Airline elite status is something that I have held in at least 2 major airline alliances for some years now and it has greatly improved my airport/airline experience. From early boarding, priority access, and lounge access to things like decreased fees and upgrade opportunities, airline elite status can be a big help.
There is one airline who’s elite status used to be incredibly easy to earn but has become more difficult since they revamped the system. However, it is very easy to requalify for this airline elite status – in other words, you do not want to let it go once you earn it!
Aegean Elite Status – Easy to Requalify for, Hard to Earn
Aegean elite status used to be an incredible way to earn Star Alliance Gold. You received 1,000 miles (both award and tier) just for signing up for the program and then needed only 3,000 miles more to get Silver. After that, it was only 16,000 more miles to get to Gold. The great part was that it lasted for a long time and you only needed to credit a single flight to keep it alive.
Earning Aegean Gold Elite Status
But, that all changed in 2014 when they revamped the program. I was reminded recently of how much it has changed and had forgotten how difficult they made it! They adjusted the necessary earnings for elite status and here is how it stands now:
- Silver – Earn 12,000 miles and 2 Aegean/Olympic flights or 24,000 miles with any Star Alliance airline within 12 months
- Gold – Earn 24,000 miles and 4 Aegean/Olympic flights or 48,000 miles with any Star Alliance airline within 12 months
That means to reach Gold, you will need to credit a total of 36,000 miles and 6 Aegean flights or as much as 72,000 miles with any Star Alliance airline! That is much more than it requires to earn Gold with United Airlines!
The earning table for United Airlines
To make it even more difficult, many of the cheaper fares on airlines like United only credit at 50% to Aegean. So, depending on the airline you credit miles from and the fare class flown, you could have to fly as many as 144,000 miles!
But, if you fly a lot of premium class tickets, like first class on some airlines (Thai, for example), those miles could credit to Aegean at something like 300%! So, you would only need to fly 24,000 miles in first class to get all the way to Aegean Gold.
Renewing Aegean Gold Status
When it comes to renewing the Aegean Gold status, that is actually quite a bit easier than qualifying originally! Here is what you need to do to retain Aegean Gold:
- Credit 12,000 miles and 4 Aegean/Olympic flights or
- Credit 24,000 miles from any Star Alliance airline
The same holds true as above with the crediting of fare classes so if you fly cheap, eligible United tickets, you will still need to credit 48,000 miles if you do not fly the 4 Aegean flights.
To make it even easier, as an Aegean Gold member, you can buy tier miles. You are allowed to buy 2,000 tier miles at a cost of 100€. It could make sense and it is not that big of a cost per mile.
Takeaway
If you already have Aegean Gold status, it is definitely a status you want to hold and continue to renew year by year. It is certainly easier (and less complicated) to keep it instead of trying to earn it all over again! As an Aegean Gold member for several years now, I certainly plan on continuing to renew each year (and almost done now) as it gives me some nice priority benefits and lounge access all over the world.
Do you hold Aegean Gold elite status? If so, how hard will you work to keep it?
Wait what? That makes no sense. I’m pretty sure you’re reading their qualification criteria wrong. The requirements for Gold and Silver *do not* stack.
Terrible blogpost. It’s almost like you’re a rookie to FF programs.
Ah, no. Read it again. It should not be that way but it is. I had made the same mistake you are before and was corrected by many people also. Read around about it. And I am not a rookie. 🙂
Also, it was some Aegean reps that confirmed it to me as well.
[…] Qualification is a little tricky but requalification is a breeze. http://runningwithmiles.boardingarea…ify-hard-earn/ […]
I must chime in…Aegean fares are really cheap! I just earned Silver by flying LAX to ARN on SAS (crediting to Miles+Bonus) and then two Aegean segments. Flew SAS Plus for double status miles credited to Aegean’s program. It was a status that was immediate (within a couple days). I received my two free Aegean/Olympic upgrade coupons (and four lounge passes) within 48 hours of completing the required qualifications for Silver. Next stop, Gold (including Star Alliance Gold). Super easy to attain if you’re willing to route through ATH when traveling to Europe. And affordable fares on A3 make it worth the layover in ATH (the airline lounges aren’t fancy, but there’s definitely better food than in the US).
Hi Charlie,
I know you are the local expert with the Aegean program. I am real close to requalifying for gold. I need 3 Aegean segments and 1724 miles. Any ideas? I have one month to go. If I buy 2000 qualifying miles. Do I still need to compete the 3 Aegean segments? I guess the easy way would be to fly to Europe and complete the 3 segments. Take care.
Hey, Joe! Hope all is well!
Unfortunately, you will still need those segments even buying the qualifying miles. Otherwise, you can credit another 12,000 miles to them and forget about the segments. But, if you are going to do that much flying anyway (many cheap United fares credit at 50%), you might as well just come over here and get those segments done instead! 🙂