istanbul or Cairo for a “regional business class” service to the massive range of North African destinations the Star Alliance has to offer.

On the whole, Aegean’s program offers a good deal for Continental, United and especially US Airways elites looking at free lounge access travelling domestically, and other Star Alliance flyers who do not fly enough to meet elite status requirements at other airlines. At the same time, their earning table for premium fare United flyers is highly advantageous. Their miles are okay in terms of redemptions, which makes them an ideal secondary program for elite benefits, given their low qualification tiers.

Be Sociable, Share!

•