My favorite Star Alliance program for a variety of things is Aegean’s Miles+Bonus and one of the reasons is the interesting sweet spots that are available. Check out this one that can give you 24+ hours in business class for just 45,000 miles!
Fly 24+ Hours in Business Class for Just 45,000 Miles!
The Sweet Spot – Central/South Africa <-> South America
This definitely has to be one of those such awards! Of course, you could fly with South African Airways from South Africa to Brazil if you wanted to go that way, but why end the trip so early? How about if you fly Turkish Airlines from someplace like Cape Town, South Africa to Istanbul to Sao Paulo, Brazil? Of course, you don’t want to fly all that unless it would be in business class so how does business class for just 45,000 miles sound? 🙂
The Mileage Program
That is exactly what we get from Aegean’s Miles+Bonus award chart. For flights between Central/South Africa and South America, it costs just 45,000 miles for oneway in business class! Of course, you don’t need to just fly Turkish! That also will open up flights with airlines like Lufthansa and SWISS (but with higher fuel surcharges).
Finding Some Great Awards
The hardest part will be finding open award seats on these routes. But, if you want to enjoy some cool business options, just search for major airports in Central/South Africa to South America and you may find some interesting options – like Addis Ababa to Sao Paulo. This will let you fly Ethiopian’s A350 in business class for 10 hours to Beijing before boarding Air China’s 787-9 in business class to Madrid and then on to Sao Paulo – a total trip time of over 34 hours!
The crazy part is that it would cost 55,000 miles in the same program to fly from Europe to South America yet you could fly from South Africa to Europe and then to South America for just 45,000 miles!
And, yes, these do ticket! 🙂
To search on Aegean, you will need the required miles in your account. So, you can check segment by segment with United’s award engine and then get an idea of availability.
How to Get the Miles
One of the things that keeps Aegean’s Miles+Bonus a generally safe program is the fact that there is only one transfer partner – Marriott. Marriott points transfer to Aegean at 3:1 with an extra 5,000 miles for every 60,000 points you transfer. In other words, to get the 45,000 miles needed for one of these awards, you need to transfer 120,000 Marriott points.
You can also pay just €15 to transfer miles from someone else to your Aegean account! If you have elite status with Aegean, you can create a pooling account and have up to 5 other people pool their miles into your account.
Summary
If you want to fly as much as possible in business class for just 45,000 miles, this great sweet spot is definitely one to consider. Of course, you still need to get to South Africa or South America and then home from the other but there are other great programs for that. 🙂
Thanks for posting this as it is quite the sweet spot! I credited some flights to Aegean previously because they were the highest crediting program for the fare class I booked and now I’m not entirely sure how to use them. This could be an interesting option at some point rather than just humdrum United flights domestically.
Can you stopover at Beijing?
Since Aegean only allows one connection per direction, you would be limited to what Air China is counting as a layover. This would mean up to 24 hours at the most.