As you know, I am a loyal Aegean flyer and use their miles exclusively for flying business class between the US and Europe (for only 45,000 miles one way, that is a nice deal!).
Star Alliance Partner Awards Now Bookable Online With Aegean Miles
Link: Book Star Alliance Awards Online
Today, they have finally added the feature that lets you book Star Alliance partner awards online! Before, it had to be done over the phone.
To me, that was never a big deal. First of all, their agents speak English and I have found the process to be somewhat quick with most awards only taking me about 5 minutes to book (since I already have my award route in mind and know the availability). But, being able to do this online is definitely a great thing for people that do not want to phone in.
What To Know About Booking Partner Awards Online
There is one little thing for people that may be booking flights that would include travel in Greece – the system currently will not let you proceed as a single ticket if there are Aegean/Olympic flights that would be in the search as well. You would have to book those separately (or call in).
But, for all other Star Alliance partner awards, you can now book them online. During a couple of searches to compare to the actual cost for things like fuel surcharges, they do seem to have all the fees loaded into the system the right way.
- You need to have the required miles for the award to see the options
- You cannot search on routes that have Aegean/Olympic flights on the same route (phone in for those)
- Aegean does pass along fuel surcharges (also on the phone, just something to be aware of)
- to avoid, try booking with airlines like SAS, United, LOT, or booking awards departing Europe as they are cheaper than ex-US
- Also not exclusive to online – remember you get one connection on award tickets
What You Need to Know About Booking Aegean Awards for Partners
Is This a Good Thing?
Aegean has one of the best award charts for business and first class on transatlantic flights with carriers like Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Turkish, and more. They also have several sweet spots around the world that are pretty unique as well (2 Cool Awards with Aegean Miles – If You Can Book Them).
I think one of the things that has kept the award chart so user-friendly has been the fact that you need to call in (plus the fact that you only get one connection). I think the ability to book online is a great move by Aegean but I am not so sure if it is great for those of us that love their award chart.
Do I think they will have a devaluation? I think it is inevitable that it will happen at some point but I think it likely will not happen before next August. I don’t know if it will be due to this new feature or if this feature has been added in advance of a devaluation that is already planned.
In the meantime, at least you can now book those awards online!
That’s great news. However, I can’t seem to search Newark or Philadelphia. Two private airports showed up for Philadelphia (i think they are both strictly for private planes, no commercial service). Newark is probably Star Alliance’s top or second largest US HUB and Philadelphia has all the major carriers including Lufthansa. How’d they leave them on the search list but include Blue Bell and Northeast Phila airport ????
I will have to look into that.
2 Questions;
1 – Do they have all Star partners included, and is it reliable (no phantom etc) ?
2 – What makes you think August is likely for deval ?
thanks for the post
I have not had the time yet to check them all out but the ones I did showed true awards. It is somewhat hard to check everything since you need the miles in your account to actually see the flights.
I believe it was around August when they announced the devaluation for the elite level. Since their elite year centers around the November 24 (for elites when they changed the program), I would imagine they would give similar lead time again.
Are flights on SWISS subject to surcharges as well? (Aeroplan has no surcharges for SWISS).
Also, does the free stop-over apply to 1-way award tickets?
I am not completely sure. To my best recollection, there is not, but I might be wrong. The stopover can be up to 24 hours (and counts as the connection) and does apply to 1 way award tickets.
Where on A3 site do I search to look for award flight
Follow the link in the post, below the heading.
It seems like AC/UA flights are not showing up flights, even for domestic flights. Do you have the same problem?
I posted the same question in the wrong page before this. Please remove it from the other page. Thank you.
Let me look into it. I have been too busy to check all of them earlier today. I will try to get to them tonight. If there is an issue, I will reach out to someone in that department and get an answer. My guess may be that they still might be working on it. I’ll let you know!
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