While most airline programs have their status year end with the calendar year (for qualification purposes anyway), the year for Aegean elite status ends soon. In fact, the big date is November 23. If you have Aegean elite status, it will expire then if you have not re-uped. Also, that is the last day for you to get your miles to qualify. But, if you are close, you can buy your elite miles now to bridge the gap!
Quick Guide To Retaining Gold Status
To retain Gold status, you only need to fly 24,000 miles in a year or 12,000 miles and 4 Aegean flights in a year. So, it is much easier to keep Gold status than to earn Gold status. If you like Star Gold benefits (like Priority check-in, Priority boarding, Priority security, lounge access), it may be worthwhile to simply credit 12,000 miles to Aegean and fly on 4 Aegean segments. Just be sure to check the fare earning chart as not all fares on partner airlines earn 100% when credited to Aegean.
Buying Elite Miles For Aegean Status
But, with November 23 quickly approaching, many Aegean elite members may find themselves coming up short. Fortunately, Aegean allows their elite members to purchase elite miles! Here are the details:
- Only current Silver and Gold members can purchase elite miles
- Silver members can buy up to 1,000 elite miles
- Gold members can buy up to 2,000 elite miles
- Miles are sold in 500 mile blocks
- Miles cost €25 per 500 mile block
- Miles are credited immediately
If you have 10,000 miles and 4 Aegean segments already credited, you can now buy 2,000 additional miles to retain Gold status for another year! You will have to consider if that is worth it to you, but at today’s exchange rate, that is just about $106 for the 2,000 miles. If you can buy a flight on United that would give you the 2,000 miles (which would actually require 4,000 flown miles on cheaper fares) for less than $106, that would be a good deal (probably not going to happen!). But, now you don’t have to leave home!
How To Buy Miles for Aegean Elite Status
Now you can buy up to 2,000 Elite miles for requalification!
To purchase these elite miles, head over to this link. You will need to login to your elite Aegean Miles+Bonus account when you get there. Make sure you use a credit card that does not have a foreign transaction fee as it will be charged in Euros!
Once there, select whether you want Award miles or Tier miles (the tier miles are elite miles). I will write another post later covering the award mile purchase option, but, for now, if you want to purchase elite miles, select Tier Miles.
Once you do that, select the amount you want – remember, Silver members can buy up to 1,000 and Gold members can buy up to 2,000 miles. That limit is for within a membership year.
That’s it! The elite/tier miles post instantly and reduce the amount of miles you need for requalification.
Good Deal?
Granted, there are other ways you can achieve access to Star Alliance lounges around the world – getting the United Club card (which will cost many $350 for the first year but may be obtained free for some) or matching another status to a Star Alliance carrier. But, if you are looking for a way to keep your Aegean Gold status (Star Alliance Gold) for another year to take advantage of things like
- Pooling miles from other members (an easy way to get at least 5,000 award miles)
- 4 business class upgrade certificates
- Free parking certificates
- Increased award earnings on Aegean/Olympic flights
- Star Alliance lounge access worldwide
- Priority boarding/check-in/security on Star Alliance flights
- Free baggage
I actually re qualified several months ago (different from last year!) so I will not need to take advantage of it. But, if you find yourself a little short, this is a great and easy to way to retain your Aegean elite status and keep your Star Gold alive (if you Aegean elite status level is Gold).
Also, it showed up on my Chase statement last year as travel so it should count towards your $300 travel credit on your Chase Sapphire Reserve if you have not met that yet. That can be a big help as well!
Hi,
It is a nice review on how to buy miles for Aegean’s Elite status. However, I would like to make an observation regarding the status year end.
There is no a specific expiration date (as mentioned above the November 23rd) for the elite status. The end date is related to the date you first gained your current elite status. For example, if you reached to Gold status on November 24th then the expiration date will be the November 23rd.
Hmm. Where do you see that? When they changed the program, they made November 24 the new start date. For example, I qualified in June but my expiration date is still November 23, 2017. I had first gained the status years ago so it was before they went to the November 23/24 dates. What date do you have?
Hi Charlie,
My account was migrated to the new Miles+Bonus program on 1st of December 2014, so my elite status was expiring on 30th of November each year. After I upgraded to gold on 2nd of August, my status expires on 1st of August.
You can find more information about status updates / changes on your Miles+Bonus account. Log in to your account and just below the section with the benefits and the miles needed in order to retain / upgrade your tier, you will find some links under “My account information” title. Click on “My transactions” and you will find more information about flights, earned (tier & award) miles, miles from partners, e.t.c.
There will be some entries like the following:
02/08/20xx FFP Department Card Upgrade 0 0
30/11/20xx FFP Department Card Renewal 0 0
Where you can see when actually your status has been upgraded and / or renewed.
I hope to find my answer helpful.
Thanks, I appreciate it! That is strange because my account (and some friends) show expiration dates of November 23, 2017 when we gained our status much earlier. Maybe it is the first time you achieved Gold status that it is good for one year? Last year, mine and everyone’s I know had their status expire (or renew) on November 23/24 and the same is for this year. I will check into it to see why there are differences.
Hi Charlie,
When I was in Silver tier, it was the same thing. You remain at your current status for one year. At the end of that year, if you have collected the required miles you retain your status. (I have never been downgraded, so I do not know what happens in that case.)
If you are eligible for an upgrade, you go to the new tier as soon as you collect the required miles, even if that date is before the completion of current tier’s year.
Regards,
Kyriakos